Iu Larin

Larin, Iu 

(pseudonym of Mikhail Zal’manovich [Aleksandrovich] Lur’e). Born June 17 (29), 1882, in Simferopol’; died Jan. 14, 1932, in Moscow. Figure of the revolutionary movement, economist, man of letters. The son of a member of the intelligentsia.

Larin began his involvement in the revolutionary movement in Odessa in 1900. During 1901 and 1902 he headed the Social Democratic organization in Simferopol’ and was one of the organizers of the Crimean Union of the RSDLP. He was arrested a number of times and in 1902 was exiled to Yakutia. He escaped from exile in 1904 and emigrated to Geneva, where he sided with the Mensheviks. In 1905 he returned to Russia. During 1906 and 1907 he directed the work of the regional Social Democratic organization in Kiev. He was a delegate to the Fourth (1906) and Fifth (1907) Congresses of the RSDLP. From 1907 to1909 Larin was secretary of the Union of Mechanical Workers of the Petroleum Industry. From 1909 to 1912 he engaged in literary activity. During the years of reaction and the new rise in the revolutionary movement, he was a Liquidator and participated in the antiparty August bloc. During World War I he was an Internationalist and lived outside of Russia. After the February Revolution of 1917, he headed the groupof Menshevik Internationalists who published the journal Internatsional. He was a member of the executive committee of the Petrograd soviet. In August 1917 he joined the Bolshevik Party. After the October Revolution of 1917, he worked in committees and commissions of the Supreme Council on the National Economy and dealt with finances, nationalization of trade, and the creation of sovkhozes. He was a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Council on the National Economy. He was a delegate to the Seventh through Ninth and Thirteenth and Fourteenth Congresses of the party. Larin was a member and candidatemember of several convocations of the Central Executive Committee and of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. He wrote books, pamphlets, and articles on the history of the party and the Soviet state and on questions of the socialist economy. He is buried in Red Square by the Kremlin wall.