Born in Moscow into the family of a railway worker. In 1901 became a student at the University of Moscow. As one of the organisers of student unrest in 1902 he was excluded from the university. In 1903 he became a Bolshevik. Participant of the revolution of 1905-1907. Led the Bolshevik faction in the Fourth State Duma, was arrested and exiled to Siberia.
At the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets he was elected chairman of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee. As he did not share the political views of the majority of members of the Central Committee he left it at the beginning of November 1917 and resigned from his post in the All-Russia Central Executive Committee.
L.B. Kamenev came to head the Moscow Soviet during the peak of the Civil War, and did much to improve its running and to support the city's vital functions. On his initiative an aid programme for the creative intelligentsia was carried out and the functioning of publishing houses, libraries and theatres encouraged in all possible ways.
With the end of the Civil War the Moscow Soviet faced new tasks. In order to strengthen ties between the capital and the province a new single organ of power—the Moscow Soviet of Workers', Peasants' and Red Armymen's Deputies—was created in June 1920 at ajoint session of the Plenum of the City Soviet and the 12th Congress of the Moscow Gubernia Soviet. The Moscow City Soviet still played the main role in the organisational structure of the newly created Soviet. The Gubernia Congress of Soviets (and in between Congresses the Plenums of the Moscow Soviet) was declared the highest body of power. The executive organ of the congresses and plenums was the Executive Committee of the Soviet. Its functions included taking decisions and exerting control over all resolutions adopted by the congresses and plenums. The operational organ of the Executive Committee was the Presidium, which was elected at its first session. In accordance with a resolution of the Moscow Soviet's Executive Committee adopted on 22 October 1920 the Moscow District Soviet also merged with the Moscow Soviet.
Under the leadership of Kamenev the Moscow Soviet energetically joined the restoration of the city's economy, the introduction of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in the province and the organisation of housebuilding.
The increase in the Moscow Soviet's authority and its transformation into the real master of the city was also promoted by the fact that its chairman was simultaneously deputy chairman of the Councils of People's Commissars of the Russian Federation and of the USSR (in 1924-1926 chairman of the Soviet of Labour and Defence) and a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
In 1925-1927 Kamenev was one of the leaders of the left-wing opposition within the Central Committee of the Ail-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), and thereafter repeatedly excluded from party ranks, arrested and exiled. In August 1936 he was convicted on fabricated charges and executed. Rehabilitated in 1988.
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