Invitation Card, NKVD Pass #133 to Grandstand #3 in Uritsky Square (former Palace Square), Leningrad, issued to S. Kaganovich, for VIP viewing of the 1 May 1941 demonstration.
Measures 4 ¼" x 2 ½", printed on heavy-stock coated paper festively decorated with red banners and the USSR State Emblem with 11 scrolls, all resting on a pennant with lettering in gold, reading "Long Live 1 May!". This pass is one half of an invitation card for VIP viewing of the festivities, limiting access only to Grandstand #3. The rank and name of the NKVD officer in charge of issuing these VIP passes is at the bottom, "State Security Captain Antonov."
In excellent condition, showing only mild wear to the corners and a barely noticeable ink smudge to the state embl
Measures 4 ¼" x 2 ½", printed on heavy-stock coated paper festively decorated with red banners and the USSR State Emblem with 11 scrolls, all resting on a pennant with lettering in gold, reading "Long Live 1 May!". This pass is one half of an invitation card for VIP viewing of the festivities, limiting access only to Grandstand #3. The rank and name of the NKVD officer in charge of issuing these VIP passes is at the bottom, "State Security Captain Antonov."
In excellent condition, showing only mild wear to the corners and a barely noticeable ink smudge to the state emblem and to the left of the central banner. The colors are fresh and vibrant; the text is crisp and clear. The verso is clean and unmarked.
Our online search did not find a close relative of Lazar Kaganovich with initials S.B. but he or she could be, and possibly was, a distant relative. The name Kaganovich is not extremely rare but not very common either, and it's hard to imagine that a pass to the VIP grandstand in Uritsky Square in Leningrad was issued just to a random person with the same last name.
St. Petersburg's Palace Square near the Winter Palace was renamed Uritsky Square in 1918 in honor of Mosey Uritsky, the first Chairman of Petrograd Cheka. The world-famour square, one of the main landmarks of the city, regained its original name only in 1944.
Uritsky was assassinated by a Socialist Revolutionary (SR) Leonid Kannegiser on the same day that another SR Fanny Kaplan shot and wounded Lenin. Versions of what motivated Kannegiser to shoot Uritsky abound, but whatever the motivations, the Bolsheviks did not let a good murder go to waste. On 2 September 1918, the All-Russian Executive Committee announced the policy of Red Terror. Over the first two days after Uritsky's assassination, 512 people were executed by firing squads. By October 1918, only in Petrograd the number of victims of Red Terror numbered almost 800 executed and 6,229 arrested.
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