Sergey Girinis

Sergey Vladimirovich Girinis (Lithuanian: Sergejus Girinis, Russian: Сергей Владимирович Гиринис, 1882–1961), until 1919 known as Raul Isaakovich Ginzburg (Lithuanian: Raulas Ginsburgas, Russian: Рауль Исаакович Гинцбург), was a Soviet revolutionary, journalist and trade unionist.

Raul Ginzburg was born on 10 April 1882 in Prisele [ru] village, Roslavlsky Uyezd, Smolensk Governorate.

[5] He was arrested by the Czarist authorities in March 1902 for his political activities,[5] then exiled to eastern Siberia.

[1] He worked at editorial offices of Severo-Zapadny Golos ('North-Western Voice'), Vechernyaya Gazeta ('Evening Newspaper'), and Veestnik Znaniya [ru] ('Herald of Knowledge').

[5] In 1916, Ginzburg joined the United Social-Democrats (Internationalists), an organization that published and agitated against the German occupation authorities in Vilna.

[5][4] He eventually emerged as the leader of the Vilna organization of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Mensheviks).

[8] Afterwards, Ginzburg's faction regrouped as the Social Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania and Belorussia (internationalists).

[5] Girinis-Ginzburg (having adopted the name 'Girinis' the preceding year) joined the Communist Party of Lithuania and Belorussia in early 1920, along with some other members of his Menshevik-Internationalist group in Vilna.

[1] In July 1924, Girinis attended the fourth congress of the Communist Party of Lithuania (held in Moscow) as a delegate with consultative vote.

This cooperation was especially close in 1926–1927, as the two worked in the Baltic Sections of Profintern (Girinis) and Comintern (Kapsukas).

Continuing his journalistic activities, he served as the head of the editorial departments of the newspapers Pravda, Trybuna Radziecka [pl] and Vechernyaya Moskva.

[5] During the Second World War, Girinis was in charge of the Newspaper Information Bureau of the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks).