Zinoviev was one of Lenin’s closest associates, co-authoring Lenin’s Against the Tide. Though a member of the Party’s central government, he was opposed to one-party rule which brought him into conflict with other leaders. After Lenin’s death he formed the triumvirate together with Stalin and Kamenev which forced Trotsky into exile.
Stalin then turned on him. Zinoviev was accused in a show trial of plotting to overthrow Stalin. Along with many other Communist leaders he was executed.
Zinoviev was Jewish and born by the name of Hersh Zvi Radomyslski.
– after Eli Birnbaum
(b. 1883, Yelizavetgrad, Russian Empire; d. 1936, Moscow, Soviet Union)