Vilhelms Vilis Knorins Soviet party and statesman, historian and publicist Date of Birth: 29.08.1890 Country: Latvia

Biography of Wilhelm Georgievich Knorin

Wilhelm Georgievich Knorin was a Soviet political and state figure, historian, and publicist. He was born into a peasant family and began his career as a worker in a cotton factory. He completed the Volmar Teacher's Seminary in 1906.

During World War I, Knorin collaborated with social-democratic newspapers in St. Petersburg, Riga, and Libau. After the February Revolution in 1917, he participated in the organization of the Minsk Soviet of Workers and Soldiers' Deputies and the establishment of Bolshevik organizations on the Western Front. He served as the secretary of the Minsk Soviet from May 1917.

In December 1918, Knorin became the secretary of the Central Bureau of the Communist Party of Belarus and a member of the Temporary Workers' and Peasants' Government of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus. From February to August 1919, he was a member of the Defense Council and the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania and Belarus.

From August 1919 to June 1920, Knorin served as the military commissioner of the Smolensk Military District. In 1920-1922, he was the secretary of the Central Bureau of the Communist Party of Belarus. From 1922 to 1925, he headed the Information Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), and later served as the head of the Agitation and Propaganda Department of the Moscow Party Committee. From 1926 to 1927, he was the head of the Agitation and Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks).

Knorin was a member of the Central Control Commission from 1925 to 1927. In 1927-1928, he served as the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus. From 1932 to 1935, he was the director of the Historical-Party Institute of Red Professors.

In August 1935, Knorin became the deputy head of the Department of Party Propaganda and Agitation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks). From 1928 to 1937, he worked for the Comintern, leading the Information and Propaganda Department. In June 1937, he was expelled from the party and arrested in September. He was held in the Lefortovo Prison and subjected to severe torture during interrogations. On July 29, 1938, he was executed at the Butovo Firing Range by the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union.

Knorin was posthumously rehabilitated by the Communist Party of Kazakhstan under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on December 23, 1955.