Grigory Petrovsky

Grigory Ivanovich Petrovsky (Григо́рий Ива́нович Петро́вский, Григо́рій Іва́нович Петро́вський) (3 February 1878 – 9 January 1958) was a Ukrainian Soviet politician and Old Bolshevik. He participated in signing the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Petrovsky was Communist Party leader in Ukraine until 1938, and one of the officials responsible for implementing Stalin's policy of collectivization. Petrovsky was born in the village of Pechenihy in Kharkov Governorate on 3 February (Old Style - 22 January) 1878, in the family of a craftsman (some sources claim - son of tailor and laundrywoman). Grigory's father died when he was three. Petrovsky had two siblings. After finishing two classes of school at the Kharkiv Theological Seminary in 1889, Petrovsky was dismissed for not being able to pay for his tuition. Being 11 years old he left education for a job in the city working for a locomotive depot. In 1893, aged 15, he arrived in Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipro) where he found a job at the Bryansk Metallurgical Factory (today Petrovsky Factory). In 1895 Petrovsky joined the revolutionary movement and in 1898 enrolled in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDRP) and joined the "Union in the fight for the liberation of the worker's class" as well as the Yekaterinslav committee of RSDRP. At this period of time he actively participated in the political agitation for the Bolsheviks from Mykolaiv to Mariupol, from Donets basin to Kharkiv, for which he was arrested in 1900 and 1903. During the Russian Revolution of 1905 Petrovsky became one of the organizers and leaders of the Yekaterinoslav City Council of Worker's Deputies and the local Battle Strike Committee. However, he soon was forced to flee and for a brief period of time emigrated to Germany. In 1907 he returned to Mariupol where he worked as a turning specialist and continued his revolutionary activity at the factory "Russian Providence" (today - part of Ilyich Steel & Iron Works).