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Birthday anniversary of Nikolai M. Nemtsov, a member of the revolutionary movement in Russia, a Soviet party and statesman
16 (28) April 1879, Nikolai M. Nemtsov, a Bolshevik revolutionary, an active participant in the 1905 revolution, and a participant in the formation of Soviet power in Tobolsk province, was born in Tula in a large family of a gunsmith worker.
N. Nemtsov graduated from the village school and at the age of 13 began working at an armory as an locksmith's assistant. In 1897 at the age of 17, he began to attend a social democratic circle, in which he received the nickname "Makar". Under this name, he conducted propaganda among workers, first in Tula, and then in St. Petersburg at a Metal factory. In the capital, he maintained close liaison with M. I. Kalinin (the future chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR), who worked at the Putilov factory at that time.
During the revolution of 1905-1907, N. Nemtsov continued to actively conduct anti-government propaganda as a party organizer of Polyustrovsky subdistrict of Vyborg side. In 1905 he became a deputy of the St. Petersburg Council from the Metal Factory, a member of the Executive Committee of the St. Petersburg Council. His work was encouraged by the workers of the largest factories in the city. After the first arrest in 1905, The Executive Committee sent a delegation to the police with an ultimatum: unless N. Nemtsov is not released, all enterprises in St. Petersburg are not operating. Then the police decided to release him, but in December 1905 he was arrested again and exiled to Obdorsk (modern Salekhard).
In this city, N. Nemtsov created a fishing artel of political exiles, opened a locksmith workshop, and conducted propaganda work. In the autumn of 1907, he prepared the escape of one of the exiles, and in 1908 he organized a May Day demonstration, which was attended by both exiles and locals of Obdorsk. Fearing the influence of N. Nemtsov on the community, local authorities got to transfer him to Tobolsk. In this city, he worked in various institutions: as a laundry worker, as an extra at the theater.
After the February Revolution, he returned to Petrograd, where he was elected to the Central Council of Factory Committees. Also he joined the Petrograd Committee of the RSDLP(b). Later, he was sent by the Central Committee of the party to the front line for propaganda work among the soldiers.
In the summer of 1917, N. Nemtsov was sent to Tobolsk Governorate, where he formed the Bolshevik groups of the RSDLP(b) in Tyumen (July 1917) and in Tobolsk (September 1917). In December 1917, at the organizational meeting of the Bolsheviks, he was elected a member of the party committee of the RSDLP(b). After the decision to move the center of the governorate from Tobolsk to Tyumen at the first meeting of the provincial conference of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, held on April 5 (March 23) 1918, N. Nemtsov was elected chairman of the Executive Committee of the Tobolsk (Tyumen) Provincial Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.
In 1918, by decision of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b), he was sent to Tula, where became chairman of the Tula City Executive Committee. In November, Nemtsov was elected a delegate to the VI All-Russian Congress of Soviets and elected a member of the Central Executive Committee. In March 1919 he was delegated to the VIII Congress of the RCP(b).
In 1919, he was sent as a special commissioner of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) to Tambov, where a peasant uprising was raging. At the end of January 1921, he headed the Tambov Gubernatorial Committee of the party. N. Nemtsov believed that the peasant uprising could be stopped by economic methods, namely, to remove the surplus from the entire region, which ravaged all the grain stocks from the peasants. Nemtsov was a maximalist, this was reflected in his relationship with the chairman of the gubernatorial executive committee, A. Shlichter. Schlichter was a hardliner against the peasantry, who considered the position of the gubernatorial party to be "capitulative". In February 1921, the situation in Tambov province was discussed at the Politbureau of the Central Committee. Before the meeting, V.I. Lenin met with N. Nemtsov and the peasants of the Tambov province. As a result, Nemtsov's work was approved. Thus, the surplus tax – the main contradiction between the peasants and the Soviet government – was abolished and replaced by a food tax.
The next period of Nemtsov's life was connected with the judicial authorities in Moscow: he held the positions of a member of the Board of the People's Commissariat of Justice, a member of the Supreme Courts of the RSFSR and the USSR, chairman of the Moscow Regional Court, deputy Chairman of the Commission on Private Amnesties at the Central Executive Committee, head of the secretariat of the Central Executive Committee, a member of the Moscow Control Commission.
Nemtsov fought for the strengthening of the rule of law in the country, spoke out against unjustified repression. As a result, he was himself arrested and shot on November 26, 1937 (according to other sources – in 1938). In 1955, he was posthumously rehabilitated by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. Currently, streets in Tula, Tyumen and Tobolsk are named after him. In Tyumen, one of the squares bears his name.
Lit.: Кононенко А. А. Первое пришествие коммунизма, или Изнанка «триумфального шествия советской власти» // Тюмень на перепутье: власть и общество в 1917–1921 гг. Тюмень, 2011. С. 71–115; Петров С. П. Антоновщина. Последний удар контрреволюции. М., 2021; Рощевский П. И. Борцы во имя светлого будущего: к пятидесятилетию Советской власти. Тюмень, 1967; Советская историческая энциклопедия: в 16 т. Т. 10: Нахимсон–Пергам. М., 1967.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Семья Н. М. Немцова в Тобольской ссылке: [фотография]. Тобольск, 1917.
Немцов Н. О дисциплинарных проступках наших судей // Рабочий суд. 1925 г. № 47–48. Ноябрь. С. 1755–1757. (Доступно в электронном читальном зале)
Немцов Н. О пункте «г» ст. 113 Положения о судоустройстве // Рабочий суд. 1926. № 19. Октябрь. С. 1147–1155. (Доступно в электронном читальном зале)
Немцов Н. Суд в борьбе за снижение цен // Рабочий суд. 1927 г. № 19 (131). Октябрь. С. 1445–1447. (Доступно в электронном читальном зале)
Немцов Н. Подчинение следователей прокуратуре – упразднение института следователей // Рабочий суд. 1927 г. № 20 (132). Октябрь. С. 1541–1545. (Доступно в электронном читальном зале)
Немцов Н. Историческая роль Чрезвычайных Комиссий и ГПУ в Республике диктатуры пролетариата // Рабочий суд. 1927. № 24 (136). Декабрь. С. 1944–1948. (Доступно в электронном читальном зале)
Немцов Н. К вопросу о судьбе института защиты в Советском Суде // Рабочий суд. 1928. № 3 (139). Февраль. С. 237–241. (Доступно в электронном читальном зале)
Немцов Н. Новый вид хозяйственных преступлений // Рабочий суд. 1928. № 7 (143). Апрель. С. 563–567 (Доступно в электронном читальном зале)
Немцов Н. К переработке Уголовного кодекса // Рабочий суд. 1929. № 1 (161). С. 7–11. (Доступно в электронном читальном зале)
Товарищ Макар // Тюменская правда. 1967. № 259 (6504) (2 ноября). С. 3. (Доступно в электронном читальном зале)
Иваненко А. С. Улица Немцова // Новые прогулки по Тюмени. Тюмень. 2008. С. 195–202. (Доступно в электронном читальном зале)
The article was prepared by the Tyumen branch of the Presidential Library