A one-time janitor in Chicago buried in the Kremlin Wall. The remarkable life of Vassily Lichachev.

‘Comrade Lichachev is Dead’ by M.A. Skromny from The Daily Worker. Vol. 2 No. 201. November 12, 1924.

THE newspapers Just received from Russia brought the sad news: Comrade Vasily Lichachev died at Kislovodsk. Who was Comrade Lichachev?

To the old timers in the Russian colony in the United States he was well-known, altho he stayed in this country only a few years.

Escapes Exile In Siberia.

Way back in 1910 after spending years in the different jails of the czar’s government, Comrade “Vlas” as he was known in the revolutionary movement in Russia, was exiled to Siberia.

He did not stay there very long. Together with another comrade he escaped, walking many miles to the Chinese border. Making their way thru Japan they finally arrived in this country in 1912. But the guardians at the gates suspected them being “anarchists” and they were held up by the immigration officials. The Russian colony took up the matter and after a stiff fight they were finally admitted.

Comrade Vlas at once became active in the revolutionary movement. He was broke, without a cent, but he made his way, mostly on foot, from Seattle to Chicago. It took him about a year to reach Chicago, speaking at every point he touched. Here he worked as a window washer on Milwaukee Ave., as a janitor on Division St., etc. He joined the Russian federation of the socialist party and went around the country delivering lectures, organizing new branches,  etc. Later on he became a member of the editorial board of the Russian daily, Novy Mir.

Returns to Russia With Trotsky.

He did not stay on this job very long, for as soon as the revolution broke out in Russia he left this country together with Comrade Trotsky, who was then editor of the Novy Mir.

In Russia he joined the fight against the Kerensky government and actively participated in the October revolution which brought about the creation of the Soviet government. Since then he held different responsible positions in the government and in the party. Delegations from many unions, from the Moscow Soviet, the government institutions, etc., met the body when it arrived in Moscow from Kislovodsk.

The funeral was held on October 26 in Moscow.

His memory was honored by the workers of Russia and will be honored by the Russian workers in this country.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1924/v02a-n201-nov-12-1924-DW-LOC.pdf