Pyotr Smidovich speaks on May Day in Moscow, 1918

Photos of Revolutionary Russia #29

Pyotr Smidovich speaks on May Day in Moscow, 1918 -- Photos of Revolutionary Russia #29

Smidovich was the Chairman of the Moscow Soviet at the time and was addressing the crowd from the balcony of the Moscow City Council building. Later in the 1920s he went on to work for the Anti-Religious Commission and to head Komzet, (the Committee for the Settlement of Working Jews on the Land) which worked to help poor Jews escape the persecution of the past through agriculture and other assistance programs. He was instrumental in the creation of the Jewish autonomous region in the USSR.

Smidovich died in Moscow in April, 1935 and is buried in Red Square.