Nikolai Kardashev

Born Oct. 27, 1873, in Moscow; died early in 1920 in Omsk. Revolutionary. Became a member of the Communist Party in 1897. The son of a sales clerk. He studied at the department of physics and mathematics of Moscow University.

In 1897, Kardashev was arrested in connection with the affair of the Moscow Workers’ Union and exiled to Voronezh, where he joined a Social Democratic group. He was one of the founders of the Northern Union of the RSDLP and managed a printing press, the shipment of illegal literature, and the system of secret addresses. During the Revolution of 1905–07, he was a deputy of the Voronezh soviet, and during the strike of June 1914 in Baku, he was chairman of the strike committee. He was repeatedly subjected to government repression. Active in the February and October revolutions of 1917, he was chairman of the Voronezh province committee of the party. After the establishment of Soviet power, he was commissar of labor, chairman of the Voronezh provincial soviet for the economy, and chairman of the provincial executive committee of the soviet. He was a delegate to the Seventh (April) Conference of the RSDLP (Bolshevik) and to the Sixth and Eighth Congresses of the party.