David Petrovsky

{{Short description|American socialist politician}} {{Infobox person |name = David Petrovsky |image = David Petrovsky in 1924.jpg |image_size = |caption = Petrovsky in 1924 |birth_name = David Lipetz |birth_date = {{Birth date|1886|09|24}} |birth_place = [[Berdychiv]], [[Russian Empire]] |death_date = {{Death date and age|1937|09|10|1886|09|24}} |death_place = [[Moscow]], [[Soviet Union]] |body_discovered = |death_cause = Execution |resting_place = |resting_place_coordinates = |citizenship = Russian; American |education = Doctor of Economics |alma_mater = [[Free University of Brussels (1834–1969)|Free University of Brussels]] |employer = |occupation = |years_active = |party = |spouse = [[Rose Cohen (Stalin’s British victim)|Rose Cohen]] |partner = |children = Alexey D. Petrovsky |parents = |relations = |signature = |footnotes = }}

'''David Petrovsky''' (born '''David Lipetz''', also known as '''Max Goldfarb''', '''Bennett''', '''Humboldt''', '''Brown'''; September 24, 1886 — September 10, 1937) was a [[Ukrainian Jewish]] revolutionary politician, economist, journalist, general of the [[Red Army]], and [[Soviet]] statesman. He was an active member of the [[General Jewish Labour Bund]] in the [[Russian Empire]] and the [[Jewish Socialist Federation]] in the [[United States]].

In 1912 he received a Ph.D. in economics from the [[Free University of Brussels (1834–1969)|Free University of Brussels]] where he studied under [[Emile Vandervelde]]. He moved to New York in 1913 where served as the editor of the ''[[Jewish Daily Forward]]'' newspaper in New York until 1917, when he returned to Ukraine to run for the [[Russian Constituent Assembly]]. He was elected a member of the [[Central Council of Ukraine]] and its Central Executive Committee (Mala Rada), where he voted for the separation of Ukraine from Russia.

He also served as a mayor of [[Berdichev]], a city with the largest Jewish population in the Russian Empire and Ukraine. As a mayor, he managed to prevent planned large Jewish pogroms in the city between 1917-1919. Petrovsky joined the Red Army in 1919 and eventually became a General of the [[Red Army]] where he was responsible for all military education in the [[Soviet Union]]. General Petrovsky led the Directorate of Military Education in the Red Army from 1919 to 1924 and co-founded the Governmental Committee for the Fight against Antisemitism in Russia and the Soviet Union.

Petrovsky was a member of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the [[Communist International]] from 1924 to 1929 where he was responsible for the formation of communist parties in Great Britain and France. From 1929 to 1937 Petrovsky served as a member of the Presidium of the [[Supreme Soviet of the National Economy]] in the Soviet Union. From 1929 to 1937 he headed the General Directorate of Higher and Secondary Technical Education in the Soviet Union where he was responsible for the creation of several hundred universities and technical schools across the Soviet Union that prepared engineers and technical personnel in the accelerated push for the industrialization of the Soviet Union.

Petrovsky was arrested and executed during [[Josef Stalin|Stalin’s]] [[Great Purge]] in 1937 in Moscow. He was posthumously rehabilitated in the Soviet Union in 1958 as a victim of political repression.

Throughout his life, Petrovsky (Lipetz) used the following names: Goldfarb, Bennett, Humboldt, and Brown. Each of these names corresponds to a specific period of his life and work.

== Biography ==

=== Early life === David Lipetz was born in 1886 in [[Berdychiv]] in a family of a wealthy textile merchant Efraim Lipetz. He studied in a Jewish school and at home with private tutors where he finished the Russian classical [[gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] course. He was the chairman of the literary and theatrical society of [[Berdychiv]]. He soon became interested in revolutionary activities, and in 1902 he joined the [[General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland, and Russia]] (Bund). In 1903 he moved to Paris and enrolled in the Russian Higher School of Social Sciences,<ref>{{Ill|The Russian Higher School of Social Sciences|ru|Русская высшая школа общественных наук}} {{Circular reference|date=July 2021}}</ref> where he became acquainted with many of the famous revolutionaries: [[Vladimir Lenin]], [[Leon Trotsky]], [[Anatoly Lunacharsky]].<ref>Salman Rejsin, ''Lexicon of Yiddish Literature'', Vilna, 1928, Volume 1 (p.p. 485-7)</ref>

At the beginning of the [[1905 Russian Revolution]], he returned to Russia. He worked among workers of Dvinsk, Bialystok, and Gomel, and was one of the leaders of the strike at Libava-Romny railroad. At the 7th Congress of the Bund, where he first used the pseudonym Max Goldfarb, he was elected a candidate for the Central Committee. At the end of 1906, he was arrested by police and spent three months in prison. After that he left Russia - first to England where he participated at the London [[5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]], and then to [[Brussels]], where in 1912 he graduated from the [[Free University of Brussels (1834–1969)|Free University of Brussels]] with a Ph.D. in Economic Sciences (his supervisor was [[Emile Vandervelde]] - the future [[Minister of State]] of [[Belgium]]).<ref>''Official History of the Jewish Labour Bund'', Volume II (New York, 1962)</ref>

Along with his studies, he lectured (as a member of the Bund) in the cities of [[Belgium]] and [[France]]. Back in Russia, he was actively engaged in party work. At the end of 1912, he was arrested in [[Odessa]] and sentenced to exile to Siberia which was then replaced by exile from Russia.

=== Work in the U.S. === [[File:Jewish-Federation-1917.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.3|Leadership of the [[Jewish Socialist Federation]] in 1917. '''Seated (L-R):''' [[Zivion|Ben-Tsien Hofman]] (Tsivion), '''Max Goldfarb''', [[Morris Winchevsky]], A. Litvak, Hannah Salutsky, Moishe Terman. '''Standing:''' [[Shakne Epshtein|Shauchno Epstein]], Frank Rozenblat, [[Baruch Charney Vladeck]], [[Moissaye Joseph Olgin|Moissaye Olgin]], [[Jacob Salutsky]] (J.B.S. Hardman).]]

By agreement between the Central Committee of the Bund and the [[Jewish Socialist Federation]] (JSF) of the [[Socialist Party of America]], in 1913 David Lipetz came to [[New York City]] to conduct work among the Jewish workers and to raise funds for the Bund. In America Lipetz worked and published as Max Goldfarb, and under this name he was elected to the Central Committee of the JSF.

He was sent on a national speaking tour under the auspices of the JSF in early 1914. During the tour he addressed more than 15,000 in about 40 engagements according to the report of JSF Secretary [[J. B. S. Hardman|Jacob Salutsky]].<ref>Jacob Salutsky in ''The Party Builder,'' March 21, 1914, pg. 1.</ref> In addition to his role as a functionary of the JSF, Goldfarb worked as labor editor of [[Abraham Cahan|Abraham Cahan's]] Yiddish-language daily, ''[[The Forward|Forverts]]'' (The Forward).<ref name="draper">Theodore Draper, ''American Communism and Soviet Russia.'' New York: Viking Press, 1957; p. 168</ref>

In the summer 1917 after the bourgeois-democratic [[February Revolution]] in Russia, he returned to Russia with a passport in the name of David Lipetz, on the way he stopped in [[Stockholm]] at the International Socialist Congress.<ref>"Dr. M. Goldfarb Will Return to Russia," ''Advance,'' 18 May 1917, pp. 1-2.</ref><ref>''Stockholm Conference'', The Public. 1917, 29 June, p.p.628-629</ref>

=== A member of the [[Central Council of Ukraine]] and the last mayor of [[Berdichev]] === Upon arrival, David Lipetz was actively involved in the political life of [[Russia]] and [[Ukraine]]: ran for [[Russian Constituent Assembly]] election in 1917, wrote political articles in Bund magazines. He was elected the member of the [[Central Council of Ukraine]], was the member of its Central Executive Committee (Mala Rada).<ref>Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) - fond 495, opis’ 65a, delo 13497, list 12</ref> He was elected the mayor of the city and chairman of the Jewish community of [[Berdichev]] - the city with the largest share of Jewish population in [[Ukraine]] and the [[Russian Empire]]. In January 1919, David Lipetz survived the pogrom committed by [[Haydamak|haidamaks]] from the {{clarify|date=October 2020 |reason=The name Kuren Smerti is ambiguous. There were at least two Cossack military units by that name that committed pogroms in Ukraine in 1919. See talk page for details.|text=''Kuren Smerti'' (Clan of Death)}}, which was passing through Berdichev. As mayor of the city at that time he also managed to prevent a planned multi-day pogrom in Berdichev that saved thousands of lives. He was bitterly disappointed in the policy of the [[Ukrainian People's Republic]] Government, that encouraged Jewish pogroms. Together with Sore Fox and A. Litvak, David Lipetz headed the Social Democratic Bund in Ukraine (Bund SD) after the split of the Bund in Ukraine in 1918 into communists (Kombund) and social democrats (Bund SD).<ref>Joshua Meyers, “A Portrait of Transition: From the Bund to Bolshevism in the Russian Revolution,” Jewish Social Studies n.s. 24, no. 2 (Winter 2019): 107–134. Copyright © 2019 The Trustees of Indiana University. doi: 10.2979/jewisocistud.24.2.09</ref><ref>''Archive of Jewish History'', Volume 8, p.p. 156-177 (Rosspen, Moscow, 2016)</ref>

=== Heading the military education in [[Russia]] and the [[Soviet Union]] === In April 1919, David Lipetz moved to [[Kiev]], where he met with [[Mikhail Frunze|M.V. Frunze]].<ref name="auto">Joshua Meyers, “A Portrait of Transition: From the Bund to Bolshevism in the Russian Revolution,” Jewish Social Studies n.s. 24, no. 2 (Winter 2019): 107–134. Copyright © 2019 The Trustees of Indiana University. doi: 10.2979/jewisocistud.24.2.09.</ref> David Lipetz started working in the [[Red Army]]. He organized the struggle against antisemitism and lectured in the Red Army. At the end of 1919 David Lipetz joined the [[Bolsheviks]]. He was one of the founders and a member of the Governmental Committee for the Fight against Antisemitism in Russia and the Soviet Union. The committee included [[Semyon Dimanstein|S. Dimanstein]], Abram Kheifets, [[Maxim Gorky|M. Gorky]] and other well-known leaders of the revolutionary movement. At the same time David Lipetz entered into a polemic with [[Vladimir Lenin|V. Lenin]] about the policy of the Bolsheviks regarding the participation of the Jewish population of Ukraine in the work of the state authorities.<ref>Brendan McGeever. Antisemitism and the Russian Revolution. — Cambridge University Press, 2019. — p.p. 247.</ref>

From the book of David Petrovsky "Military education in the years of the revolution (1917-1924)": "I was appointed the head of Speakers bureau in the General Directorate of military education (GUVUZ)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://encyclopedia.mil.ru/encyclopedia/dictionary/details_rvsn.htm?id=5376@morfDictionary|title=The General Directorate of military education: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation |website=encyclopedia.mil.ru}}</ref> in fall of 1919. Since the end of 1919 I'm starting to come into contact with the general operational activity of the military educational institutions, first as the head of the political department of GUVUZ (1919 - early 1920), and then as the chief of the General Directorate of military education, from March 1920 to April 1924."

[[File:Совещание командующих военными округами РККА.jpg|thumb|left|Petrovsky at the meeting of the chief commanders of the [[Red Army]] in [[Moscow]], 1922. '''1st row standing:''' 7th [[Boris Shaposhnikov]]. '''1st row sitting (from left to right):''' 1st D.P. Oskin, 2nd [[August Kork]], 3rd N.N. Petin, 4th [[Alexander Yegorov (soldier)]], 5th [[Mikhail Frunze]], 6th [[Sergey Kamenev]], 7th [[Kliment Voroshilov]], 8th [[Pavel Pavlovich Lebedev]], 9th A.A. Iordanskiy, 10th [[Iona Yakir]], 11th David Petrovsky, 12th [[Mikhail Tukhachevsky]].]]

David Lipetz became David Petrovsky, or just General Petrovsky. He was responsible for all Soviet military education from 1920 till 1924. Military education in the [[Russian Empire]] was destroyed by the [[Russian Revolution]] and [[Russian Civil War]]. He had a difficult task of rebuilding it during ongoing civil war and unrest, and preparing a young generation in military academies, colleges, and training centers. Some of Petrovsky's ideas were met with resistance, including his idea for the establishment of Soviet military schools for boys. The time for them came only twenty years later, when the [[Suvorov Military School]]s and the [[Nakhimov Naval School]]s were first opened. His point of view on the problems of a single military doctrine caused a sharp controversy between him and [[Mikhail Frunze]].<ref>Ster Elisavetskiy. ''General Petrovsky biography'', Institute of Jewish Studies, [[Kyiv]], 2002, the [[International Solomon University]], Ukraine</ref> Yet in 1924 [[Mikhail Frunze]] expresses gratitude to him for "the fruitful work done over the matter of raising the military power of the [[Soviet Union]]."<ref>''The Order № 565 of April 15, 1924. The Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Soviet Union M.Frunze'', Military Gazette, number 16, 1924, p. 66</ref>

=== Work in the [[Communist International|Comintern]] === In 1924, David Petrovsky was sent to work in the [[Communist International]] as a Communist International representative in the communist parties of Great Britain, France, and the United States. Petrovsky came to England under the name of Bennett, and everyone - even the British Communists and his future wife [[Rose Cohen (Stalin’s British victim)|Rose Cohen]] considered him American - a Yankee from the [[East Coast of the United States]]. He managed to avoid the British police for five years - a remarkable feat, which no subsequent Comintern representative ever equaled. His influence on the British Communist Party was huge.<ref name="rbt">[[Francis Beckett]]: ''[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jun/24/russia.bookextracts Rose between thorns]'', ''[[The Guardian]]'', United Kingdom, June 24, 2004</ref> Western intelligence agencies didn't manage to declassify him. In France, he was known as Humboldt, and he had passports in other names as well. He led the Anglo-American Secretariat and controlled the communist movements in Great Britain, Ireland, the U.S., India, South Africa, Canada, Japan, Korea and [[Dutch Indonesia]]. He was concerned about the situation of black people in the U.S. and [[South Africa]]. In 1928, Petrovsky was elected and served as a member of the presidium of the [[Executive Committee of the Communist International]] . "God Goldfarb" - called him old friends in the U.S.<ref>''Archive of Jewish history'', Volume 7, (p.p. 225-241)</ref>

=== Heading the higher and secondary technical education in [[Russia]] and the [[Soviet Union]] === In 1929 D.Petrovsky was transferred to the [[Supreme Soviet of the National Economy]] - a member of the Presidium and the Chief of the General Directorate of Higher and Secondary Technical Education (GLAVVTUZ). His experience in organizing and managing military education (1920-1924) after the revolution in 1917 in Russia was very useful.<ref>''Labour list of D.Petrovsky'', Main Archival Administration of the Soviet Union, Ministry of Internal Affairs, letter number 2284 of 08/04/1958</ref> One of his new tasks was to prepare 435,000 engineers and technicians in 5 years (1930-1935) during the [[Soviet Union]] industrialization period, while their number in 1929 was 66,000.<ref>[https://alkruglov.narod.ru/z-petrovsk.pdf David Petrovsky “A reconstruction of engineering and technical education” 1930]</ref>

His old party comrades didn't believe that he would succeed with higher and secondary technical education in the [[Soviet Union]], because as a former Bundist, he wouldn't dare to hire former [[Mensheviks]], [[Socialist Revolutionary Party]] members, the former right-wing and the Trotskyists (see:[[Trotskyism]]), as he could safely hire and appoint only those who knew how to vote according to party lines but not necessarily work.

But he once again proved them wrong. One of the strategies he used in the early 1930s was opening smaller branch institutes on the basis of large multi-faculty educational institutions. For example, on the basis of the Moscow Mining Academy - Moscow Mining Institute ([[Moscow State Mining University]]): Geological Prospecting Institute ([[Russian State Geological Prospecting University]]), Moscow Oil Institute ([[Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas]]), Institute of Steel ([[National University of Science and Technology MISIS|National University of Science and Technology MISiS]]), Institute of Nonferrous Metals and Gold. On the basis of [[Bauman Moscow State Technical University]] - [[Moscow Aviation Institute]], [[Moscow Power Engineering Institute]], Moscow University of Civil Engineering, and other institutions in the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>S.I. Zinoviev, V.B. Panov, A.G. Gorshenev.''Higher education institutions'', Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition, 1969-1978</ref> From 1930 to 1940, the number of higher and secondary technical colleges and institutions in the [[Soviet Union]] grew by 4 times and exceeded 150.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.socioprognoz.ru/files/File/publ/Inkzenerno_technicheckoe.pdf|title=A.L Arefiev, M.A. Arefiev Engineering and technical education in Russia in figures. 2012|access-date=2017-06-19|archive-date=2017-01-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110155000/http://www.socioprognoz.ru/files/File/publ/Inkzenerno_technicheckoe.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

David Petrovsky was aware of the danger emerging in the Soviet Union following the murder of [[Sergei Kirov]] in 1934, the assassination functioned as the catalyst for the [[Great Purge]].<ref name="auto"/>

In the summer of 1936, his London-born wife [[Rose Cohen (Stalin’s British victim)|Rose Cohen]] went to London but was not permitted to make the trip with her son Alyosha, so he stayed behind. Her sister Nellie thought that Rose was "unhappy, and had it not been for Alyosha might not have returned".<ref name=Beckett>[[Francis Beckett]]: ''[[Stalin]]'s British Victims'' (Routledge, 2004) p.55, p.184 ISBN 9781138947412</ref>

At that time David Petrovsky planned a business trip to America and got permission to travel abroad from his supervisor [[Sergo Ordzhonikidze]] - the head of the [[Supreme Soviet of the National Economy]] and the head of the [[People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry]] of the [[Soviet Union]]. Sergo Ordzhonikidze, who knew [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] closely, more than anyone else, saw what was happening in the country. Anticipating his fate, he wanted to save D. Petrovsky from the [[Great Purge|Stalin's terror]] and understood that he most likely would not return from a business trip. It seems that David and Rosa hoped to use their travels as an opportunity to leave almost simultaneously from the country and be saved. However, they had failed to acquire an exit visa for their son, and unwilling to leave without him, they remained in the Soviet Union.<ref name="auto"/>

=== Arrest and execution === In February 1937, Sergo Ordzhonikidze died. In March 1937, David Petrovsky was arrested (as the head of the General Directorate of higher and secondary technical education in the [[People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry]] of the [[Soviet Union]]), and was accused for "counterrevolutionary" activity, and shot on September 10, 1937. In August 1937, his London-born wife [[Rose Cohen (Stalin’s British victim)|Rose Cohen]], a former Comintern courier, was arrested as an alleged British spy, and on November 28, 1937, she was also shot (rehabilitated in the [[Soviet Union]] in 1956). [[Rose Cohen (Stalin’s British victim)|Rose Cohen]] was the head of the foreign department and the editor in the "Moscow Daily News" ([[The Moscow News]]) newspaper. Their seven-year-old son Alexey Petrovsky (Alyosha) was placed in an orphanage with the label "son of the enemies of the people."

=== Political rehabilitation and family ===

After the [[20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (1956), Petrovsky's only son filed an appeal to review his case, and on January 25, 1958, the Military Collegium of the [[Soviet Union]] Supreme Court invalidated the September 10, 1937 ruling against Petrovsky. All charges were dropped and the case was dismissed for lack of corpus delicti. Petrovsky was posthumously rehabilitated as a victim of political repression.<ref>'' The Central Archive'', [[Federal Security Service]], [[Russia]]</ref> He married [[Rose Cohen (Stalin’s British victim)|Rose Cohen]](1894-1937) a British [[feminist]] and [[suffragist]], a founder member of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]].<ref name=Beckett/> David Petrovsky and [[Rose Cohen (Stalin’s British victim)|Rose Cohen]] had a son – Alexey Petrovsky (Alyosha). Alexey spent three years living in the orphanage after his parents' execution in 1937. In 1940 he was adopted from the orphanage by David Petrovsky's cousin Rebecca Belkina, a doctor, and a major of armed forces medical service during the [[Second World War]]. She succeeded in getting permission for Alyosha's adoption when she lived with her family in a political exile in [[Tobolsk]], [[Siberia]] under the [[Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code)|Article 58 of the Soviet Penal Code]]. Alexey spent the rest of his childhood living in [[Siberia]] with her and her family. Afterward, many years later, Alexey D. Petrovsky (1929–2010)<ref name=Beckett/> earned a Ph.D. in Engineering, Ph.D. in Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, and became an Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. Their grandson, Michael A. Petrovsky,<ref name=Beckett/> holds a Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics.

== Proceedings == David Petrovsky is the author of many publications, including more than ten monographs. The most significant works: * ''Military education in the years of the revolution (1917-1924)'', M. 1924. * ''The revolution and the counterrevolution in Ukraine'', M. 1920. * ''Capitalism and socialism (from [[Thomas More]] to [[Lenin]])'', M. 1920 - the book is stored in the memorial office-library of [[Lenin]] in the [[Moscow Kremlin]], [[Russia]]. * ''The class struggle in postwar England'', M. 1928.

== Memory == Honorary cadet of the [[Moscow Higher Military Command School]] of the [[Russian Armed Forces]].

== References == {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category-inline}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrovsky, David}} [[Category:1886 births]] [[Category:1937 deaths]] [[Category:People from Berdychiv]] [[Category:People from Berdichevsky Uyezd]] [[Category:Bundists]] [[Category:Jews from the Russian Empire]] [[Category:Members of the Socialist Party of America]] [[Category:Socialist Party of America politicians from New York (state)]] [[Category:Great Purge victims from Russia]] [[Category:Jews executed by the Soviet Union]] [[Category:Russian people of Jewish descent]]