Pavel Poltoratskiy


Pavel Gerasimovich Poltoratskiy was a Bolshevik Communist revolutionary. He served as People's Commissar for Labor in the early Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic and as editor of the daily newspaper Sovetskiy Turkmenistan.
Poltoratskiy worked as a typesetter. He became active as a revolutionary in Rostov-on-Don and Baku, but was imprisoned in 1913. In 1917 he became chairman of the Soviet established in Kogon, Uzbekistan. He was sent as a delegate to the First All-Russian Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies' Soviets.

Career

Poltoratskiy traveled from Tashkent to Merv, arriving 13 July 1918, leading a small group of revolutionaries. He was soon taken captive by the Transcaspian Government which had recently been formed by Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. He was executed by firing squad near a brickyard in Merv on 21 July 1918.

Legacy

From 17 July 1919 until 1927 the capital city of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, was named Poltoratsk in his honor.