Skip to main content

Primary sourcePhotographSummer 1915

Group of Exiled Bolsheviks in Siberia

Summer 1915

A 1915 photograph of Bolsheviks exiled in Siberia, including Sverdlov, Stalin, and Kamenev, gathered to discuss the trial of Bolshevik Duma deputies.

Sverdlov appears seated among fellow exiled Bolsheviks, documenting his years of Siberian banishment before the revolution.

Ask Yakov Sverdlov about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Black-and-white group photograph of about fifteen men and a woman standing and seated outdoors in front of trees and a log building. A young boy stands in front of a seated woman and a bearded man in a hat sits to the right. The men wear coats, caps and hats; one at the far right holds binoculars.
Unknown photographer, Group of exiled Bolsheviks in Siberia, summer 1915. Monastyrskoye (Turukhansk).

About this source

What it is

This black-and-white photograph, taken by an unknown photographer in the summer of 1915 in the village of Monastyrskoye (now Turukhansk), shows a group of exiled Bolsheviks gathered outdoors. Among those pictured are Yakov Sverdlov, Joseph Stalin, Lev Kamenev, Aleksei Badayev, and Suren Spandarian.

Why it matters

The photograph documents a period when many future Soviet leaders were banished by the tsarist government to remote Siberia for their revolutionary activity. It shows Sverdlov as part of a close network of exiled Bolsheviks who would later rise to power together, and offers a rare visual record of their shared hardship before the 1917 revolution.

Look closer

  • What does the setting tell you about the conditions of exile?
  • Why might this group have gathered for a photograph at this particular moment?
  • Can you identify any individuals, and what do their clothing and poses suggest about their circumstances?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Yakov Sverdlov on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Yakov Sverdlov sources

Meet the AI Yakov Sverdlov →
Speech

Primary source

Lenin: In Memory of Sverdlov

Vladimir Lenin · 1919

Black and white halftone photograph of a person with short dark wavy hair and round wire-rimmed glasses, wearing a dark jacket with a light collar over a dark shirt, seated in front of a light vertical-striped background.Photograph

Primary source

Yakov Sverdlov, Okhrana Photograph, 1903

1903

Scanned black-and-white police record card with two mugshot photographs of a man, one in profile and one facing forward, a printed form with handwritten entries, and handwritten notes at the top right.Document

Primary source

Yakov Sverdlov Police Record Card, 1910

1910

Black-and-white photograph of a bespectacled man with dark hair, a mustache and a beard, seated in an upholstered chair at a desk. He wears a light-colored buttoned jacket and looks toward the camera. Papers and a notebook lie on the desk.Photograph

Primary source

Portrait of Yakov Sverdlov

1919

Black-and-white photo of a group of about eight people standing on a raised platform before a brick wall and tall dark flags with fringed tops. Men wear caps, long coats, and leather jackets; two women wear dark headscarves.Photograph

Primary source

placeholder

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Yakov Sverdlov now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions