Mikhail
Tomsky, the son of a factory worker, was born in St. Petersburg on
31st October, 1880. After a brief formal education Tomsky found work
at the Theodor Kibbel factory and at the age of fourteen moved to
the Smirnov Engineering factory.
Tomsky
became involved in the struggle to form trade
unions and this resulted in him losing his job at the Smirnov
Engineering factory. In 1903 he became a socialist and the following
year joined the Social Democratic Labour Party.
After
being blacklisted in St Petersburg for his union activities he moved
to Revel. During the 1905 Revolution Tomsky
helped establish the Revel Soviet of Workers'
Deputies. Following the publication of the October
Manifesto, Tomsky helped form the Revel Union of Metal Workers.
However, Nicholas II soon changed his mind
about trade union reform and Tomsky was
arrested and deported to Siberia.
Tomsky
soon escaped and after returning to St Petersburg continued with his
trade union activities. This included becoming prtesident of the Union
of Engravers and Chromolithographers. He also wrote articles for Proletary
and Vperyod.
A Bolsheviks
Tomsky was once again arrested and imprisoned in May, 1908. On his
release in 1909 he lived for a while in France before returning to
Russia where he organized the publication of Rabocheye
Znamya in Moscow.
Tomsky
was arrested in December, 1909 and was kept in custody for two years
before he was brought to court and sentenced to five years hard labour.
After the
abdication of Nicholas II Tomsky was freed
by the Provisional Government and
he returned to Moscow where he took part in the October
Revolution.
Tomsky
took part in all the major conferences on trade unions in Russia and
in 1920 became General Secretary of the Red International of the Trade
Unions. He was also elected to the Central Committee of the Communist
Party and the Politburo in 1922.
A close
ally of Joseph Stalin, Tomsky was on the
right-wing of the party and was extremely hostile to the group led
by Leon Trotsky. In 1926 he joined with Stalin, Nikolay
Bukharin and Alexei Rykov to begin
the purge of the left from the party.
After the
removal of the left Stalin turned on the right of the party. As head
of the trade union movement, Tomsky posed a threat to Stalin's power.
In April, 1929, he was forced to resign from his trade union posts.
He remained a member of the Central Committee and in 1934 became director
of the State Publishing House.
After being
informed he was about to be arrested by the NKVD,
Mikhail Tomsky committed suicide on 23rd August, 1936.
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
