Not long ago my son Jordan and I traveled to Russia, to learn what we could about great-great-great Uncle Yakov.
This ancestor, Yakov Sverdlov, was among many other things a Big Dog Bolshevik–Vladimir Lenin’s right-hand man, primary author of the Soviet constitution, leader of the political body that gave rise to the Soviet Union.
He was lucky enough to die a Bolshevik hero in 1918 of the Spanish flu. His colleagues lived long enough to face under Josef Stalin a fate not much different from the fate faced by the Tsar whom they replaced.
In St. Petersburg (l to r): Jordan, Eternal Flame to Revolutionary Martyrs, me
Our ancestral trip took us to Moscow and St. Petersburg in April 2009. We traveled to the places where he ran the government, held meetings and generally behaved as a leading communist functionary. The highlight moment, on our father/son trip to Russia, written for The Washington Post. [June 14, 2009]
“Cover for me,” my son Jordan whispers.
We are in Hall No. 19 of the Kshesinskaya Mansion in St. Petersburg, Russia, a faded beaux-arts pile built as a private home but seized in 1917 for use as headquarters of the nascent Bolshevik government. Today it is the Museum of Political History of Russia. Hall No. 19 was once the nerve center of the new regime. It features a desk lined with neat stacks of bundled documents, a wonderful old telephone, a small bookcase and, in the corner, a blood-red banner drooping between two wooden poles. Jordan intends to creep beyond the rope for a closer look.
The office of Yakov Sverdlov
I slyly return to the adjacent room to distract the drowsy museum attendant. I figure that asking a question in English will keep her tied up for a couple of minutes at least.
But suddenly an alarm’s woo-woo shriek breaks the silence. The guard slowly pushes herself to her feet. By the time she reaches Hall No. 19, Jordan is back on the lawful side of the rope, his face bearing the internationally recognized look of feigned innocence. The babushka points to the motion sensor on the wall and scolds him in a Slavic flurry. We retreat peaceably.
So ends our closest Russian encounter with our great-great-great uncle Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov, the man who from this very room commanded the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Party of Bolsheviks — which is to say, ran the party that brought Communism to the country and launched the USSR. Jordan was hoping to sit in Uncle Yakov’s chair and get a closer look at what was on his desk.
The article includes some how-to info on planning a Russia trip, including getting a visa, where we stayed, train travel and some inside dope on a good Georgian restaurant.
2GoNow resources
Facebook photo album of our Russian travels
Flickr slide show of Russian travel photos posted in 2009
Pre-Revolutionary Russia, in photos, as Sverdlov would have seen it
Bobbing-photo tag cloud of Sverdlov images, courtesy Viewzi
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