Full Name: Lev Borisovich Kamenev ( Лев Борисович Каменев )
Family Name: Lev Borisovich Rosenfeld (Лев Борисович Розенфельд)

Gender: Male
Profession: Politician
Born: July 18, 1883

Birth Place: Moscow, Russian Empire
Died: August 25, 1936(aged 53)
Death Place: Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Cause of Death: Execution

Citizenship: Soviet
Nationality: Russian, Soviet Union
Ethnicity: Jewish people
Religion: Atheism
Party: Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Premier: Vladimir Lenin, Alexei Rykov
Education: Moscow State University

Spouse: Tatiana Glebova (m. 1928–1936)
Children: Alexander L. Kamenev, Yuri Kamenev, Vladimir Glebov
Lev Borisovich Kamenev (1883-1936) was a Soviet politician and one of the early leaders of the Bolshevik party. He played a key role in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and was a member of the first Soviet government. Kamenev was also one of the leaders of the Left Opposition, a group of Bolsheviks who opposed Joseph Stalin's leadership and policies.

Kamenev was arrested and executed during the Great Purge, a period of intense political repression in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. Despite his contributions to the Bolshevik Revolution, Kamenev was largely written out of Soviet history and is not widely known today. However, he remains an important figure in the history of the Soviet Union and the Bolshevik movement.

1. Kamenev was born in the city of Moscow, Russia in 1883.

2. He joined the Bolshevik party in 1903 and became a close associate of Vladimir Lenin.

3. Kamenev was one of the main leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and was a member of the first Soviet government.

4. He served as the Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union in 1917 and as the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs from 1917-1918.

5. Kamenev was a prominent member of the Left Opposition, a group of Bolsheviks who opposed Joseph Stalin's policies and leadership.

6. He was expelled from the Communist Party in 1927 and was later arrested and imprisoned during the Great Purge.

7. Kamenev was one of the defendants in the Moscow Trials of 1936, in which he was charged with plotting to overthrow the Soviet government.

8. He was executed on August 25, 1936, along with several other members of the Left Opposition.

9. Kamenev's wife and sons were also arrested and executed during the Great Purge.

10. Despite his contributions to the Bolshevik Revolution, Kamenev's name was largely erased from Soviet history and he remains a largely unknown figure in modern times.


The Russian politician Lev Borisovich Kamenev was born in Moscow on 18th July 1883. He was a leader of the prerevolutionary Social Democratic movement and a major official in the Soviet government and Communist party after 1917. Kamenev was charged with forming a terrorist organization to murder Stalin. He was executed in Moscow on the 25th of August 1936.

Early Life: The Russian politician Lev Borisovich Kamenev's family name was Rosenfeld, the son of a Jewish engine driver on the Moscow Kursk Railway and a Russian Orthodox housewife who was born in Moscow, Russian Empire on 18th July 1883. The wealth that his father had acquired in the building of the Baku-Batumi railway was used to fund a good education for Lev Kamenev became a professional revolutionary, joining the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party (1901) and its Bolshevik faction (1903). He went to the boy's Gymnasium in Tiflis, Georgia (now Tbilisi),  and attended Moscow University, but his education was interrupted by an arrest in 1902.

Kamenev soon moved to Russia where he met Vladimir Lenin and they moved together to Geneva, Switzerland. At the second congress of the social democratic party in London (1903), there was a disagreement between two of the party’s main leaders, Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov. Kamenev then argued for a small professional revolutionary party with a large amount of non-party sympathizers and supporters. In 1914 Lenin sent him back to Russia, but when Kamenev directed the Bolshevik delegates to the Duma (Russian parliament) to oppose Russia’s participation in World War I, he was arrested and exiled to Siberia (November 1914).

Later Life: On March 25, 1917, Kamenev returned to St. Petersburg (renamed Petrograd in 1914) from Siberian exile. Kamenev and Central Committee members Joseph Stalin and Matvei Muranov took control of the revived Bolshevik Pravda and moved it to the Right, with Kamenev formulating a policy of conditional support of the newly formed Russian Provisional Government and reconciliation with the Mensheviks. After Lenin's return to Russia on 3 April 1917, Kamenev briefly resisted Lenin's anti-government April Theses, but soon fell in line and supported Lenin until September. Thus, he became the first chairman of the revolutionary Central Executive of Soviets (1917) and, later, chairman of the Council of Peoples' Commissars (1919). In addition, he was a member (1919-1925) of the Politburo (executive committee) of the party and held dominant positions in the local party apparatus of the city of Moscow.

When Lenin became seriously ill (1922), Kamenev joined Stalin and Zinoviev to form the ruling triumvirate, which politically attacked the commissar for war, Leon Trotsky, thus eliminating him from contention for power. When Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, no single personality immediately succeeded in his position of leadership. Instead, a triumvirate of leaders, Grigory Zinoviev, Joseph Stalin, and Kamenev, combined to prevent the strongest individual claimant, Leon Trotsky, from succeeding to power. In 1925 Joseph Stalin switched his support from Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev to Bukharin and now began advocating the economic policies of Bukharin, Mikhail Tomsky, and Alexei Rykov. By 1926-1927 Kamenev held the relatively insignificant position of ambassador to Italy. This was followed by exclusion, readmission, and, again, exclusion from the party (1927-1932).

Death: In 1935 Kamenev was arrested and charged with involvement in the assassination of Sergey Kirov. After being found guilty he was sentenced to 10 years in jail and the next year after that, Kamenev was charged with forming a terrorist organization to murder Stalin. He was executed in Moscow on the 25th of August 1936.