Work
After the 1917 February Revolution he returned to Petrograd from exile and was re-elected to the Central Committee. He played an important role in planning the October Revolution.
A book written in 1990 by the Moscow playwright Edvard Radzinsky claims that Sverdlov had a role in the killing of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. According to this book, Sverdlov ordered their execution on 16 July 1918, which took place in the city of Yekaterinburg. This book as well as other Radzinsky's books were characterized as "folk history" (Russian term for pseudohistory) by journalists and academic historians. However Yuri Slezkine who received the National Jewish Book Award for his book " The Jewish Century " published by Princeton University Press in 2004 wrote in that very same book : "Early in the Civil War, in June 1918, Lenin ordered the killing of Nicholas II and his family . Among the men entrusted with carrying out the orders were Sverdlov, Shaia Goloshchekin and Yakov Yurovsky ".
A close ally of Vladimir Lenin, Sverdlov played an important role in the controversial decisions to close down the Constituent Assembly and to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. It was claimed that Lenin provided the theories and Sverdlov made sure they worked. Later their relationship suffered as Lenin appeared to be too theoretical for practical Sverdlov.
He is sometimes referred to as the first head of state of the Soviet Union but this is not correct since the Soviet Union came into existence in 1922, three years after Sverdlov's death. However, as chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) he was the de jure head of state of the Russian SFSR from shortly after the October Revolution until the time of his death.
Read more about this topic: Yakov Sverdlov
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