Stanislaw Adamowitsch Messing

Stanislav Adamovich Messing (Russian: Станислав Адамович Мессинг; 1890, in Warsaw, Russian Empire – September 2, 1937, in Moscow, USSR) was a Soviet national party leader and a leader of the Soviet state security and intelligence bodies. He was a member of the Central Control Commission of the CPSU(b) from 1930 to 1934.

Early life Stanislav Messing was born into a Jewish family, the child of a musician and a midwife (accoucheuse). Due to financial difficulties, he only finished four classes in grammar school, after which he studied to become a locksmith. He eventually began working in a printing house.

Career In 1908, he joined the Social Democratic Party of Poland, where he met Felix Dzerzhinsky and Józef Unszlicht, who had given him patronage after the Great Revolution of 1917. He was arrested several times and imprisoned in the Warsaw Fortress. In the same year, he was sentenced to administrative deportation to Belgium, where he earned his livelihood as an unskilled laborer. In 1911, Messing returned to his homeland and continued to participate in the activities of the Social Democratic Party of Poland. He was arrested again and then released.

In 1913, he was drafted into the army and served in Turkestan as a common soldier of the 17th Turkestan Regiment, which had been based at the Caucasian Front since 1914. In 1917, he was elected a member of the regimental soldiers' committee.

Petrograd In November 1921, Felix Dzerzhinsky, who directed the Red Terror during post-revolution Russia, appointed Messing as chairman of the Petrograd Cheka. He held this rank from November 3, 1921, to February 6, 1922. Petrograd was a capital of Russia until 1922; in 1922, Moscow became the capital again.