Lev Kamenev

Soviet politician

Lev Borisovich Kamenev (né Rozenfeld; 18 July [O.S. 6 July] 1883 – 25 August 1936) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician.

Born in Moscow to parents who were both involved in revolutionary politics, Kamenev attended Imperial Moscow University before becoming a revolutionary himself, joining the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1901 and was active in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Tiflis (now Tbilisi).

He took part in the failed Russian Revolution of 1905.Relocating abroad in 1908, Kamenev became an early member of the Bolsheviks and a close associate of the exiled Vladimir Lenin.

In 1914, he was arrested on his return to Saint Petersburg and exiled in Siberia, but was able to return following the February Revolution of 1917 which overthrew the Tsarist monarchy.

In 1917, he served briefly as the equivalent of the first head of state of Soviet Russia.Kamenev disagreed with Lenin's strategy of armed uprising during the October Revolution, but nevertheless remained in a position of power after the fall of the Provisional Government.

In 1919, he was elected as a full member of the first Politburo.During Lenin's final illness in 1923–24, Kamenev was the acting leader of the Soviet Union, forming a troika with Grigory Zinoviev and Joseph Stalin which led to Leon Trotsky's downfall.

Stalin subsequently turned against his former allies and ousted Kamenev from the Soviet leadership.Along with Zinoviev, he was expelled from the party three times.

Kamenev was arrested in 1935 following the assassination of Sergei Kirov and made a chief defendant in 1936 Trial of the Sixteen, which marked the start of the Great Purge.

He was found guilty during the show trial and executed by a firing squad on 25 August.He coincidentally died on the same day as Sergey Kamenev, with whom he was not related.

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