Zinovyev (or Zinoviev), Grigory Yevseyevich (1883-1936)

Russian communist politician whose name was attached to a forgery, the Zinovyev letter, inciting Britain's communists to rise, which helped to topple the Labour government in 1924.

A prominent Bolshevik, Zinovyev returned to Russia in 1917 with Lenin and played a leading part in the Revolution. He became head of the Communist International in 1919. As one of the ‘Old Bolsheviks’, he was seen by Stalin as a threat. He was accused of complicity in the murder of the Bolshevik leader Sergei Kirov in 1934, and was tried and shot.