orig. Lev Borisovich Rosenfeld
born July 18, 1883, Moscow, Russia
died Aug. 24, 1936, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.
Russian political leader.
A member of the Bolshevik s from 1903, he worked with Vladimir Ilich Lenin in Europe (190914), then returned to Russia, where he was arrested and sent to Siberia. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 , he served as head of the Moscow soviet (191925). When Lenin became seriously ill in 1922, Kamenev joined Joseph Stalin and Grigory Y. Zinovyev to form the ruling triumvirate, attacking Leon Trotsky . In 1925 Stalin shifted his attack to Kamenev and Zinovyev, removng Kamenev as Moscow party head. In 1926 Kamenev was expelled from the party after conspiring with Zinovyev and Trotsky against Stalin. In 1936 he was tried in the first of the purge trials and confessed to fabricated charges, hoping to save his family. He was executed, and his wife, Trotsky's sister, perished in the Gulag .