Leonid Krasin
Encyclopedia
Leonid Borisovich Krasin July 1870, Kurgan
– November 24, 1926) was a Russia
n and Soviet
Bolshevik
politician and diplomat.
. His father, Boris Ivanovich Krasin was the local chief of police. The young Leonid was a star pupil at school and met George Kennan
when he visited Siberia.
Krasin joined the Social Democratic Labor Party
during the 1890s. He graduated from Kharkov Technological Institute in 1901.
In the 1903 split into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, Krasin supported the latter, and was elected to the Central Committee
the same year.
Arrested towards the end of the 1890s, he was sent to internal exile in Siberia where he worked as a draughtsman on the Trans Siberian Railway.
Release from exile in 1900, he moved to Baku where the future Stalin was also active at the same time. While there Krasin used his financial contacts to help establish an illegal printing press which was the main vehicle for Lenin’s newspaper.
He left Baku in 1904 to work as the chief engineer of Savva Morozov.
His activities during the 1905-06 revolution was primarily in sourcing finance for the revolutionaries, including organizing bank robberies to fund the Bolsheviks' revolutionary activities. Krasin helped organize the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery
, a bloody robbery that took place in the middle of Yerevan Square killing forty and injuring 50.
However, he also enjoyed the excitement of terrorism. His home was the main laboratory from which the bombs used to attack Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin
were manufactured.
This quest for excitement caused a break with Lenin.
Lenin, who was usually acerbic in such circumstance, remained complimentary towards Krasin, and continued to exhort him to rejoin the Party.
In 1908 he left Russia and in 1909 collaborated with Alexander Bogdanov
in the launch of Vpered
. Later he withdrew from political activities for many years. he had a successful career as an electrical engineer, becoming a millionaire. After the February Revolution
of 1917 he returned and rejoined the Bolsheviks. In the Russian Bolshevik government
Krasin was People's Commissar of foreign trade between 1920 and 1924. It was in this capacity that he negotiated and signed the Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement
of March 1921.
In 1924 he was elected to the Communist Party
's Central Committee, an office he held until his death in London
from a blood disease—at the time, Krasin was negotiating a formal recognition of the Bolshevik government by the United Kingdom
and France
. The remedies proposed by his old friend, the physician Alexander Bogdanov
, could not save him. Krasin's funeral procession three days later included 6,000 mourners, many of them Bolshevik sympathizers; he was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium
before being buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis
in Moscow
.
His London position was filled by Christian Rakovsky
. Two famous icebreakers
commemorated Krasin's name.
During the Great Purge
his name was erased from the Communist Party's history.
His daughter Liubov married French politician and diplomat Gaston Bergery, and divorced in 1928. She married after the war French politician and journalist Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie. His third daughter Tamara Tarasova-Krasina lives in Moscow.
Kurgan
Kurgan is the Turkic term for a tumulus; mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves, originating with its use in Soviet archaeology, now widely used for tumuli in the context of Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology....
– November 24, 1926) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n and Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
politician and diplomat.
Early years
Krasin was born in Kurgan, near Tobol'sk in SiberiaSiberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. His father, Boris Ivanovich Krasin was the local chief of police. The young Leonid was a star pupil at school and met George Kennan
George Kennan (explorer)
George Kennan was an American explorer noted for his travels in the Kamchatka and Caucasus regions of the Russian Empire. He was a cousin twice removed of diplomat and historian George F. Kennan, with whom he shared his birthday....
when he visited Siberia.
Krasin joined the Social Democratic Labor 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...
during the 1890s. He graduated from Kharkov Technological Institute in 1901.
In the 1903 split into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, Krasin supported the latter, and was elected to the Central Committee
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, "Tse-ka", earlier was also called as the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ...
the same year.
Arrested towards the end of the 1890s, he was sent to internal exile in Siberia where he worked as a draughtsman on the Trans Siberian Railway.
Release from exile in 1900, he moved to Baku where the future Stalin was also active at the same time. While there Krasin used his financial contacts to help establish an illegal printing press which was the main vehicle for Lenin’s newspaper.
He left Baku in 1904 to work as the chief engineer of Savva Morozov.
His activities during the 1905-06 revolution was primarily in sourcing finance for the revolutionaries, including organizing bank robberies to fund the Bolsheviks' revolutionary activities. Krasin helped organize the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery
1907 Tiflis bank robbery
The 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, also known as the Yerevan Square expropriation, was an armed robbery by Bolshevik revolutionaries of a bank cash shipment in the Georgian city of Tiflis . The robbery occurred on 26 June 1907 in Yerevan Square...
, a bloody robbery that took place in the middle of Yerevan Square killing forty and injuring 50.
However, he also enjoyed the excitement of terrorism. His home was the main laboratory from which the bombs used to attack Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin
Pyotr Stolypin
Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin served as the leader of the 3rd DUMA—from 1906 to 1911. His tenure was marked by efforts to repress revolutionary groups, as well as for the institution of noteworthy agrarian reforms. Stolypin hoped, through his reforms, to stem peasant unrest by creating a class of...
were manufactured.
This quest for excitement caused a break with Lenin.
Lenin, who was usually acerbic in such circumstance, remained complimentary towards Krasin, and continued to exhort him to rejoin the Party.
In 1908 he left Russia and in 1909 collaborated with Alexander Bogdanov
Alexander Bogdanov
Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov –7 April 1928, Moscow) was a Russian physician, philosopher, science fiction writer, and revolutionary of Belarusian ethnicity....
in the launch of Vpered
Vpered
Vpered was an organisation within Russian Social Democracy set up by Alexander Bogdanov in December 1909. Alongside Bogdanov Anatoly Lunacharsky, Mikhail Pokrovsky, Grigory Aleksinsky, Stanislav Volski and Martyn Liadov, were involved in the breakaway group.-Rupture with Bolshevism:The group...
. Later he withdrew from political activities for many years. he had a successful career as an electrical engineer, becoming a millionaire. After the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
of 1917 he returned and rejoined the Bolsheviks. In the Russian Bolshevik government
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
Krasin was People's Commissar of foreign trade between 1920 and 1924. It was in this capacity that he negotiated and signed the Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement
Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement
The Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement was an agreement signed on 16 March 1921 to facilitate trade between the United Kingdom and the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic...
of March 1921.
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
's Central Committee, an office he held until his death in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
from a blood disease—at the time, Krasin was negotiating a formal recognition of the Bolshevik government by the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The remedies proposed by his old friend, the physician Alexander Bogdanov
Alexander Bogdanov
Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov –7 April 1928, Moscow) was a Russian physician, philosopher, science fiction writer, and revolutionary of Belarusian ethnicity....
, could not save him. Krasin's funeral procession three days later included 6,000 mourners, many of them Bolshevik sympathizers; he was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium
Golders Green Crematorium
Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000, and was opened in 1902 by Sir Henry Thompson....
before being buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis
Kremlin Wall Necropolis
Burials in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow began in November 1917, when 240 pro-Bolshevik victims of the October Revolution were buried in mass graves on Red Square. It is centered on both sides of Lenin's Mausoleum, initially built in wood in 1924 and rebuilt in granite in 1929–1930...
in 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...
.
His London position was filled by Christian Rakovsky
Christian Rakovsky
Christian Rakovsky was a Bulgarian socialist revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and Soviet diplomat; he was also noted as a journalist, physician, and essayist...
. Two famous icebreakers
Krasin (icebreaker)
The Krasin is a Russian icebreaker. The vessel operates in polar regions.-History:The ship was built at the Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland in 1976.-Design:...
commemorated Krasin's name.
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...
his name was erased from the Communist Party's history.
His daughter Liubov married French politician and diplomat Gaston Bergery, and divorced in 1928. She married after the war French politician and journalist Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie. His third daughter Tamara Tarasova-Krasina lives in Moscow.