Christian
Rakovsky, the son of extremely wealthy parents, was born Kotel, Bulgaria,
on 13th August, 1873. With the considerable fortune left to him by
his father, he travelled all over Europe before studying to become
a doctor.
Rakovsky
developed radical political views and became the leader of the Bulgarian
revolutionary movement. He believed the best way of achieving Bulgarian
independence was to support revolutionary groups in Russia. He therefore
used his wealth to fund newspapers such as Iskra
and Pravda.
His revolutionary
political opinions made him unpopular with governments and was expelled
successively from Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and France.
During
the First World War Rakovsky adopted a pacifist
position and was one of the prime movers of the Zimmerwald Conference.
Throughout the conflict Rakovsky called for "a peace without
indemnities or annexations, based on the principle of self-determination
of the peoples".
Rakovsky
was arrested in Romania in 1916 and remained in prison until being
rescued by Russian soldiers in May, 1917. With the help of Bolshevik
volunteers, Rakovsky attempted to provoke a revolution in Romania.
However, with the arrival of the German Army
Radovsky was forced to flee to Russia.
In January,
1919, Vladimir Lenin put Rakovsky in charge
of the Ukrainian Soviet Government. He successfully kept the area
for the Bolsheviks against the White
Army during the Civil War.
Rakovsky
was a supporter of Leon Trotsky and in
1925 Joseph Stalin arranged for him to
become Soviet ambassador to Paris. At the Fifteenth Party Congress
he was expelled from the party and exiled to Central Asia.
In 1937
Rakovsky, Nickolai Bukharin, Alexei
Rykov,
Genrikh Yagoda and Nikolai
Krestinsky were
all arrested and accused of being involved with Leon
Trotsky in a plot against Joseph Stalin.
He was found guilty and sentenced to twenty years hard labour. Christian
Rakovsky was executed in 1941.
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