Shumsky, Alexander Yakovlevich

Born in a working class family. After graduating from a rural two-year school, he worked at a sawmill, then as a land reclamation technician. He participated in the work of socialist circles, since 1908 - a member of the Ukrainian Social Democratic split . In 1911 he came to Moscow, where he passed exams for high school as an extern. Having received a certificate of maturity, he entered the Moscow City People's University named after A. L. Shanyavsky . He graduated from his history department.

During the First World War A. Ya. Shumsky actively worked in the Ukrainian socialist organizations. Having come under suspicion of the security department, Shumsky in 1916 left for hydraulic works in the Transcaspian Territory. He returned to Moscow, where he was arrested and sent to the front.

After the February Revolution, Shumsky was elected a member of the corps, army, and then the front committee of soldiers' deputies. After the formation of the land committees, he was elected a member of the Kiev provincial land committee, and then chairman of the Volyn land committee. In 1917-1919 he was one of the leaders of the left wing of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries , then he was a member of the Central Committee of a separate party of Borotbists . In January 1918, together with other left Ukrainian Social Revolutionaries, he opposed the Central Rada. During the second advent of Soviet power to Ukraine in 1919, he served as People's Commissar of Education of Ukraine.

In 1920, after the final establishment of Soviet power in Ukraine, A. Ya. Shumsky was a member of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of Ukraine and a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. During the offensive of Wrangel and Pilsudsky, he was seconded by the Presidium of the CEC of Ukraine as chairman of the first Poltava, and then the Odessa Provincial Executive Committee; he was also a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the XII Army.

Since 1920 he worked in the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs. He was a member of the delegation to the peace talks with Poland. In 1921-1923 - Plenipotentiary of the Ukrainian SSR in Poland. In 1921, at the 3rd Congress of the Comintern, he was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Comintern. He was also a member of the Presidium of the CEC of the USSR. In February 1922, he headed the delegation of the Soviet government to conclude a trade agreement with Poland .

In 1924-1927, the People's Commissar of Education of Ukraine again. He actively pursued a policy of Ukrainization . He proposed to nominate Grinko as chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, and U Chubar as Political Secretary of the Central Committee of the CP (b).

In 1927, in connection with the discussion on the national question, the position of A. Ya. Shumsky was condemned by the party and the Comintern, and he was seconded from Ukraine to work in Leningrad. Despite the campaign unleashed in the USSR against “Shumskism,” the majority of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine united with the deposed People’s Commissar of Education.

Since 1927 - rector of the F. Engels Leningrad Institute of National Economy . In 1929-1930 he was rector of the M. I. Kalinin Leningrad Polytechnic Institute .

On May 13, 1933, Shumsky was arrested on charges of belonging to the Ukrainian Military Organization, and on September 5, he was sentenced by the OGPU College to 10 years in a Solovetsky camp. In 1935, the imprisonment in the camp was replaced by a link to Krasnoyarsk.

July 17, 1946, tried to commit suicide (Literary Ukraine) .- 25 fierce 1993).

In September 1946, he was taken out of Krasnoyarsk by officers of the NKVD under the leadership of P. A. Sudoplatov and was killed on September 18 in Saratov (on the way to Kiev) at the suggestion of L. M. Kaganovich and N. S. Khrushchev ^[1] .

Rehabilitated in 1958.

On April 19, 2011 in Zhitomir, a memorial plaque was installed on the house where A. Ya. Shumsky lived and worked.

• Biography on the official website of SPbSPU
• Stalin. Comrade Kaganovich and other members of the PB Central Committee KP (b) U

Trade Representation of the RSFSR in Poland