Born in Kolpino, Saint Petersburg Governorate in a lower-middle-class family of Russian ethnicity,[3] Tomsky moved to Estonia (then part of the Russian Empire) and was involved in the 1905 Revolution. He helped form the Revel Soviet of Workers' Deputies and the Revel Union of Metal Workers. Tomsky was arrested and deported to Siberia.
He escaped and returned to St. Petersburg where he became president of the Union of Engravers and Chromolithographers.
Tomsky was arrested in 1908 and then exiled to France, but returned to Russia in 1909 where he was again arrested for his political activities and sentenced to five years of hard labour. He was freed by the Provisional Government after the February Revolution in 1917 and moved to Moscow where he participated in the October Revolution. In 1918 he attended the Fourth All Russian Conference of Trade Unions (12–17 March), where he moved a resolution concerning the Relations between the Trade Unions and the Commissariat for Labour which stated that the October Revolution had changed "the meaning and character of state organs and significance of proletarian organs as well". It was elaborated that previously the old ministry of Labour had acted as arbitrator between Labour and Capital, whereas the new Commissariat was the champion of the economic policy of the working class.
In 1928 Stalin moved against his former allies, defeating Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky at the April 1929 Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee and forcing Tomsky to resign from his position as leader of the trade union movement in May 1929. Tomsky was put in charge of the Soviet chemical industry, a position which he occupied until 1930. He was not re-elected to the Politburo after the 16th Communist Party Congress in July 1930, but remained a full member of the Central Committee until the next Congress in January 1934, when he was demoted to candidate (non-voting) member.
Tomsky headed the State Publishing House from May 1932 until August 1936, when he was accused of terrorist connections during the First Moscow Trial of Zinoviev and Kamenev.[3] Rather than face arrest by the NKVD, Tomsky committed suicide by gunshot in his dacha in Bolshevo, near Moscow.[2][3]
Wynn, Charters. From the Factory to the Kremlin: Mikhail Tomsky and the Russian Worker, University of Texas at Austin, 22 May 1996. University Center for International Research, University of Pittsburg, 10 September 2002, www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1996-809-09-Wynn.pdf. Accessed 29 May 2021. "Archive" (PDF). Archived from the original on 29 April 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2021.{{cite web}}
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