Maxim Vinaver

In 1900, he organized the successful defense in the Vilna trial of David Blondes [ru], who was charged with ritual murder.

In 1904, during a civil suit in Gomel called "The Jewish Victims", in which he led a group of lawyers, Vinaver resigned after accusing the judge of being biased and leaving the trial.

He became a member of the Legal Society of the University of St. Petersburg and from 1904 to 1906 headed the civil law department of the editorial office of the newspaper Rechtskurier der Gesellschaft.

In particular, in 1907, Vinaver helped Marc Chagall start his painting career, assisting him financially and arranging housing for him in the editorial office of Voskhod magazine.

During this time, he tended to the left wing of the Cadet Party, and he was Deputy Group Chairman in the Provisional Soviet of the Russian Republic.

In 1919, Vinaver emigrated to France and settled in Paris, where he called on Russia’s allies to continue supporting the White movement.

He was a friend of the chairman of the Committee of the Paris Group of Cadets, and joined the emigrants’ unified democratic forces.

He played a large part in the trial of Sholem Schwarzbard — who had shot former Ukrainian President Symon Petliura in Paris in 1926 — as a witness for the defense.