Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov
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Ivan Ivanovich Skvortsov-Stepanov (russian: Ива́н Ива́нович Скворцо́в-Степа́нов, 24 February 1870 – 8 October 1928) was a prominent Russian
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 ...
revolutionary and
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. Skvortsov-Stepanov was one of the oldest participants in the Russian revolutionary movement as well as a
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 ...
writer, economist, historian and journalist.


Early life

Ivan Skvortsov was born in Maltsevo-Brodovo village, Bogorodsky Uezd, Moscow province – the village is now Lesnye Polyany, in
Pushkinsky District Pushkinsky District is the name of several administrative and municipal districts in Russia: *Pushkinsky District, Moscow Oblast, an administrative and municipal district of Moscow Oblast * Pushkinsky District, Saint Petersburg, an administrative ...
. He was the son of a
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 ...
factory clerical worker based in Bogorodsk.


Early career

He graduated from the Moscow Teachers' Institute in 1890, became an elementary school teacher, joined the revolutionary movement as a student in Moscow in 1892, and joined 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 ...
in 1898. He was arrested, and exiled to Tula district, where he met other exiles, including
Alexander Bogdanov Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov (russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Богда́нов; – 7 April 1928), born Alexander Malinovsky, was a Russian and later Soviet physician, philosopher, science fiction writer, and B ...
and
Vladimir Bazarov Vladimir Alexandrovich Bazarov (Russian: Влади́мир Алекса́ндрович База́ров; 8 August Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._27_July.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and Ne ...
. Together they joined the
Bolsheviks 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 ...
after their release in the winter of 1904. When ''Bor'ba'' was published in November 1905, Skvortsov-Stepanov was a member of the editorial board. In 1906 he was a delegate to the Fourth Congress of the RSDLP, where he supported
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 ...
. During the period 1907–10, he favoured the
Mezhraiontsy The Mezhraiontsy ( rus, межрайонцы, p=mʲɪʐrɐˈjɵnt͡sɨ), usually translated as the "Interdistrictites,"''Mezhraionka'' and ''Mezhraiontsy'' are derived from the Russian ''"mezh-"'' (meaning "inter-" or "between'") + ''"raion"'' (me ...
faction, but later fell again under the influence of Lenin. In 1907–09, he, Bazarov and Bogdanov produced what became the standard Russian translation of
Das Kapital ''Das Kapital'', also known as ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' or sometimes simply ''Capital'' (german: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, link=no, ; 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in Historical mater ...
, 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 ...
. In 1911, he launched the Bolshevik newspaper ''Mysl'', but was arrested very soon afterwards. He was repeatedly arrested and exiled for his revolutionary activities. Following the Revolution of 1917 he became the
People's Commissar for Finance of the RSFSR The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (russian: Министерство финансов РСФСР), known prior to 1946 as the People's Commissariat for Finance (russian: Народный комиссар ...
, until February 1918, when the Bolsheviks briefly formed a coalition government with the
Left Socialist-Revolutionaries The Party of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (russian: Партия левых социалистов-революционеров-интернационалистов) was a revolutionary socialist political party formed during the Russian Revol ...
. He joined the Left Communists, who opposed the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (also known as the Treaty of Brest in Russia) was a separate peace, separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Russian SFSR, Russia and the Central Powers (German Empire, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Kingdom of ...
with Germany. He worked on
Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the co ...
in 1918–1925. In 1919, he was appointed head of
Gosizdat State Publishing House of the RSFSR (Russian: Госуда́рственное изда́тельство РСФСР), also known as Gosizdat (Госиздат), was the State Publishing House founded in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Repu ...
, the State Publishing House. During the war with Poland, in 1920, he was appointed a member of the short-lived Polish provisional government.


Conflict with Mayakovsky

In September 1921, Skvortsov-Stepanov became embroiled in a dispute with the young
Futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...
poet,
Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...
. Like most leading Bolsheviks, he was unable to see any value in Mayakovsky's work, although the poet was an active supporter of the Bolsheviks, who had been imprisoned under the old regime. When Skvortsov-Stepanov learned that the script of Mayakovsky's play, ''Mystery Bouffe'' had been published in full in a magazine called ''Theatre Herald'', he banned its editors from paying the author's commission. Mayakovsky appealed to the Moscow Trade Union Council, who ordered that his fee should be paid, and suspended the union memberships of Skvortsov-Stepanov and two other Gosizdat officials for three months. The decision outraged a senior contributor to Pravda,
Lev Sosnovsky Lev Semyonovich Sosnovsky (Russian: Лев Семёнович Сосновский) (1 January 18863 July 1937) was a Russian revolutionary, publicist and journalist. He was a prominent Trotskyist and member of the left opposition who was executed ...
, who called for a ban on Mayakovsky's entire works. This threat was not carried out, and a few months later, Lenin publicly praised Mayakovsky's poetry for its political insight.


Later career

Skvortsov-Stepanov was appointed chief editor of ''
Izvestia ''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in 1917, it was a newspaper of record in the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, and describes ...
'' in June 1925, having supported the triumvirate of
Josif 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 ...
,
Grigory Zinoviev Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev, . Transliterated ''Grigorii Evseevich Zinov'ev'' according to the Library of Congress system. (born Hirsch Apfelbaum, – 25 August 1936), known also under the name Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky (russian: Ов ...
and
Lev Kamenev Lev Borisovich Kamenev. (''né'' Rozenfeld; – 25 August 1936) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician. Born in Moscow to parents who were both involved in revolutionary politics, Kamenev attended Imperial Moscow Uni ...
against
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 ...
. When the split within the triumvirate came to a head at the congress of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...
in December 1926, he backed Stalin, was elected to the CPSU Central Committee, and when the committee met, on 28 December 1925, they decided by a majority to appoint him editor of ''Leningradskaya Pravda'', in place of one of Zinoviev's supporters, despite objections from Zinoviev, Trotsky and others that editors of local newspaper should be appointed locally. When he arrived at the newspaper's office to impose a pro-Stalin political line, delegates from several Leningrad party organisations came to threaten him with violence, and members of staff walked out in protest denouncing those who stayed behind as spies, but the first pro-Stalin issue came out on 30 December. Skvortsov-Stepanov was an ardent
atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
, and a leading figure of the
League of Militant Atheists The League of Militant Atheists (), also Society of the Godless () or Union of the Godless (), was an atheistic and antireligious organization of workers and intelligentsia that developed in Soviet Russia under influence of the ideological and c ...
. Together with its chairman
Yemelyan Yaroslavsky Yemelyan Mikhailovich Yaroslavsky (russian: Емелья́н Миха́йлович Яросла́вский, born Minei Izrailevich Gubelman, Мине́й Изра́илевич Губельма́н; – 4 December 1943) was a Bolshevik revoluti ...
, he was one of the main initiators of the atheistic propaganda campaign in the Soviet Union. His pamphlet, "Thoughts on Religion" was widely published and read. Skvortsov-Stepanov remained in Leningrad for only a short period, before returning to his old job in Moscow. Upon his death from typhoid in October 1928, Stalin commemorated him as a "staunch and steadfast Leninist". His ashes were buried in the
Kremlin Wall Necropolis The Kremlin Wall Necropolis was the national cemetery for the Soviet Union. Burials in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow began in November 1917, when 240 pro-Bolshevik individuals who died during the Moscow Bolshevik Uprising were buried in m ...
.


Personality

The writer
Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в;  – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...
described Skvortsov as "a short man with a greyish compexion, his light blue eyes smiled, however, the triumphant smile of the lucky man who has a truth inaccessible to others...He eschewed all books except ''Das Kapital'' – he made a boast of that."


Publications

* ''Izbrannye ateisticheskie proizvedenii'a''


References


External links


Letter from Lenin to Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov, 2 December 1909
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skvortsov-Stepanov, Ivan 1870 births 1928 deaths People from Moscow Oblast People from Bogorodsky Uyezd Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Old Bolsheviks Left communists Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union members People's commissars and ministers of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Russian Constituent Assembly members Russian communists Bolshevik finance Pravda people Soviet newspaper editors Russian Marxists Novy Mir editors Soviet economists Russian atheists Soviet theologians Soviet literary critics Soviet historians Russian revolutionaries Russian atheism activists Burials at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis