Grigory Naumovich Kaminsky ( az, Ҝригориј Камински Наум оғлу, italic=no, Griqoriy Kaminski Naum oğlu, russian: Григорий Наумович Каминский; 1 November 1895 – 10 February 1938) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

politician who was the 2nd First Secretary of

Azerbaijan Communist Party The Azerbaijan Communist Party ( az, Azərbaycan Kommunist Partiyası; russian: Коммунистическая партия Азербайджана) was the ruling political party in the Azerbaijan SSR, making it effectively a branch of th ...

, and one of founders of the health care system in the

Soviet Union 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 ...

Early life

Kaminsky was born in the family of a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

Ekaterinoslav Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. He graduated from

Lomonosov Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

with a degree in Medical Studies. Kaminsky was an active participant of youth revolutionary movement.

Political career

In 1917, he became a member of Moscow bureau of

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 ...

, secretary of the party committee in Tula and served in administration of the 2nd army. In 1920–1921, Kaminsky was the First Secretary of

, chairman of the

Baku Commune Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world ...

and

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

deputies. From 1922 through 1929, he was the chairman of Central Committee of ''Vserabotzemles'' trade union and a chairman of

kolkhoz A kolkhoz ( rus, колхо́з, a=ru-kolkhoz.ogg, p=kɐlˈxos) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz., a contraction of советское хозяйство, soviet ownership or ...

center. In 1930, he was appointed the Secretary of Moscow State Committee of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

. In 1934–1937, he served as the People's Commissar for Health of the Soviet Union. He's credited with extensive work in establishing production of medicine, preparation of medical personnel, fighting

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

in Soviet Union and promotion of medical science in education system.

Death

After Kaminsky' controversial speech about wrongful arrests of people by

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. ...

, in which he accused Beria of past counter-revolutionary activities, he was arrested on 25 June 1937 and sentenced to death on 8 February 1938. He was

executed by firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...

. He was posthumously rehabilitated on 2 March 1955.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaminsky, Grigory 1895 births 1938 deaths Politicians from Dnipro People from Yekaterinoslav Governorate Jews from the Russian Empire Ukrainian Jews Soviet Jews Jewish socialists Old Bolsheviks All-Russian Central Executive Committee members Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union members Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union candidate members Soviet Ministers of Health Russian Constituent Assembly members Azerbaijan Communist Party (1920) politicians Jews executed by the Soviet Union Great Purge victims from Ukraine Soviet rehabilitations