Skip to main content

Secondary sourcePhotograph

Yakov Sverdlov's Childhood Home

A photograph of the house in Nizhny Novgorod where Sverdlov grew up, which included his family's engraving shop.

This photograph shows the childhood home where Sverdlov's family produced forged documents for revolutionaries.

Ask Yakov Sverdlov about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Black-and-white photograph of a two-story white brick building with a steep tiled roof, several windows, and a small entrance canopy. A small child stands in the snowy courtyard in front of the building. A wooden structure and a ladder are visible at the sides.
The Sverdlov family home and engraving shop, Nizhny Novgorod.

About this source

What it is

This black-and-white photograph shows a two-story white brick building with a steep tiled roof and several windows, with a small child standing in the snowy courtyard in front. The house, in Nizhny Novgorod, was where Yakov Sverdlov's family lived and ran an engraving shop that produced forged documents for the revolutionary underground.

Why it matters

This building connects Sverdlov's early life to the clandestine revolutionary networks of late Imperial Russia, showing how ordinary trades, like engraving, could serve the hidden work of political opposition before the revolution.

Look closer

  • What clues in the photograph suggest the period and place it shows?
  • Why might a family-run shop be a useful cover for producing forged documents?
  • What does this image not tell us about the people who lived or worked there?

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 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.Photograph

Primary source

Group of Exiled Bolsheviks in Siberia

Summer 1915

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

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