Alexander Pavlovich Helfgot (Russian: Александр Павлович Гельфгот, 1887 – 25 April 1938) was a Russian Socialist-Revolutionary politician and economist.[1] He was a prominent Socialist-Revolutionary figure from 1917 to 1922. Arrested in 1922, he spent 17 years in prisons or internal exile before being executed in 1938.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Alexander_Helfgot_and_family_%28approx._1929%29.jpg/220px-Alexander_Helfgot_and_family_%28approx._1929%29.jpg)
Early life
Alexander Helfgot was born in 1887.[2][3] His father was Pavel Grigorevich Helfgot, born around 1861 in a Jewish family from Tiflis, who had been arrested in 1885 by the Warsaw Governorate Gendarmerie in connection with the Second Proletariat case.[4][5] Alexander Helfgot grew up in Rostov-on-Don.[3] He joined the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries in 1904.[6]
Political career
In 1915-1916, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the All-Russian Labour Bureau, which was set up under the section for placement of refugees of the All-Russian Union of Cities.[2]
As of 1917, he was one of the editors of the newspaper Trud ('Labour'), the organ of the Moscow Committee of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries.[2][1] He was elected to the Moscow City Duma in 1917.[7] As of 1919, he was a member of the Yekaterinodar Governorate Committee of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries.[2][1][8] In 1920, he was inducted into the Central Bureau of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries.[2] The Central Bureau was a party leadership body formed after the entire Central Committee had been arrested, albeit the Central Bureau members were soon also arrested.[9]
Arrest
On 23 March, 1921, Helfgot was arrested on Nikolsky Lane[2][1][6] He was detained at Butyrka prison.[2] Whilst in prison, Helfgot wrote an essay about the Cheka titled Korabl smerti ('Ship of Death').[1] The text was smuggled out of Russia and published by the exiled Central Committee of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries in Berlin in 1922.[3][8]
in Moscow.On 24 February 1922, the Presidium of the GPU included him in the list of Socialist-Revolutionaries who, in connection with the Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries, were charged with anti-Soviet activities.[2] He was a witness for the defense at the trial.[6] On 18 December 1922, an NKVD commission sentenced him to three years imprisonment for anti-Soviet actions and he was sent to a prison camp in Arkhangelsk.[6]
Years in internal exile
As of 1930, he was serving his "minus six" period of exile in Kokand. He was arrested and charged with organization of Socialist-Revolutionary activities and foreign connections.[6] On 3 January 1931, the Special Department of the OGPU Collegium decreed that he be exiled to Ust-Sysolsk. In 1933, his site of exile was shifted to Vologda.[6] In February of that year, a two-year extension of his exile was issued.[6]
Great Terror
Helfgot was arrested by the NKVD in Vologda on 8 February 1937. The indictment was signed off by Major Sergei Zhupakhin[6] Helfgot was sentenced and executed on 25 April 1938.[1][6]
, Head of the NKVD Department in Vologda. Helfgot was accused of having tried to reorganize the Socialist-Revolutionary movement after arriving in Vologda. The NKVD investigation lasted for over one year.