Wilhelm Adolfovich Kurz (1892 – 10 May 1938) was an Austrian-born politician 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 ...

. He was a prominent member of the

Volga German The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov a ...

community and served as the head of government of the

Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic The Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (german: Autonome Sozialistische Sowjetrepublik der Wolgadeutschen; russian: Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика Немцев По� ...

from 1922 to 1924.

Biography

Wilhelm Adolfovich Kurz was born in 1892 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 ...

. His father emigrated to Russia with his family when Wilhelm was a child. After the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he was exiled to

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...

. Following the

February Revolution The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...

, he was released from exile and began organizing for 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 ...

among the German-speaking residents of Kazan. He later moved to

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 ...

and led the Austrian-Hungarian Council for Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. In 1920, the Central Committee of the Communist Party sent him to the

to participate in the region's Congress of Soviets. He became the chairman of the economic committee for the Republicans in 1921. In 1922, he was tapped to become the Chairman of the Councils of People's Commissars, which was the Prime Minister of the Republic. In 1931, Kurz was appointed as the head of

Intourist Intourist (russian: Интурист, a contraction of , "foreign tourist") was a Russian tour operator, headquartered in Moscow. It was founded on April 12, 1929, and served as the primary travel agency for foreign tourists in the Soviet Uni ...

, which organized tourism for foreign visitors. In 1933, he became the first Soviet official to visit the United States after its recognition of the Soviet Union. In 1937, Kurz, along with other leaders of the Volga German ASSR were arrested and charged with membership in a counterrevolutionary nationalist organization. He was tried and sentenced to death by the

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...

on 27 April 1938. He was executed on 10 May 1938 in

Kommunarka Kommunarka is an urban-type settlement (posyolok) in Sosenskoye Settlement, Novomoskovsky Administrative Okrug, Moscow, Russia. The Kommunarka (Sokolnicheskaya line) station opened in 2019. History A mass burial site of the late 1930s, known as ...

. He was rehabilitated in 1957.

References

1892 births 1938 deaths People executed by the Soviet Union by firearm Politicians from Vienna Volga German people Soviet rehabilitations Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the Russian Empire {{USSR-politician-stub