men were dead, he served Josif Stalin with the same uncritical loyalty that he had shown Lenin. In 1918, he was appointed chairman of the state bank. In 1920-23, he worked for the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs. He handled financial dealings with Poland after the Treaty of Riga established relations between the two countries. Later, he successfully negotiated with Poland for the return of Lenin's archive, left behind in Cracow. In October 1921 he negotiated and signed the Treaty of Kars with Turkey, on behalf of the Soviet republics of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Simultaneously, he was Soviet envoy to Latvia in 1920-22. In 1923-29, he worked for the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade. In 1929-32, he was on the Praesidium of the supreme economic council. In 1932-35, he was head of the State Union for Music, Stage and Circus. From 1935, he was director of the Museum of the Revolution of the USSR. Arrest and execution Hanecki was arrested on 18 July 1937, along with his wife, Giza, and son, Stanislav. Police who raided his apartment (in the "House on the Embankment", 2, Serafimovicha Street, apartment 10) found a wealth of banned literature, written by communists who had since fallen foul of the Stalin regime, but no money, despite the vast sums that Hanecki had handled on behalf of the regime. He was accused of maintaining contact with Polish and German intelligence during trade visits to those countries. He stubbornly and courageously refused to confess, despite appalling torture, and despite being confronted in prison with others, including Adolf Warski, who had given in under interrogation and incriminated him. His case was referred to Stalin, who wrote the single word 'liquidate' by his name. Hanecki was sentenced to death after a 15 minute trial on 26 November 1937, and executed the same day. His wife and son were also shot to death. He was rehabilitated in 1954. References External links Semion Lyandres The Bolsheviks' "German Gold" Revisited: An Inquiry into the 1917 Accusations 1879 births 1937 deaths Politicians from Warsaw People from Warsaw Governorate 19th-century Polish Jews Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania politicians Old Bolsheviks Jews executed by the Soviet Union Jewish socialists People of the Russian Revolution Polish revolutionaries Bolshevik finance Soviet rehabilitations Great Purge victims from Poland Executed people from Masovian Voivodeship Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to Latvia