21 Facts About Nikolay Krestinsky

Nikolay Nikolayevich Krestinsky was a Soviet Bolshevik revolutionary and politician who served as the Responsible Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Nikolay Krestinsky became a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903, and two years later he supported Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction following the RSDLP split.

Nikolay Krestinsky was named People's Commissar for Finance and elected to the first Politburo.

Nikolay Krestinsky was an ally of Leon Trotsky and supported the Left Opposition.

Nikolay Krestinsky eventually repudiated his opposition and capitulated to Stalin.

Nikolay Krestinsky was arrested in 1937 in the Great Purge and charged with treason.

Nikolay Krestinsky was found guilty in the 1938 Trial of the Twenty-One and executed.

Nikolay Krestinsky was born in the town of Mogilev, in what is Mogilev Region of Belarus in to the family of a teacher.

Nikolay Krestinsky was educated at the Vilno Gymnasium and studied law at St Petersburg University.

Nikolay Krestinsky was arrested in Vilno in 1904, then again in St Petersburg in February 1905, but was released both times, pending a trial.

Nikolay Krestinsky was arrested again, twice, during the 1905 revolution, but released under an amnesty.

In January 1918, during the dispute over whether to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to take Russia out of the war, Nikolay Krestinsky was one of just two members of the Central Committee to vote to reject the treaty and fight a 'revolutionary war' with Germany, but in March 1918, to avoid a split that might have driven Lenin, he ended his opposition.

In March 1921, after the early death of Yakov Sverdlov, Nikolay Krestinsky received a sudden promotion to the post of Secretary of the Central Committee.

Nikolay Krestinsky was elected a member of the original five-member Politburo, and of the first Orgburo At first, he was the only Central Committee secretary.

Nikolay Krestinsky was Soviet ambassador in Germany from 1921 to 1930.

In March 1937, early in the Great Purge, Nikolay Krestinsky was suddenly transferred to the post of USSR Deputy People's Commissar for Justice.

Nikolay Krestinsky went on to 'confess' that he was a German agent, and that he had met Trotsky in the Tyrol resort of Merano in October 1933 to receive instructions on sabotage.

Nikolay Krestinsky was sentenced to death and executed on 15 March 1938.

Nikolay Krestinsky was cleared of all charges during Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika reforms.

Nikolay Krestinsky was a man of outstanding intelligence, discretion and courage.

Nikolay Krestinsky was astoundingly myopic, so that his shrewd eyes, hidden behind lenses a quarter of an inch thick, seemed to have a timid expression.