He was born on 8 June 1896 in the village of Borzna, Chernihiv Governorate (according to other sources, in the city of Romny) in the Jewish family of a merchant.
In March-April 1918, he was a Red Guard scout of the 1st Army of the Gomel Division, 1st Moscow Revolutionary Detachment of the Western Front.
From April to June 1918, he was a political fighter of the All-Russian Collegium on the Organization and Formation of the RSHA at the Tikhoretska station of the North Caucasian Railway.
From November 1918 to January 1919, he was a member of the editorial board of the newspaper "Red Fighter" of the 3rd Army of the RSHA of the Eastern Front.
From July to September 1924, he was the military commissar of the Artillery Inspection of the Russian Red Army in Moscow.
From September 1933 to December 1936, he was deputy commander and head of the Political Department of the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army in Khabarovsk.
On 31 May 1937 he was arrested by the NKVD authorities and expelled from the Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR.
On 25 March 1938 the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced him to death and was shot on the same day.