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Nikolai Bukharin

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Politician

The Resume

    (October 9, 1888-March 15, 1938)
    Born in Moscow, Russia
    Bolshevik revolutionary
    Editor of 'Pravda' (1918-29)
    Politburo member (1919-29)
    General Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Comintern (1926-29)
    Co-author of 'The ABCs of Communism' (1920)
    During the Great Purge, was tried on charges of conspiring to overthrow the Soviet state
    Found guilty and executed by firing squad
    Posthumously rehabilitated (1988)

Why he might be annoying:

    His first wife, Nadezhda, was also his cousin.
    He changed political positions frequently.
    Leon Trotsky wrote, 'Bukharin's nature is such that he must always attach himself to someone. He then becomes, in such circumstances, nothing more than a medium for someone else's actions and speeches.'
    He helped Stalin remove Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev from power, then, when Stalin started to turn on him, he contacted Zinoviev and Kamenev about allying to get rid of Stalin.
    He had a chance to escape when he was sent (with his third wife Anna) to Paris to negotiate the purchase of the Marx and Engels archive (1936); he returned, saying that he could not live outside the Soviet Union.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was a talented enough cartoonist that artist Konstantin Yuon told him, 'Forget about politics.... Painting is your real calling.'
    Lenin 'borrowed' from his work to write 'Imperialism: The Highest State of Capitalism.' (1917)
    In opposing Stalin's farm collectivization policy, he accurately predicted that forced grain requisitions would prove counterproductive.
    Novelist Romain Rolland wrote to Stalin asking for leniency, arguing, 'An intellect like that of Bukharin is a treasure for his country.'

Credit: C. Fishel


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Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 14 Votes: 92.86% Annoying