Moisei
Uritsky, the son of Jewish parents, was born in the Ukraine, Russia,
in 1873. He studied law at Kiev University and graduated in 1897.
As a student he joined the Social Democratic
Party.
At the
Second Congress of the Social Democratic Party
in London in 1903, there was a dispute
between Vladimir Lenin and Julius
Martov, two of the party's main leaders. Lenin argued for a small
party of professional revolutionaries with a large fringe of non-party
sympathizers and supporters. Martov disagreed believing it was better
to have a large party of activists. Martov won the vote 28-23 but
Lenin was unwilling to accept the result and formed a faction known
as the Bolsheviks. Those who remained
loyal to Martov became known as Mensheviks.
Uritsky,
like George Plekhanov, Pavel
Axelrod, Leon Trotsky, Lev
Deich, Vladimir
Antonov-Ovseenko,
Irakli Tsereteli, Andrei
Vyshinsky, Noi Zhordania
and Fedor Dan supported Julius
Martov.
After the
February Revolution, Uritsky and Leon
Trotsky both left the Mensheviks
and joined the Bolsheviks. He took
part in the October Revolution and
agreed with the suppression of the Constituent
Assembly.
In March,
1918, Uritsky he joined the Communist Secret Police (Cheka)
and was appointed Commissar for Internal Affairs in the Northern Region.
He was assassinated by a young student on 30th August, 1918. His death
resulted in what became known as the Red Terror.
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