Aaron Soltz
Encyclopedia
Aaron Aleksandrovich Soltz ' onMouseout='HidePop("53763")' href="/topics/Russian_Empire">Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

, currently Šalčininkai
Šalcininkai
Šalčininkai is a city in Vilnius County, Lithuania, situated south-east of Vilnius, near the border with Belarus.Šalčininkai received its city rights in 1956 and is now a capital of the Šalčininkai district municipality. Šalčininkai features a multi-ethnic population of Poles , Lithuanians ,...

, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

 - 30 April 1945, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

) was an Old Bolshevik
Old Bolshevik
Old Bolshevik , also Old Bolshevik Guard or Old Party Guard, was an unofficial designation for those who were members of the Bolshevik party before the Russian Revolution of 1917, many of whom were either tried and executed by the NKVD during Stalin era purges or died under suspicious...

 and a Soviet politician and lawyer. He was informally known as the conscience of the Party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...

. While partially responsible for the Soviet repressions he was one of very few high-ranking Stalin loyalists who openly objected to the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...

; he died in a psychiatric clinic after years of involuntary commitment
Involuntary commitment
Involuntary commitment or civil commitment is a legal process through which an individual with symptoms of severe mental illness is court-ordered into treatment in a hospital or in the community ....

.

Biography

Soltz was born to a Jewish merchant family of Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

. He studied at the Law School of Saint Petersburg University then became involved in revolutionary
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...

 work. He was a member of Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party , also known as Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or Russian Social Democratic Party, was a revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organizations into one party...

 since 1898, and was involved into organization of underground printing and publishing of illegal literature. Soltz participated in all three Russian revolutions, and was many times jailed and exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...

d. Many times he also escaped from his exile. When exiled to Turukhansk
Turukhansk
Turukhansk is a village in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is located 1474 km north of Krasnoyarsk, at the confluence of the Yenisei and Lower Tunguska rivers. The Turukhan River joins the Yenisei about 20 km northwest. Population: 4,849 ; 8,900 ; 200...

 Soltz shared the same house and reportedly the same bed with Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

.

In 1917 Soltz was a member of Moscow Committee of the Bolshevik Party, an editor of Social Democrat and Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....

 newspapers. Since 1920 he was a member of the Central Revision Committee of Bolshevik Party. Since 1921 he was a Judge of the Supreme Court of Soviet Russia and from 1923 he was a Judge of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union. In 1920-1934 he became a member of the Central Committee of the Control Commission of the Presidum of the Control Commission of the Communist Party, a member of the International Revision Committee of Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...

. From 1935 Aaron Soltz served as a Deputy Prosecutor General of the USSR
Prosecutor General of the USSR
The Procurator General of the USSR , was the highest functionary of the Office of Public Procurator of the USSR, responsible for the whole system of offices of public procurators and supervision of their activities on the territory of the Soviet Union.-History:The office of procurator had its...

, and was later the Chairman of the Judicial Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union. (председатель юридической коллегии Верховного Суда).

In October 1937, during the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...

, he gave a speech during Sverdlovsk
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...

 conference of Party Activists (Partactiv) demanding that a commission be created to investigate Prosecutor General of the USSR Andrey Vyshinsky
Andrey Vyshinsky
Andrey Januaryevich Vyshinsky – 22 November 1954) was a Soviet politician, jurist and diplomat.He is known as a state prosecutor of Joseph Stalin's Moscow trials and in the Nuremberg trials. He was the Soviet Foreign Minister from 1949 to 1953, after having served as Deputy Foreign...

 and the Purge's legality. He was suspended from his work in Procurator Office and tried to contact Stalin, but to no avail. In February 1938 Soltz started a hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...

 and was involuntarily hospitalized in a Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

psychiatric clinic. He died there after seven years of involuntary psychiatric treatment.

Works

  • Сольц А. Н. Ленин. К пятидесятилетнему юбилею. Пенза: Пенз. отделение Центропечати, 1920. - 22 с. 6000 экз.
  • Сольц А. и Файнбит С. Революционная законность и наша карательная политика. М.: «Московский робочий», 1925.- 126 с.
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