Lev Kamenev

Lev Kamenev (1883-1936), Russian revolutionary and politician of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Lev Borisovich Kamenev was born in Moscow with the family name of Rozenfeld. He studied at Moscow State University, where he was drawn into revolutionary activity. He joined the Social Democrats in 1901, becoming affiliated with the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) two years later. After a period abroad, he was exiled to Siberia in 1915 for opposing Russia’s involvement in World War I (1914-1918). Returning to Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) in 1917, Kamenev joined the Bolshevik Central Committee and served on the editorial board of the newspaper Pravda (Truth). He became a member of the first Politburo, the highest ruling body of the Communist Party, in 1919. Kamenev occupied several important administrative posts during the early 1920s, serving as chairman of the Moscow Soviet (Council), vice chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, chairman of the Council of Labor and Defense, and director of the Supreme Council of National Economy. He also served briefly (1926-1927) as ambassador to Italy.

When USSR leader Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, Kamenev joined Joseph Stalin and Grigory Zinovyev in a troika (ruling body of three) to lead the country, thus preventing Leon Trotsky from taking power. In December 1925, after delivering an attack on Stalin at a party congress, Kamenev was demoted to a candidate (nonvoting) member of the Politburo. In 1926 Kamenev, Zinovyev, and Trotsky united their forces against Stalin but were defeated. Kamenev was expelled from the party in 1927 for his opposition to Stalin. He was readmitted the next year after publicly denouncing the “Trotskyites,” only to be expelled again in 1932. Readmitted to the party in 1933, he was arrested in late 1934 in a purge of the party that was launched after the assassination of Sergey Kirov. Kamenev was convicted on false charges in the first show trial of Stalin’s Great Purge in 1936 and executed. His name was rehabilitated by the Soviet Supreme Court in 1988.