Background
SMIRNOV, Ivan was born in 1881. Son of a peasant.
SMIRNOV, Ivan was born in 1881. Son of a peasant.
Railroad, then factory worker 1899 arrested and exiled to Irkutsk Province. 1903 fled from exile and did Party propaganda and organisation work in Tver’ and Vyshniy-Volochok.
1904 arrested; 1905 Party organisation, Moscow’s Lefortov Rayon. During 1905 Revol Party organisation, Ulagushin Sub-Rayon, then Railroad Rayon, Moscow. 1909 exiled from Moscow and moved to Saint St. Petersburg, where he worked as Party organizer.
1910 arrested and exiled to Narym. 1912 fled from exile and worked in Rostov and Khar’kov. 1913 arrested in Khar’kov and returned to Narym.
By an oversight released en route from prison and returned to Moscow. 1914 re-arrested and installed in Narym, where he remained until 1916. 1916 drafted into Russian Army.
Served in Tomsk, where he conducted revol propaganda among troops. After 1917 February Revol member, Executive Committee, Tomsk Soviet of Soldiers’ Deputy. August 1917 moved to Moscow and founded “Volna” Party publ house.
Fought in Civil War; member, Revol Military Council, Eastern Front. Commanded 5th Army; after defeat of Kolchak’s forces, in charge of all Soviet and Party work in Siberia as chairman, Siberian Revol Committee. 1922 secretary, Petrograd All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Committee and secretary, Northwestern Bureau, Central Committee, All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
Then Presidium member, Supreme Economic Council. 1923—late 1927 Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics People's Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs. At 8th and 10th Party Congresses elected candidate member, and at 9th Congress member, Central Committee, Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
After 14th All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Congress sided with “Leftist Opposition”. 1927 at 15th Party Congress expelled from All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Fall 1929 broke with Leftist Opposition and recanted his errors.
1930 re-admitted to Party. Administration work; 1931 went to Germany on party assignment. January 1933 again expelled from Party for alleged “anti-Party activities” and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.
August 1936 tried in connection with TrotskyZinoviev bloc. 24 August 1936 sentenced to death by Military Collegium of Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Supreme Court.
Religion is an instrument of the ruling classes to instill in the masses the religious conviction that their current suffering will lead to eventual happiness.
Communist Party of the Soviet Union is the guiding force of all socialist countries, and the nucleus of their political system.
Communist Party member from 1899.