Pokrovsky, Mikhail Nikolaevich (1868–1932)

Russian historian and politician. In 1905 he joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party, and in 1909 the left-wing Bolshevik sub-faction Forward led by Aleksander Bogdanov. After the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in 1917 he was chairman of the Moscow soviet, and, from 1918–32, deputy commissar (minister) of education. In 1918 Pokrovsky was one of the Left Communists. He was founder and head of many institutions and organizations aimed at establishing Communist Party control in the field of learning, including the Communist Academy, the Institute of Red Professorship, and the Society of Marxist Historians.