Surits Yakov Zakharovich (1882-1952)

Surits (Suritz) Yakov (Jakow) Zakharovich (1882, Dvinsk, Vitebsk province — 1952, Moscow) — diplomat.

Yakov Surits graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Berlin. In 1902–1903, he was a member of the Bund; in 1903–1914, a member of the RSDRP (Menshevik). He was subjected to arrests; in 1907–1910 he was in exile in the Tobolsk province.

In 1918–1919, he was a representative of the RSFSR in Denmark; in 1919–1921, plenipotentiary representative of the RSFSR in Afghanistan; in 1921–1922, authorized representative of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR for Turkestan and Central Asia.

In 1922–1923, he was plenipotentiary representative of the USSR in Norway; in 1923–1934 — in Turkey; in 1934–1937 — in Germany; in 1937–1940 — in France. In 1937–1939, he was a member of the Soviet delegation at the sessions of the League of Nations.

In 1940–1945, he worked in the central apparatus of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR; in 1945–1947, he was Ambassador of the USSR to Brazil.

Surits belonged to the so-called “school” of M. Litvinov within the Soviet foreign policy establishment and did not approve of the rapprochement between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. However, after the end of the Soviet–Finnish War (1940), Surits sent a telegram to J. Stalin in which he blamed England and France for instigating the war. The telegram became public, Surits was declared persona non grata, and he was forced to leave France.

Surits was an art enthusiast and a collector of paintings and graphic works. For his services to the Soviet state, he was awarded the Orders of Lenin and the Red Banner of Labour.

窗体顶端

窗体底端

His cousin — Mikhl (1896, Warsaw — 1942, Treblinka), publicist, lawyer. In 1917–1939, he actively participated in the activities of the Jewish People’s Party. He collaborated with the Polish and Argentine Jewish press.