Yakov Yakovlev

Yakov Arkadyevich Yakovlev (real name: Epstein; Russian: Я́ков Арка́дьевич Я́ковлев, 9 June 1896, Grodno - 29 July 1938) was a Soviet statesman and politician.

Yakovlev was a Ukrainian Communist who joined the Bolsheviks in 1913. In January 1923 he led the attack on Alexander Bogdanov, criticising him for being a Menshevik in Pravda. From 1929 he served as People's Commissar for Agriculture for the forced collectivisation. In 1936 he appeared as a witness in the first Moscow trial. In 1937 he organized the Great Purge in Belarus, in the following year he fell victim to his own.