![Boris Nikolaevsky](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Boris_Nikolaevsky.JPG)
Boris Ivanovich Nicolaevsky (russian: Бори́с Ива́нович Никола́евский) (20 October 1887 – 22 February 1966) was a Russian
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
activist, archivist, and historian. Nicolaevsky is best remembered as one of the leading
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 ...
public intellectuals of the 20th century.
Biography
Early years
Boris Nicolaevsky was born on October 20, 1887
N.S. in
Belebey
Belebey (russian: Белебе́й; ba, Бәләбәй) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, located on the bank of the Usen River, from Ufa. Population:
History
Belebey was established i ...
,
Bashkiria, then part of the
Russian empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
the oldest of seven children of an Orthodox priest of
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
origin. He became interested in radical politics at the age of 14, for which he was expelled from the
Gymnasium (secondary school) in
Samara
Samara ( rus, Сама́ра, p=sɐˈmarə), known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev (; ), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with ...
as a "bad political influence." His family then moved to
Ufa
Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya and Ufa rivers, in the centre-north of Bashkortostan, on hills forming the ...
, where he joined the
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
wing of the
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist pol ...
, though he switched to the
Mensheviks
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 ...
when he was still a youth.
["Boris Nicolaevsky," ''New America,'' ew York vol. 5, no. 17 (March 26, 1966), pg. 2.] He was arrested in 1904, which meant that his schooling ended at 16. Subsequently he was arrested another seven times and sent into
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
n exile three times by the
Tsar
Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...
ist government.
Political career
Following the
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...
, Nicolaevsky became the head of the
Marx-Engels Institute in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
.
In 1918, he was elected to the Central Committee of the RSDLP (Mensheviks). As an active Menshevik, Nicolaevsky was arrested by the
Soviet secret police
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
on 22 February 1921 and in 1922 was sentenced to be deported from
Soviet Russia
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
indefinitely. He was stripped of his Soviet citizenship in February 1932, for criticising the forced collectivisation of agriculture and the dictatorship.
Nicolaevsky settled in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, where he was a member of the Foreign Delegation of the Menshevik party, and established himself as one of the leading historians of Soviet communism. He was associated with the Marx-Engels Institute there, before becoming the director of the
International Institute of Social History
The International Institute of Social History (IISH/IISG) is one of the largest archives of labor and social history in the world. Located in Amsterdam, its one million volumes and 2,300 archival collections include the papers of major figur ...
in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
, repository of the archives of the
Socialist International
The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism. It consists mostly of socialist and labour-oriented political parties and organisations. ...
.
![IISG1937](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/IISG1937.JPG)
Many individuals of all political complexions confided their archival treasures to him.
In June 1933, Nicolaevsky moved to Paris, to avoid living under Nazi rule. In March 1936, he had several long meetings with
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory. ...
, who had been sent by
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
to negotiate the purchase original manuscripts by
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
, which Nicolaevsky had smuggled out of Germany. Their conversations stretched through two months, and formed the basis of Nicolaevsky's ''Letter of an Old Bolshevik'', which Bukharin's biographer described as "a remarkable document and the source of much of our knowledge about Soviet politics in the thirties". But years later, Bukharin's widow, who was with her husband in Paris, denounced the ''Letter'' as a "fraud", and denied that Bukharin had ever spoke to Nicolaevsky, except in the presence of witnesses. She was angry because Nicolaevsky had put her husband in danger. When Bukharin was on trial in March 1938, he was forced to confess that he had conducted "counter-revolutionary conversations" with Nicolaevsky. The negotiations failed because Stalin refused to accept the price demanded by Nicolaevsky.
Early in November 1936,
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
's son,
Lev Sedov
Lev Lvovich Sedov (russian: Лев Львович Седов, also known as Leon Sedov; 24 February 1906 – 16 February 1938) was the first son of the Russian communist leader Leon Trotsky and his second wife Natalia Sedova. He was born when his f ...
and a collaborator named Mark Zborowski, aka 'Etienne', handed over a batch of Trotsky's papers to Nicolaevsky, to be stored at his premises at 7, rue Michelet, Paris. Less than a week later, burglars broke in and stole the papers, leaving money and valuables untouched. When questioned by the French police, Sedov asserted that the theft must have been carried out by the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
. He suspected that Nicolaevsky had accidentally alerted them through careless talk. In fact, Zborowski was later exposed as an NKVD agent.
Nicolaevsky is the author of the book ''Karl Marx: Man and Fighter,'' first published in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
in 1933. It was translated into English by
Otto Mänchen-Helfen and published in 1936. Some subsequent English editions restore the notes, appendices, and bibliography omitted from the first English edition.
Nicolaevsky also wrote "Forced Labour in Soviet Russia", with
David Dallin
David J. Dallin (born David Yulevich Levin, russian: Давид Юльевич Далин; 24 May 1889 – February 21, 1962
) was a Belarusian-American one-time Menshevik leader and later a writer and lecturer on Soviet affairs, who helped Victo ...
, published in 1948, which was one of the first books to give a truthful and documented account of the scale of the
USSR's labour camp system.
His other works included ''Power and the Soviet Elite'' and ''Aseff the Spy.'' He also wrote an essay "On the History of the Bolshevik Centre" and an unfinished biography of
Georgy Malenkov
Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov ( – 14 January 1988) was a Soviet politician who briefly succeeded Joseph Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union. However, at the insistence of the rest of the Presidium, he relinquished control over the par ...
.
Nicolaevsky emigrated to the United States in 1942, where he remained until his death, lecturing at various American universities and serving as the curator of the
Hoover Institution Archives.
His extensive collection of revolutionary documents is now held by the
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, and ...
Archives in
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...
.
Family
Nicolaevsky's brother, Vladimir, was married to the sister of
Alexei Rykov
Alexei Ivanovich Rykov (25 February 188115 March 1938) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician and statesman, most prominent as premier of Russia and the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1929 and 1924 to 1930 respectively. He wa ...
, who was head of the Soviet government in 1924-30.
Death and legacy
Nicolaevsky died on February 21, 1966, in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. He was 78 years old at the time of his death. He was buried at
Alta Mesa Cemetery in
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...
.
Footnotes
Further reading
* Ladis K. D. Kristof:
Russian Review
''The Russian Review'' is an independent peer-reviewed multi-disciplinary academic journal devoted to the history, literature, culture, fine arts, cinema, society, and politics of the Russian Federation, former Soviet Union and former Russian Empir ...
, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Jul 1966), pp. 324–327
JSTOR link
External links
Boris I. Nicolaevsky Collectionat th
Hoover Institution Archives(in Russian)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicolaevsky, Boris
1887 births
1966 deaths
People from Belebey
People from Ufa Governorate
Mensheviks
Asian democratic socialists
European democratic socialists
Russian anti-communists
Russian Marxist historians
Soviet emigrants to the United States
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States
People denaturalized by the Soviet Union
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany
Soviet emigrants to Germany