Solomon Lazarov Goldstein ( bg, Соломон Лазаров Голдщайн) or Solomon Lazarevič Gol'dštejn (russian: Соломон Лазаревич Гольдштейн) (25 May 1884 – 14 May 1968) was a Jewish

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

n politician, one of the founders of the Bulgarian Metal Workers’ Union and of the Swiss Communist Party.

Life

Goldstein was born in Shumen, a city in the eastern part of the Principality of Bulgaria, to a Jewish family. He was a member of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party (Narrow Socialists) from 1906 to 1913. In 1913 he left Bulgaria for France, where he joined the French Section of the Workers' International. While working in the

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufacture ...

factories, Goldstein became acquainted with

Bolshevism Bolshevism (from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined party of social revolution, ...

. In 1915 he left France for Zurich, Switzerland, where he met and befriended

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 1 ...

, the future leader of 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 mome ...

of 1917. During his stay in Switzerland, he was among the chief participants in the establishment of the Swiss Communist Party. After spending some time in Moscow from 1918 on, from May 1919 to February 1920, he served as the representative of the

Bolshevik Party " 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 Bulgaria. In this capacity, he criticized the perceived "passivity" of the Bulgarian communists under Dimitar Blagoev. He supported the efforts of some extreme-left factions to force the Bulgarian party to action through acts of terrorism, such as the assassination of the former Interior Minister Mihail Takev in January 1920. While in Bulgaria, Goldstein was also active as a journalist in left-wing print media. In a brochure which he signed as "Slavi Zidarov," Goldstein was critical of the Bulgarian Communist Party's inability to turn the 1918 soldier rebellion at Radomir into a nationwide communist revolution. He returned to now-Soviet Russia in 1920 and was active in the politics of the Comintern until 1921. In 1922–1924 he served as cadre-in-chief of the

Soviet 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 nation ...

legation in the Austrian capital

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. According to Aurel Plasari, historian and director of the

National Library of Albania The National Library of Albania ( al, Biblioteka Kombëtare e Shqipërisë) is an Albanian national library headquartered in the capital, Tirana. It was founded in 1920 and inaugurated on December 10, 1922. History The Library Commission of Alb ...

, Goldstein was the mastermind behind Albania's June Revolution of 1924. In 1924, the

Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; bg, Вътрешна Македонска Революционна Организация (ВМРО), translit=Vatrešna Makedonska Revoljucionna Organizacija (VMRO); mk, Внатр� ...

entered negotiations with the Comintern about collaboration between the communists and the creation of a united Macedonian movement. Goldstein was active by signing a paper in Vienna (the so-called

May Manifesto The "May Manifesto" of May 6, 1924 was a paper in which the objectives of the unified Macedonian liberation movement were presented: independence and unification of partitioned region of Macedonia, fighting all the neighbouring Balkan monarchies, su ...

), in which the objectives of the unified Macedonian liberation movement were presented. He also was present in 1925 by the

IMRO (United) The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United) (1925–1936) (Bulgarian: Вътрешна македонска революционна организация - обединена, ''Vatreshna makedonska revolyucionna organizatsiya - O ...

Foundation in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. After the death of Lenin in 1924, Goldstein sided with the left opposition of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, possibly due to

Adolph Joffe Adolph Abramovich Joffe (russian: Адо́льф Абра́мович Ио́ффе, alternative transliterations Adol'f Ioffe or, rarely, Yoffe) (10 October 1883 in Simferopol – 16 November 1927 in Moscow) was a Russian revolutionary, a Bo ...

's influence. Consequently, he was targeted 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 Secretar ...

's purges and suffered political persecution from 1936 until his rehabilitation in 1956. He died in the Soviet capital of Moscow on 14 May 1968.

Life

References

Further reading