Geltman, Stefan Leonovich

Born in a Polish intelligent family in Zamosc . He studied at a secondary school in the city of Radom . In 1905 he began his studies at the philosophical and natural agronomical faculties of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow .

Edited the youth left magazine " Głos ". He was a member of the Union of Socialist Youth, and from 1908 to 1910 - the Polish Socialist Party , led the youth organization "Spójnia" in Krakow.

In 1912, S. Geltman got a job as a teacher in the Galotchyn near Ciechanow , also worked as an agronomist in Podlasie and in the Vilnius Agricultural Partnership.

During the First World War in 1915 ^[1] S. Geltman was in Minsk, where he became a member of the Polish Society in Support of the Victims of War.

In 1917, he became a member of the RSDLP (b) , was one of the editors of the socialist newspaper " Polish Truth " ^[1] . In the elections in June 1917, he received the mandate of a member of the city council in Minsk on the list of the Polish Socialist Association ^[1] , which received 8% of the vote on a citywide scale, in competition with the National Democratic Polish Electoral Committee ^[2] .

As an active member of the Bolshevik movement, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies in Minsk. In January 1918, he was appointed commissioner of the Polish Affairs Division of the Council of People's Commissars of the Western Region and Front ^[1] .

From March to November 1918, captured by the Germans in a camp in Hafelberg .

After his release from 1919 - Deputy Commissar of Agriculture and Forestry Lit.-Bel. SSR ^[1] . In 1920, he headed the agricultural department of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee of Poland .

In 1921-1924 - Secretary of the Polish Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (B) ^[1] . In 1924-1925 he was Commissar of Agriculture ^[1] , and then Chairman of the State Planning Commission of the BSSR, the Economic Council and Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the BSSR , from 1925 - rector of the Communist University in Minsk, and from 1927 - head of the Polish sector of the Institute of Belarusian Culture ^[1] .

He was an active member of the Communist Party of Belarus , was a member of the Central Committee (1924-1929). He was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Byelorussian SSR (1924-1929), a member of the Presidium (1926-1929).

In the 1930s, he worked in the RSFSR , in the People's Commissariat of grain and livestock farms of the USSR ^[1] .

During the Great Terror , on April 5, 1937, he was arrested by the NKVD . On September 20, 1937, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced him to death for "participating in the counter-revolutionary air defense organization", was shot on the same day ^[3] . Cremated at the Don cemetery and buried anonymously.

Rehabilitated March 31, 1956 by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.

In the years 1919-1920. took part in the development of LitBel’s agrarian policy, actively publishing in Zvyazda and defending views close to R. Luxemburg , V. Miscavičius-Kapsukas and Z. Angaretis , and in the early 1920s he was one of the first in the economic literature of the BSSR analysis and evaluation of this policy. Under his leadership, the first plans for the restoration of agriculture and forestry, land reclamation in the BSSR and the Land Code of the BSSR of 1925 were recognized, which recognized the need for free choice by the peasants of land use forms, a number of market phenomena in the Belarusian village (land rent, hiring of labor). In the mid-1920s, he defended the need to expand the framework of market relations in the Belarusian village, and also worked out the problems of establishing market observations in the BSSR.

Scientific work

The author of scientific papers on agricultural issues, conjuncture and planning problems, the Polish revolutionary movement ^[1] .

• Nacjanalizacja ziemi na Bielei Rusi. Mn., 1921;
• Kodeks zolny Belarusi. Mn., 1926;
• On the market // Soviet construction. 1924, No. 1. - S. 143-144;
• Surgery or lotion // Soviet construction. 1926, No. 3. - S. 6-14;
• The Unified Land Code of the BSSR // Zvyazda. 1924, No. 257.
• Chłopskie partactwo czy gospodarka społeczna. Sprawa polska podczas rewolucji. Mińsk-Moskwa 1920;
• Robotnik polski w Rewolucji Październikowej na Białorusi. Mn., 1927;

The preface by S. Geltman to the collection of documents “Rok 1863 na Mińszczyźnie”, published in 1927, led to the prosecution of the author and accusations of National Bolshevism ^[4] .

• Belarusian encyclopedia. In 18 volumes. T. 5: Minsk, "Belarusian Encyclopedia", 1997. S. 145.
• (red.) Ludwik Bazylow , Jan Sobczak, Encyklopedia Rewolucji Październikowej, Warszawa 1977, s. 124