Borodin (Gruzenberg), Michael Markovitsch
BORODIN (Gruzenberg), MICHAEL MARKOVITSCH
BORODIN (Gruzenberg), MICHAEL MARKOVITSCH (1884–1951), Russian communist politician. Born in Yanowitski, Belorussia, Borodin joined the Bund in 1901 but left it for the Bolshevik party two years later. In 1906 he went to England and in the following year to the U.S., where he became a member of the American Socialist Party. Borodin returned to Russia after the October Revolution of 1917 and worked for the Comintern. In 1922 he left for Britain again and was arrested in Glasgow. He was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for incitement and was then deported. From 1923 to 1927 Borodin was an adviser to Sun Yat-Sen, leader of the central committee of the Kuomintang, in China, where he was held in high esteem. When in 1927 the Kuomintang came under the domination of its right wing, led by Chiang Kai-Shek, Borodin was arrested and forced to leave the country. He went back to Russia to become deputy commissar for labor, but after 1932 he spent most of his time working as a journalist. He successively served as deputy director of the Tass news agency, editor in chief of the Soviet Information Bureau, and editor of Moscow News. In 1951 he fell victim to Stalin's reign of terror and was condemned to death. His reputation was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956.
bibliography:
Sovetskaya istoricheskaya entsiklopediya, 5 (1964), 43.