Yakov Naumovich Drobnis (
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
: Яков Наумович Дробнис; 6 March 1890 – 1 February 1937) was a
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 who supported
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 ...
. He was a defendant at one of the
Moscow Show Trial
The Moscow trials were a series of show trials held by the Soviet Union between 1936 and 1938 at the instigation of Joseph Stalin. They were nominally directed against "Trotskyists" and members of "Right Opposition" of the Communist Party of the ...
s.
Early life
Drobnis was born in
Hlukhiv
Hlukhiv ( uk, Глу́хів, ) or Glukhov (russian: Глухов, translit=Glukhov) is a small historic town on the Esman River. It is a City of regional significance (Ukraine), city of regional significance in the Sumy Oblast, Sumy region of U ...
, in
Chernihiv province, in the Jewish
Pale of Settlement
The Pale of Settlement (russian: Черта́ осе́длости, '; yi, דער תּחום-המושבֿ, '; he, תְּחוּם הַמּוֹשָב, ') was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 19 ...
in Ukraine. Born to a large Jewish family of shoemakers, he became an apprentice shoemaker after leaving primary school, but ran away to
Astrakhan
Astrakhan ( rus, Астрахань, p=ˈastrəxənʲ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in Southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the ...
at the age of 13. As a Jew, he was not allowed to remain and was deported back to Hlukhiv, where he met a shoemaker who had deported from
Baku
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 a ...
for political activity that introduced him to other revolutionaries. He joined the Hlukhiv branch of 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 ...
(RSDLP) in 1906. He was arrested and held in prison for six weeks for taking part in a strike. He was arrested again in January 1908, and charged with membership of the RSDLP. This time , he was held for ten months awaiting trial, then sentenced to five years in prison. On his release, he moved to
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
, where he was arrested, for the third time in January 1915 and deported to
Poltava
Poltava (, ; uk, Полтава ) is a city located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the capital city of the Poltava Oblast (province) and of the surrounding Poltava Raion (district) of the oblast. Poltava is administratively ...
, where he joined the local Bolshevik organisation.
Russian Revolution
After 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 ...
, Drobnis was elected to the Poltava
Duma
A duma (russian: дума) is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions.
The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were for ...
, and helped create the Poltava
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, ...
. When the soviet was smashed by Ukrainian nationalists. Drobnis arrested, and threatened with execution, but released after the Poltava Duma intervened. In 1918, after the
Bolshevik 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 Bolsheviks, Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was ...
, he was a founder and member of the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party. He was caught organising
guerilla
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tact ...
detachments to fight against the government of
Symon Petliura
Symon Vasylyovych Petliura ( uk, Си́мон Васи́льович Петлю́ра; – May 25, 1926) was a Ukrainian politician and journalist. He became the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Army and the President of the Ukrainian People' ...
and was sentenced to be shot. He escaped, but was wounded, and had to hide out until the arrival of the Red Army. He was wounded and captured again while fighting against the
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
army commanded by General
Denikin
Anton Ivanovich Denikin (russian: Анто́н Ива́нович Дени́кин, link= ; 16 December Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._4_December.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New St ...
, but escaped.
In 1920-22, Drobnis was Chairman of the executive of the Poltava Soviet. During this period, he was kidnapped by bandits who held him hostage in a cellar until the Red Army secured his release. In this period, he supported the
Democratic Centralist
Democratic centralism is a practice in which political decisions reached by voting processes are binding upon all members of the political party. It is mainly associated with Leninism, wherein the party's political vanguard of professional revol ...
opposition group, led by
Timofei Sapronov
Timofei Vladimirovich Sapronov (russian: Тимофе́й Влади́мирович Сапро́нов; 1887 – September 28, 1937) was a Russian revolutionary, Old Bolshevik and socialist militant who was one of the leaders of the Left Oppositi ...
and
Vladimir M. Smirnov. He was recalled from Ukraine in 1922, because of his involvement with the Democratic Centralists, and worked the government of the Russian Federation for year, then in 1923-27, for Administrative and Financial Commission of the USSR government.
Drobnis signed the
Declaration of the Forty-Six
The Declaration of 46 was a secret letter sent by a group of 46 leading Soviet Union, Soviet communists to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party on 15 October 1923. The declaration foll ...
in 1923, and backed Trotsky in the split that opened up within the Communist Party after the death of its founder,
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 19 ...
. In 1924, Drobnis was passed a letter written by a fellow oppositionist named Pililenko, who called for mass recruitment to the left opposition, and reputedly advocated creating a breakaway political party. He showed it to V.M.Smirnov. When the party authorities found out, Pililenko was expelled, and Drobnis received a severe reprimand. He was expelled from the communist party in December 1927. In 1929, he was arrested and deported to Siberia, but in 1930 he renounced the opposition and was reinstated as a party member.
Arrest and execution
Drobnis was arrested again on 6 August 1936. On 23 September, there was an explosion in a mine in
Kemerovo
Kemerovo ( rus, Ке́мерово, p=ˈkʲemʲɪrəvə) is an industrial city and the administrative center of Kemerovo Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Iskitimka and Tom Rivers, in the major coal mining region of the Kuznetsk Ba ...
, in Siberia, close to where he was employed in 1934-36 as an assistant director of the Kemerovo Chemical Works. Though it was probably an accident, the
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.
...
treated it as sabotage, and forced Drobnis to confess his role in planning the explosion. He appeared as a witness when the director and eight others employed at the mine were put on trial in
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk (, also ; rus, Новосиби́рск, p=nəvəsʲɪˈbʲirsk, a=ru-Новосибирск.ogg) is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the Russian Census ...
on 19–22 November. In January 1937, he appeared as a defendant alongside
Yuri Pyatakov
Georgy (Yury) Leonidovich Pyatakov (russian: Гео́ргий Леони́дович Пятако́в; 6 August 1890 – 30 January 1937) was a leader of the Bolsheviks and a key Soviet politician during and after the 1917 Russian Revolutio ...
,
Karl Radek
Karl Berngardovich Radek (russian: Карл Бернгардович Радек; 31 October 1885 – 19 May 1939) was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist active in the Polish and German social democratic movements before World War I and a C ...
and others at the second of three major Moscow show trials, where he confessed to having organised the explosion on Trotsky's orders, and pleaded with the court: "If you find it in the least possible to save me from shameful death, and, after putting me to the severest test, permit me to return to the ranks of the class from which I came, I shall regard it as my great and sacred duty fully to justify this gift.".
He was sentenced to death on 30 January 1937, and shot two days later.
Drobnis was posthumously rehabilitated and reinstated in the Communist Party in 1988.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drobnis, Yakov
1890 births
1937 deaths
People from Hlukhiv
People from Glukhovsky Uyezd
Ukrainian Jews
Soviet Jews
Bundists
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members
Old Bolsheviks
Group of Democratic Centralism
Left Opposition
Russian Trotskyists
Jewish socialists
Trial of the Seventeen
Great Purge victims from Ukraine
Jews executed by the Soviet Union