Vilgelm Georgiyevich Knorin (russian: Вильге́льм Гео́ргиевич Кно́рин, Latvian: ''Vilhelms "Vilis" Knoriņš''; (29 August 1890 – 29 July 1939) was a Latvian

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,

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, publicist and historian. Knorin was born in to a Latvian peasant family and was a member of the Bolshevik Party from 1910. He served as the second First secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Byelorussian SSR from 1920 to 1922 and from 1927 to 1928. Being 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 ...

-appointed de facto head of state of Belarus, Knorin is known for his notorious quote about the Belarusian independence: "We believe that Byelorussians are not a nation, and the ethnographic specifics, which differentiate them from Russians, must be erased. We, communists, in the region that you call Byelorussia, work without thinking of what tribe we are." From 1926 to 1927 he was head of the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party. In April-July 1934 he was executive editor of the ''

'' journal. From August 1935 to 1937 he was deputy head of the department of party propaganda and agitation of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party. Knorin participated in the preparation of the "

The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) The ''History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks): Short Course'' (russian: История Всесоюзной коммунистической партии (большевиков). Краткий курс), translated to English u ...

". At the same time, from 1928 to 1937, he was an employee of the

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...

. He headed the information and propaganda department of the Comintern. He was executed in the

Great Purge 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 Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...

as a part of the Latvian Operation of the NKVD. Knorin was posthumously rehabilitated in December 1955. A street in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...

is named after Knorin.

References

External links

* 1890 births 1939 deaths People from Cēsis Municipality People from Kreis Wenden Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Communist Party of Poland politicians Old Bolsheviks Latvian communists Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union members Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia people Heads of the Communist Party of Byelorussia Head of Propaganda Department of CPSU CC Soviet historians Latvian Operation of the NKVD Great Purge victims from Latvia Executed politicians Soviet rehabilitations {{Belarus-politician-stub Latvian historians Latvian Marxists