p Sverdlov’s life was cut short unexpectedly, when he was busier than ever before, and far from the prime of his life. He was not even 34.

p His untimely death was a terrible blow to the working class, to the Communist Party, to his relatives, to his hundreds of comrades, his thousands of fellow campaigners.

p It was a hard loss, too, for the Bolsheviks who had known Sverdlov in the underground, who had begun with him the magnificent task of constructing socialism in the early years of Soviet power. It was a hard loss for Lenin.

p Sverdlov’s death meant more to Lenin than parting with a valued and active member of the Party and Government. In Sverdlov he lost, above all, a staunch confederate and helper, a kindred spirit, a 135 friend... At a special CEC memorial meeting on 18 March 1919, he said:

p ’We shall never be able to replace this man who had cultivated such an exceptional organising talent, if by replacement we mean finding one man, one comrade, with all these qualities.’  [135•1 

p Every word that Lenin said about Sverdlov, every one of the many speeches in which he mentioned his name, was charged with love and profound sorrow.

p “To find a person who could take the place of Comrade Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov in full,’ Lenin told the CEC when they were seeking a new Chairman, ’is an exceedingly difficult task, for it is next to impossible for any one man to be at once a leading Party worker, moreover one who knows the history of the Party, and an excellent judge of people capable of choosing leading functionaries for the Soviets. It would be impossible to expect any one comrade to assume all the functions that Comrade Sverdlov took care of alone...’  [135•2 

p On 16 March 1920, the first anniversary of Sverdlov’s death, Lenin spoke at a memorial meeting in the Bolshoi Theatre. On 29 March 1920, at the Ninth Party Congress, he said:

p ’Our Party has now been through its first year without Y. M. Sverdlov, and our loss was bound to tell on the whole organisation of the Central Committee. No one has been able to combine organisational and political work in one person so successfully as Comrade Sverdlov...’  [135•3 .

p Sverdlov is dead but his memory remains forever in the hearts of Bolsheviks, of working people the world over.

p Until about November 1919 the Central Committee Organisation Bureau used to meet in our flat, in Sverdlov’s study. I often took the minutes of those meetings and remember how during their discussions the members would wonder aloud what Sverdlov would have thought about the issue in hand, and try to decide it as he would have done.

p Sverdlov is dead. Comrade Andrei has left his post. But hundreds have risen to take his place in the ranks. In Lenin’s words:

’The memory of Comrade Yakov Sverdlov will serve not only as a permanent symbol of the revolutionary’s devotion to his cause and as the model of how to combine a practical sober mind, practical skill, close contact with the masses and ability to guide them; it is also a pledge that evergrowing numbers of proletarians, guided by these examples, will march forward to the complete victory of the world communist revolution.’  [135•4