Mieczysław Kozłowski (, Mechislav Yulievich Kozlovsky; – 3 March 1927) was a Polish-Lithuanian

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

revolutionary,

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

diplomat and jurist.

Life and career

Early revolutionary career

He was born into a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

family of a nobleman and teacher in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

. After graduating from the

University of Moscow Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

, he started practicing law from the early 1890s. Kozłowski was a member of the Lithuanian Workers' Union and editor of its newspaper ''Rabocheye Obozreniye''. In 1899, together with

Felix Dzerzhinsky Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (; ; – 20 July 1926), nicknamed Iron Felix (), was a Soviet revolutionary and politician of Polish origin. From 1917 until his death in 1926, he led the first two Soviet secret police organizations, the Cheka a ...

, he contributed to the merger of the Lithuanian Workers' Union with the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland into a single party

Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania The Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (, SDKPiL), originally the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP), was a Marxist political party founded in 1893 and later served as an autonomous section of the Russian Social ...

(SDKPiL). During the

1905 Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...

, he was a member of the military revolutionary organization and the strike committee in Vilnius. After the suppression of the revolution by the Tsarist government, he emigrated. In 1907 he was among the delegates to the

5th Congress of the RSDLP The 5th (London) Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was held in London between May 13 and June 1, 1907. The 5th Congress had the largest attendance of the Congresses of the unified RSDLP.Thatcher, Ian D. Trotsky'. Routledge Hist ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Beginning in 1909, he led revolutionary agitation in the St. Petersburg Metalworkers' Union. In March 1907, he was

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

's representative in a special party court session. Subsequently, he was a defense attorney in many political trials in St. Petersburg; he also joined the

Bolshevik party The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

. In 1914, together with Zbigniew Fabierkiewicz, he published ''Nowa Trybuna'', the legal journal of SDKPiL. In his apartment, through a liaison officer of German intelligence donated money to finance the Bolshevik activities, primarily to the newspaper ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...

''.

In the Russian Revolution

After the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

of 1917, Kozłowski was elected a deputy of the

Petrograd Soviet The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (, ''Petrogradsky soviet rabochih i soldatskikh deputatov'') was a city council of Petrograd (Saint Petersburg), the capital of Russia at the time. For brevity, it is usually called the Pet ...

and a member of its executive committee, All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, as well as chairman of the

Vyborg Vyborg (; , ; , ; , ) is a town and the administrative center of Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of Vyborg Bay, northwest of St. Petersburg, east of the Finnish capital H ...

District Duma. In April 1917, he was elected a member of the Petrograd Committee of the RSDLP(b). At the beginning of July 1917, Kozłowski, after an investigation by the military

counterintelligence Counterintelligence (counter-intelligence) or counterespionage (counter-espionage) is any activity aimed at protecting an agency's Intelligence agency, intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering informati ...

of the , was accused by the

Kerensky government The Russian Provisional Government was a provisional government of the Russian Empire and Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately after the abdication of Nicholas II on 2 March, O.S. New_Style.html" ;"title="5 ...

together with Lenin,

Grigory Zinoviev Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev (born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky; – 25 August 1936) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A prominent Old Bolsheviks, Old Bolshevik, Zinoviev was a close associate of Vladimir Lenin prior to ...

and others of "high treason and espionage", as well as of "laundering" money from the German General Staff transferred from Berlin through

Alexander Parvus Alexander Lvovich Parvus, born Israel Lazarevich Gelfand (8 September 1867 – 12 December 1924) and sometimes called Helphand in the literature on the Russian Revolution, was a Marxist theoretician, publicist, and controversial activist in the ...

and Yakov Ganetsky to

Disconto-Gesellschaft The Disconto-Gesellschaft (, full name Direktion der Disconto-Gesellschaft) was a significant German bank, founded in Berlin in 1851. It was one of the largest German banking organizations until its 1929 merger into Deutsche Bank. History The ...

and Stockholm , and from here to the Siberian Bank in Petrograd. On 6 July he was arrested at his apartment on Preobrazhenskaya Street. After the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, Kozłowski worked as chairman of the Investigative Commission of the

Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee The Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee (PMRC) () was a militant group of the Petrograd Soviet and one of several military revolutionary committees that were created in the Russian Republic. Initially the committee was created on 25 Oc ...

, dealt with the junker-officer mutiny on 29 October and the monarchist organization of

Vladimir Purishkevich Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich (, ; – 1 February 1920) was a Russian politician and right-wing extremist known for his monarchist, ultra-nationalist, antisemitic and anticommunist views. He helped lead the paramilitary Black Hundreds duri ...

In the Soviet Union

From 29 March 1918 to 15 November 1920 he was the chairman of the of the

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

(RSFSR). In late August 1918, he conducted the first interrogation of Fanny Kaplan after her attempt to assassinate Vladimir Lenin. In January 1919, he authored the "Basic Guidelines on Criminal Law of the RSFSR" which announced in December 1919 as a resolution of the People's Commissariat of Justice of the RSFSR. After the creation of the Lithuania Soviet Socialist Republic he was appointed the People's Commissar of Justice and subsequently the People's Commissar of Justice of the Lithuanian–Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Litbel). In 1922–1923, he worked as Consul General in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and Deputy Plenipotentiary in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. Soon he was transferred to diplomatic work in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, and then to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. In 1923, he was recalled from the diplomatic service and was appointed chief legal adviser of the

People's Commissariat of Railways The Ministry of Railways (, more correctly translated as Ministry/People's Commisariat of Transportation) oversaw Soviet Railways, which operated the railways of the Soviet Union. It was divided into 32 agencies, which among them had millions of ...

. In 1924, he was a delegate to the 13th Congress of the RCP(b). Kozłowski died in 1927 in Moscow and is buried at the

Novodevichy cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery () is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. History The cemetery was designed by Ivan Mashkov and inaugurated ...

in Moscow.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kozlowski, Mieczyslaw 1876 births 1927 deaths Politicians from Vilnius Polish Marxists Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania politicians Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Polish revolutionaries Revolutionaries of the Russian Revolution of 1905 Revolutionaries of the Russian Revolution Soviet jurists Soviet diplomats Old Bolsheviks Soviet people of Polish descent Polish atheists Former Roman Catholics Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Bolshevik finance