Isidore Gukovsky

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Isidor Emmanuilovich Gukovsky (Isidor Gukovsky) (25 May 1871 – 16 August 1921) was a Russian revolutionary and politician who served as the People’s Commissar for Finance of the RSFSR after the Russian Revolution.

He was born in Saint Petersburg to a merchant family and began as a chemist’s assistant. In 1898 he joined the Group of Workers Revolutionaries and later became part of the Menshevik faction of the RSDLP. He was jailed for encouraging Izhorskiye workers to strike.

In 1904 he moved to Baku and used the name Theodor Izmaylovich for his political work. By 1906 he was secretary of the newspaper New Life, then went to Odessa and abroad. He returned to Russia in 1907, was arrested again, tried, and acquitted in 1908, and eventually settled in Moscow.

After the October Revolution he joined the Bolsheviks and was appointed finance minister, serving from March 21 to August 16, 1918 under Premier Lenin. He advocated a plan similar to the New Economic Policy and later acted as Russia’s plenipotentiary representative in Estonia.

He was accused of bribery and corruption during his time as Finance Commissar, but he died of pneumonia in 1921 in Estonia before any trial could take place.