Abram Rafailovich Gots (Russian: Абра́м Рафаи́лович Гоц; 1882 – 4 August 1940) was a Russian Socialist-Revolutionary leader, active in the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917.

Biography

Early years

Abram Gots came from a wealthy Jewish family in Moscow. His older brother was

Mikhail Gots Mikhail Rafailovich Gots (Russian: Михаи́л Рафаи́лович Гоц; 1866 – 26 August 1906) was a Russian revolutionary, member of 'The People's Will' (''Narodnaya Volya'') and one of the founders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party ...

(1866–1906), a revolutionary active in the populist ('

narodnik The Narodniks (russian: народники, ) were a politically conscious movement of the Russian intelligentsia in the 1860s and 1870s, some of whom became involved in revolutionary agitation against tsarism. Their ideology, known as Narodism, ...

') movement and instrumental in organising the

Socialist-Revolutionary Party The Socialist Revolutionary Party, or the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries (the SRs, , or Esers, russian: эсеры, translit=esery, label=none; russian: Партия социалистов-революционеров, ), was a major politi ...

(PSR). Abram Gots studied at various universities in Germany, becoming one of the 'Heidelberg SRs', like his friends

Nikolai Avksentiev Nikolai Dimitrovich Avksentyev (russian: Николай Дмитриевич Авксентьев; 28 November 1878, Penza – 24 March 1943, New York City) was a leading member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party (PSR). He was one of the 'Heid ...

Vladimir Zenzinov Vladimir Mikhailovich Zenzinov (russian: Владимир Михайлович Зензинов; historically, his surname was also transcribed as Sensinoff: 29 November 1880 — 20 October 1953) was a member of Russia's Socialist-Revolutionary P ...

Vadim Rudnev Vadim Viktorovich Rudnev (russian: Вадим Викторович Руднев) (1874 – 19 November 1940) was a Russian politician and editor. On 11 July 1917, Moscow City Duma elected him Moscow's Gorodskoy Golova (Московский го� ...

and

Ilya Fondaminsky Ilya Isidorovich Fondaminsky (''Илья′ Исидо′рович Фондами′нский'', February 17, 1880, Moscow, Russia — November 19, 1942, Auschwitz, Nazi-occupied Poland), was a Russian author (writing under the pseudonym ''I. B ...

. These SRs were influenced by Marxism and Neo-Kantian philosophy as well as by the older Russian populist tradition. (That was also true of

Victor Chernov Viktor Mikhailovich Chernov (russian: Ви́ктор Миха́йлович Черно́в; December 7, 1873 – April 15, 1952) was a Russian revolutionary and one of the founders of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party. He was the primar ...

, the party's chief theoretician.)

Political activity

Gots participated in the

Russian Revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

and for a time served in the '' Fighting Organisation'' of the PSR, which was responsible for acts of `political terror' and 'expropriations'. In 1906, Abram's brother Mikhail died. In 1907, Gots was arrested and sentenced to hard labour in Siberia. He was in Siberia when

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

broke out and initially joined the anti-war, '

Internationalist Internationalist may refer to: * Internationalism (politics), a movement to increase cooperation across national borders * Liberal internationalism, a doctrine in international relations * Internationalist/Defencist Schism, socialists opposed to ...

' faction of the PSR and participated in the

Siberian Zimmerwaldists The Siberian Zimmerwaldists were a political grouping which emerged in 1915 in Siberia amongst political exiles in Irkutsk. The Siberian Zimmerwaldists got their name from the Zimmerwald Conference, though they existed as a cohesive group prior to t ...

. Freed by the

February Revolution The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...

of 1917, he returned to Petrograd and became a leading member of the Petrograd soviet. He also served as chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which was elected by the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies in June 1917. He now supported a 'Revolutionary Defencist' position, supporting war in defence of the revolution but not for imperialistic aims. This brought him closer to the right wing of the PSR and led him into conflict with the SR 'Internationalists' around Chernov and

Mark Natanson Mark Andreyevich Natanson (russian: Марк Андре́евич Натансо́н; party name: Bobrov) (25 December 1850 ( N.S. 6 January 1851) – 29 July 1919) was a Russian revolutionary who was one of the founders of the Circle of Tchaikov ...

. Gots also collaborated with

Menshevik The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. The factions eme ...

leaders in the soviet, particularly

Fyodor Dan Fyodor Ilyich Dan (surname at birth: Gurvich) (died 22 January 1947) was a political activist and journalist who helped found the Menshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Background Fyodor Dan was born to a Jewish family ...

Mikhail Liber Mikhail Isaakovich Liber (5 June 1880 – 4 October 1937), sometimes known as Mark Liber, was a leader of the General Jewish Workers' Union (the 'Bund'). He also played a role in the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (RSDRP) and was a l ...

and

Irakli Tsereteli Irakli Tsereteli, ' russian: link=no, Ира́клий Гео́ргиевич Церете́ли, ' ( – 20 May 1959) was a Georgian politician and a leading spokesman of the Social Democratic Party of Georgia and later Russian Social Democrati ...

. Gots opposed the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

and tried to organize armed resistance to the Bolsheviks. He was a member of the anti-Bolshevik 'Committee of Salvation of the Homeland and the Revolution'. When

Admiral Kolchak Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (russian: link=no, Александр Васильевич Колчак; – 7 February 1920) was an Imperial Russian admiral, military leader and polar explorer who served in the Imperial Russian Navy and fought ...

overthrew the coalition 'Directorate', Gots sided with those SRs who suspended military action against the Bolsheviks, for fear of aiding the anti-democratic counter-revolution.

Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries

In 1920, Gots and 33 other SR leaders were arrested. He was the main defendant at the

1922 Moscow Trial of Socialist Revolutionaries The Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries was an internationally publicized political trial in Soviet Russia, which brought twelve prominent members of the anti-Bolshevik Party of Socialist Revolutionaries (PSR) before the bar. The trial, which ...

, sometimes described as the first '

show trial A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so th ...

' in Soviet Russia. The trial became a ''cause celèbre'' among Western socialists.

Theodor Liebknecht Theodor Karl Ernst Adolf Liebknecht (19 April 1870 – 6 January 1948) was a German socialist politician and activist. Biography Born in Leipzig in 1870 as the son of Wilhelm Liebknecht and the brother of Karl Liebknecht, Theodor Liebknecht studie ...

, brother of the assassinated German Spartacist leader

Karl Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...

, acted as a lawyer for the defense; the venerable anarchist

Peter Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; russian: link=no, Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин ; 9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, scientist, philosopher, and activis ...

appealed personally to

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

to spare the lives of the defendants,

Karl Kautsky Karl Johann Kautsky (; ; 16 October 1854 – 17 October 1938) was a Czech-Austrian philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theorist. Kautsky was one of the most authoritative promulgators of orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in ...

wrote impassioned pamphlets about the trial and American trade unionists demonstrated for the release of the SRs. The Bolsheviks countered with massive demonstrations and courtroom disruptions demanding the death penalty. In the end, Gots and eleven of his co-defendants were sentenced to death, but the sentences were suspended and the SRs were kept as 'hostages'.

Later years

After a period of imprisonment Gots was deported to

Alma-Ata Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to 1936 as an autonomous republic as part of t ...

, where he worked in industry. He was re-arrested there during the

Great Terror The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...

of 1937.''Sudebnyi protsess nad Sotsialilstami-Revoliutsionerami (iiun'-avgust 1922 g.): Podgotovka, Provedenie, Itogi: Sbornik Dokumentov'' rial of the Socialist Revolutionaries (June–August 1922): Preparations, Action, Results: Compilation of Documents Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2002; p. 862. On June 20, 1939, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Soviet sentenced Gots to a term of 25 years of deprivation of freedom. Gots would not survive this term, dying under the harsh conditions of the

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

in 1940.

Footnotes

Bibliography

* ''The Great Soviet Encyclopedia''. Moscow, 1979. * Shukman, H. (ed.), ''The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Russian Revolution''. Oxford, 1988. * W. Woitinsky
''The Twelve Who are to Die: The Trial of the Social Revolutionists in Moscow''
Berlin: Delegation of the Party of Social-Revolutionists, 1922.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gots, Abram 1882 births Year of death uncertain Politicians from Moscow People from Moskovsky Uyezd Russian Jews Socialist Revolutionary Party politicians Russian Constituent Assembly members Jewish socialists People of the Russian Revolution Revolutionaries from the Russian Empire