Bukhbinder Yakov Grigoryevich (1903)

Bukhbinder (Buchbinder) Yakov Grigoryevich (1903 — ?) — active participant in the revolutionary movement in Latvia, and director of major industrial enterprises.

From the late 1920s, Yakov Bukhbinder worked at the Lemiko sawmill while participating in the activities of underground organizations: the leftist trade union, MOPR (International Red Aid), and served on the board of the Jewish People's University. His apartment often hosted meetings of an underground Communist party organization. In 1929, he was arrested and in 1930 sentenced to four years of hard labor; however, he was acquitted after filing an appeal.

In 1937, he was arrested again but was soon released on bail. With permission from the Central Committee of the Red Aid of Latvia, he emigrated to Sweden, where he participated in the activities of the Stockholm group of Latvian political émigrés.

In 1940,Yakov Bukhbinder returned to Latvia and became director of the “Udarniķs” factory. During World War II, he was evacuated to Chelyabinsk and worked there until 1943, when he was drafted into the Soviet Army, serving in the Latvian Rifle Division. In 1944, he was withdrawn from the army and sent to the liberated parts of Latvia, where he again headed the “Udarniķs” factory (1944–1947). In 1946, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

From 1944 to 1950, he was director of the “Liepājas Koks” factory, later heading the “Lignums” factory, a cooperage factory, and the Riga branch of the industrial association “Lattorgoborudovanie”. For his service, he was awarded medals and two Honorary Diplomas of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR. Since 1958, he held the status of a personal pensioner of republican significance.