biography
| name: |
Zinoviev, Grigoriy Yevseyevich
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originally Grigoriy Yevseyevich Radomyslskiy
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pronunciation:
[zinovyef]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1883–1936)
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| biography:
| Russian Jewish revolutionary and politician, born in Kherson province, S Ukraine. He studied at Bern University, and in 1924 was made a member of the ruling Politburo, but because of opposition to Stalin's policies was expelled from the Party (1926). Reinstated in 1928, he was again expelled in 1932, and in 1935 was arrested after the assassination of Kirov. Charged with organizing terrorist activities, he was executed following the first of Stalin's Great Purge trials in Moscow. The so-called Zinoviev letter urging British Communists to incite revolution in Britain contributed to the downfall of the Labour government in the 1924 general elections; fresh research reported by the Foreign Office in 1999 confirmed the view that this letter was a forgery. |
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