Johannes Käspert

Born May 9 (21), 1886; died Nov. 11, 1937. Member of the revolutionary movement in Estonia. Member of the Communist Party (1912).

Born in Narva, Käspert was the son of a worker; he became an office worker. Käspert was one of the founders and the publisher of the Bolshevik newspaper Kiir (The Ray; 1912–14), in Narva; he later engaged in party work in Tallinn. Arrested in April 1916 and exiled to Kustanai District, he was freed during the February Revolution of 1917 and elected member of the Tallinn Committee of the RSDLP (Bolshevik). He directed the publication of Bolshevik newspapers in Estonia and later became a member of the Executive Committee of the Soviet of Estlandia Krai and commissar on affairs of the press. In March 1918,

Käspert began work in the Pravda Publishing House and in the People’s Commissariat of Nationalities. In November 1918 he became a member of the government and people’s commissar of internal affairs of the Estlandia Labor Commune. In 1919 he joined the staff of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and worked in organs of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission and the Unified State Political Directorate (OGPU). In 1925, Käspert became executive secretary of the Istpart (Commission on Party History) of the Central Committee of the Estonian CP. In 1927 he began party work in Leningrad, and in 1930 became secretary of the Estonian section of the Comintern in Leningrad.