Chaimas Kaplanas

Chaimas Kaplanas (, ; 1899–1989) was a Lithuanian-Jewish communist revolutionary. Kaplanas held key leadership roles in the Communist Party of Lithuania in the 1920s, but was excluded from the party leadership in 1927.

Biography Early life Kaplanas was born on June 20, 1899, in Kovno (Kaunas). At the age of 20, as a worker in Ukmergė during the days of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia (Litbel), Kaplanas joined the Communist Party of Lithuania and Belorussia in 1919. As the Litbel soviet republic collapsed later the same year, the two Communist Party cells in Ukmergė were forced underground. The Kaunas Party District Committee named Kaplanas as the new secretary of the Ukmergė Party Subdistrict Committee. Under Kaplanas' leadership the Ukmergė Party Subdistrict Committee undertook organization of trade union activities and distribution of illegal literature. They conducted propaganda work within the 7th Regiment of the Lithuanian Army. Moreover, as an organizer of the underground party, Kaplanas visited different parts of Samogitia and worked on preparations for subdistrict party conferences.

Kaplanas was elected as delegate of the Šiauliai Party District to the July 1924 4th Congress of the Communist Party of Lithuania, held in Moscow. Kaplanas travelled clandestinely to Soviet Russia via Latvia.

By late 1924 Kaplanas was named Kaunas Party District Committee secretary. Once Undzer emes began to be distributed inside Lithuania, the publication of Proletarisher signal was discontinued. In Germany Kaplanas worked on printing materials and organizing the smuggling of communist literature into Lithuania.

Later years Kaplanas would remain in Moscow after the party conference, and would no longer be a LKP party member. Kaplanas died on February 8, 1989. Ch. Kaplanas, , Žvalgas kasdien pavojuje, 1972