Ivan Nikitich Smirnov (1881 - 1936), Russian Communist Party activist

Ivan Nikitich Smirnov (1881 - 1936), Russian Communist Party activist. In 1899, Smirnov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and became a Bolshevik. Smirnov played a pivotal role in defeating the army of Alexander Kolchak. In 1920-1923, Smirnov was a member of the Executive Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). In July 1923, Smirnov was appointed People's Commissar for Soviet Postal Services and Telegraph. In 1923, Smirnov became a proactive member of the Trotskyist opposition. In October 1923 and then in 1927, Smirnov signed the oppositionary "Declaration of 46" and "Declaration of the Eighty-three", which later would seriously affect his position in the party ranks and his life. After Lenin's death, Smirnov publicly insisted on deposition of Joseph Stalin from the post of the secretary general. On November 11, 1927, Smirnov was removed from his People's Commissar post. On April 14, 1933, he was sentenced to five years of labour camps. Still incarcerated, Smirnov was brought to trial as a defendant in the "United Anti-Soviet Trotskyite-Zinovievite Centre" case and sentenced to death on August 24, 1936. He was executed the next day