Rauchman Nokhum Bentsianovich (1908)

Rauchman (Rauchmann) Nokhum (Nochum) Bentsianovich (1908 ) — participant in the communist underground and active Party official.

In the 1st Latvian Republic, Nokhum Rauchman took part in illegal revolutionary activities. He worked as a labourer and later in cultural organisations and in a left-wing trade union. In 1925–1926 he was active in the underground Komsomol organisation, and subsequently in the Communist Party of Latvia.

As a member of the illegal Communist Party of Latvia, he carried out various assignments: he was an organiser of the first district of Riga (the Moscow District), a member of the underground city Party committee, and held other posts. During his underground work he was repeatedly subjected to repression by the authorities, arrested several times, and in total spent about six years in prison. He had been a member of the CPSU since 1930.

In 1940–1941 he served as Executive Secretary of the International Red Aid organisation (MOPR).

Nokhum Rauchman took part in the Second World War, serving as Executive Secretary of a signals battalion, senior instructor of the political department of a division, propagandist, and Party organiser of a regiment. He was wounded. For his military merits on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star and four medals, including the medals “For Courage” and “For the Defence of Moscow”.

In 1946–1947 he was an instructor of the Riga City Party Committee; in 1947–1949, head of a department of the Ogre District Party Committee; in 1951–1952, Deputy Chairman of the Ogre District Executive Committee; and in 1952–1959, secretary and second secretary of the Ogre District Party Committee.

From 1960 he worked in Ogre as Chairman of the City Executive Committee, instructor of the District Party Committee, and chairman of the trade union of consumer co-operative workers. From 1967 he was a personal pensioner of republican significance.