Grigori Sokolnikov
1888 – 1939 Russian Soviet finance commissar
The finance chief who tamed Soviet inflation, then died in the purges.
- Religion
- Born to a Jewish family; a militant atheist.
- Affiliations
- Bolshevik Party; finance commissar who stabilized the currency; later a purge defendant.
Sokolnikov signed the Brest-Litovsk peace with Germany and later, as finance commissar, ended runaway inflation by creating a gold-backed currency. He drifted into opposition to Stalin and was convicted in a 1937 show trial. He was killed in prison in 1939.
Connections
- rival of Joseph Stalin — Condemned in a show trial and killed in prison.
- associate of Leon Trotsky — Linked to the opposition Stalin used to destroy him.