ZINOVIEV, GRIGORI

(1883-1936)

Russian communist leader. Born in Radomyslski in Kirovograd, he joined the Russian Social Democratic Party in Switzerland in 1901. He was a delegate to the party's congress in Stockholm in 1906. He was exiled in 1908 and became one of Lenin's close collaborators. In 1917 he and Lenin returned to Russia. After the revolution, he was a member of the party's central commitee, and became chairman of the Lenin soviet party. In 1922 he became a member of the Politburo. Following Lenin's death in 1924, he became part of the triumvirate that ruled the Soviet Union.