Gleb Bokii
Encyclopedia
Gleb Ivanovich Bokii was an ethnic Ukrainian
Communist
political activist and revolutionary in the Russian Empire
. Following the October Revolution
of 1917, Bokii became a leading member of the Cheka
, the Soviet secret police
. From 1921 through 1934, Bokii was the head of the so-called "special department" of the Soviet secret police apparatus, believed to have been in charge of the Soviet Union's concentration camp system. He remained a top level functionary in the secret police apparatus until his sudden arrest in May 1937 as part of the Great Terror
. Following an extended investigation, Bokii was given a summary trial and executed in November of that same year. In 1956, Bokii was posthumously rehabilitated
by Soviet authorities.
) into the family of an ethnic Ukrainian teacher in Tiflis, Georgia
in 1879. Bokii grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia
, where he attended school, graduating from the Petersburg Mining Institute in 1896.
and joining Georgii Plekhanov's
Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class in 1897. Bokii joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party
(RSDLP) in 1900 and worked in that organization as a professional revolutionary
as a party organizer and propagandist. Bokii was a loyalist to the Bolshevik
faction of that organization, headed by V.I. Lenin and was elected a member of the governing Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP from 1904 to 1909.
In the Revolution of 1905, Bokii participated in street fighting on Vasilyevsky Island, part of St. Petersburg bounded by the Neva River
.
At the time of World War I
, Bokii served as a member of the Central Bureau of the RSDLP from 1914 to 1915 and a member of the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the party from 1916 to 1917.
During the course of his revolutionary activities, Bokii was arrested a dozen times, and suffered two terms of political exile to Siberia
. He used the party names
"Kuzma," "Diadia," and "Maksim Ivanovich" during the Bolshevik Party's underground period.
The February Revolution
of 1917 which brough the overthrow of Tsar Nikolai II
saw Bokii in a leading position in the Petrograd City Committee, of which he served as Secretary from April 1917 to March 1918. He was also a member of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee
during October and November 1917 — the institution which planned and carried out the Bolshevik uprising on November 7.
Bokii was recognized as a supporter of the "Left Communists" headed by Nikolai Bukharin
who sought to fight a revolutionary war against German invaders rather than signing a separate peace in the period immediately after the Bolshevik uprising. Together with Stanislav Kosior
, Bokii was one of five signatories of a declaration of the Executive Commission of the Petersburg Committee directed at the governing Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, which warned:
A special party conference to decide the peace question was called for by Bokii and his comrades of the Peterburg Committee. German forces continued their advance on Petrograd in the interim and February and March 1918 saw Bokii take on an additional role organizing the city's defenses as member of the Committee for the Revolutionary Defense of Petrograd.
Ultimately, the German offensive was halted when Lenin and the party Central Committee won the day by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
with the government of Imperial Germany
on March 3, 1918. Territory including a quarter of Russia's population and a quarter of its industry were ceded to the Germans under the onerous terms of the peace.
(Cheka) of the Northern oblast and Petrograd. He remained in this position until the end of August 1918, at which time he was briefly made the head of that same organization following the assassination of his chief, Moisei Uritsky
. Bokii was a participant in the Red Terror
which was part and parcel of the Civil War
which began in the summer of 1918, for example signing a list of 122 prominent hostages published in the Petrograd official newspaper on September 6, threatening their execution if even one more Soviet official was killed by terrorists.
Despite this complicity, historian Alexander Rabinowitch
indicates that Bokii was among the more moderate Bolshevik voices on the question of the use of terror in the summer of 1918, siding with Elena Stasova
in opposing Grigory Zinoviev's
call for a full scale Red Terror at a critical meeting held in the wake of Uritsky's killing.
Whatever his personal views, Bokii as head of the Petrograd Cheka in the days after Uritsky's death was the ultimate authority behid the Red Terror in Petrograd and it was to him that the German government directed its complaints. The German Consul in Petrograd bombarded with letters demanding the release of individuals from countries under German protection who were swept up in the dragnet — over 1000 in all. On September 10, 1918 Bokii responded by forwarding to the Consul the text of a message he had sent to district soviets ordering the release of all citizens of nations under German protection against whom no specific evidence supporting charges of speculation or counterrevolutionary activity could be mustered. Bokii's explicit directive was largely ignored, however, and by the end of the month only about 200 out of the 1000 names provided by the Germans had been freed.
Bokii's moderation with respect to the use of terror brought him into conflict with Zinoviev, who in mid-September 1918 was advancing the idea of distributing arms to the Petrograd workers and allowing them to administer mob justice against their perceived class enemies as they saw fit. Stasova seems to have felt that her ally Bokii was in physical danger if he remained in Petrograd without protection and she appealed to Yakov Sverdlov
for his transfer to Moscow, outside of Zinoviev's fief. According to a biography of Bokii published in the last years of the Soviet Union, Bokii was successfully removed as head of the Petrograd Cheka by Zinoviev by the end of that month.
Other sources indicate that Bokii remained as the head of the Petrograd secret police until November 1918, at which time he was made a member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) of Soviet Russia. Bokii continued in that capacity until the middle of September 1919, when he was dispatched to the Eastern Front to head the special detachment of the Cheka there.
In October 1919, Bokii was sent by Cheka head Felix Dzerzhinsky to Tashkent
to head the operations of the Cheka the Turkestan
front. He remained there in that capacity until the effective end of the Russian Civil War
in August 1920. During this interval he was also a member of the Turkestan Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee
and the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom).
Bokii became head of the "special department" of the All-Union Extraordinary Commission in the last days of January 1921. Bokii has been said to have been "one of the most active creators of the Gulag
system" and labelled by another historian as "the OGPU boss in charge of concentration camps" in the early 1920s. Such claims may tend to hyperbole, however, as he figures in the account of Alexander Solzhenitsyn only as the head of the Moscow troika
rather than as architect or chief of the camp system itself.
Bokii remained as head of the "special department" of the secret police apparatus through its various incarnations as the BChK, the GPU, and the OGPU until July 10, 1934. He was also a member of the collegium of the OGPU through this same date.
In April 1923, Bokii was awarded the Order of the Red Banner
in recognition of his work on behalf of the USSR.
Bokii later moved to the Supreme Court of the USSR
, of which he was a member until May 16, 1937. He was also head of the Chief Department of State Security of the NKVD until that same date.
sponsored by new Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev
, Gleb Bokii's case was reviewed by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Soviet and he was posthumously rehabilitated
, enabling his family members to receive social benefits which had been previously denied to them by the state.
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine* The Ukrainians, people from Ukraine or of Ukrainian descent.* Something relating to Ukrainian culture....
Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
political activist and revolutionary in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Following the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
of 1917, Bokii became a leading member of the Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
, the Soviet secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
. From 1921 through 1934, Bokii was the head of the so-called "special department" of the Soviet secret police apparatus, believed to have been in charge of the Soviet Union's concentration camp system. He remained a top level functionary in the secret police apparatus until his sudden arrest in May 1937 as part of the Great Terror
Great Terror
Great Terror may refer to:* Reign of Terror , a period of extreme violence during the French Revolution, last weeks of which are sometimes referred to as the Red Terror or Great Terror...
. Following an extended investigation, Bokii was given a summary trial and executed in November of that same year. In 1956, Bokii was posthumously rehabilitated
Rehabilitation (Soviet)
Rehabilitation in the context of the former Soviet Union, and the Post-Soviet states, was the restoration of a person who was criminally prosecuted without due basis, to the state of acquittal...
by Soviet authorities.
Early years
Gleb Bokii was born July 3, 1879 (June 21 O.S.Old Style and New Style dates
Old Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on 1 January even though documents written at the time use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian...
) into the family of an ethnic Ukrainian teacher in Tiflis, Georgia
Georgia
Georgia has two principal meanings:* Georgia , previously known as:** Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic , part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics** Democratic Republic of Georgia...
in 1879. Bokii grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, where he attended school, graduating from the Petersburg Mining Institute in 1896.
Revolutionary career
Bokii was a participant in revolutionary student circles from an early age, becoming an adherent of MarxismMarxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
and joining Georgii Plekhanov's
Georgi Plekhanov
Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist theoretician. He was a founder of the Social-Democratic movement in Russia and was one of the first Russians to identify himself as "Marxist." Facing political persecution, Plekhanov emigrated to Switzerland in 1880, where...
Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class in 1897. Bokii joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party , also known as Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or Russian Social Democratic Party, was a revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organizations into one party...
(RSDLP) in 1900 and worked in that organization as a professional revolutionary
Professional Revolutionary
Professional Revolutionary: The Life of Saul Wellman is a documentary about the life of Saul Wellman.-Summary:“I want things to change, where the playing field is leveled,” Wellman says, “where equality emerges as a reality...where the horrible things about inequality are...
as a party organizer and propagandist. Bokii was a loyalist to the Bolshevik
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
faction of that organization, headed by V.I. Lenin and was elected a member of the governing Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP from 1904 to 1909.
In the Revolution of 1905, Bokii participated in street fighting on Vasilyevsky Island, part of St. Petersburg bounded by the Neva River
Neva River
The Neva is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length , it is the third largest river in Europe in terms of average discharge .The Neva is the only river flowing from Lake...
.
At the time of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Bokii served as a member of the Central Bureau of the RSDLP from 1914 to 1915 and a member of the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee of the party from 1916 to 1917.
During the course of his revolutionary activities, Bokii was arrested a dozen times, and suffered two terms of political exile to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. He used the party names
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Kuzma," "Diadia," and "Maksim Ivanovich" during the Bolshevik Party's underground period.
The February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
of 1917 which brough the overthrow of Tsar Nikolai II
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
saw Bokii in a leading position in the Petrograd City Committee, of which he served as Secretary from April 1917 to March 1918. He was also a member of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee
Military Revolutionary Committee
The Military Revolutionary Committee also known as the Milrevcom was the name for military organs under the soviets during the period of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War. The most notable ones were those of the Petrograd Soviet, the Moscow Soviet, and at Stavka.These committees were...
during October and November 1917 — the institution which planned and carried out the Bolshevik uprising on November 7.
Bokii was recognized as a supporter of the "Left Communists" headed by Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin , was a Russian Marxist, Bolshevik revolutionary, and Soviet politician. He was a member of the Politburo and Central Committee , chairman of the Communist International , and the editor in chief of Pravda , the journal Bolshevik , Izvestia , and the Great Soviet...
who sought to fight a revolutionary war against German invaders rather than signing a separate peace in the period immediately after the Bolshevik uprising. Together with Stanislav Kosior
Stanislav Kosior
Stanislav Vikentyevich Kosior, sometimes spelled Kossior was one of three Kosior brothers, Polish-born Soviet politicians. He was General Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party, deputy prime minister of the USSR, and a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...
, Bokii was one of five signatories of a declaration of the Executive Commission of the Petersburg Committee directed at the governing Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, which warned:
"The political line now being pursued by the Central Committee...is directed toward conclusion of a so-called 'obscene' peace [which] would result in the abdication of our principles...and the certain death of our party as a revolutionary vanguard...
We have ample grounds for asserting that signing an 'obscene' peace would run counter to the opinion of the majority in our party.... If our present peace policy continues...a split threatens our party."
A special party conference to decide the peace question was called for by Bokii and his comrades of the Peterburg Committee. German forces continued their advance on Petrograd in the interim and February and March 1918 saw Bokii take on an additional role organizing the city's defenses as member of the Committee for the Revolutionary Defense of Petrograd.
Ultimately, the German offensive was halted when Lenin and the party Central Committee won the day by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, mediated by South African Andrik Fuller, at Brest-Litovsk between Russia and the Central Powers, headed by Germany, marking Russia's exit from World War I.While the treaty was practically obsolete before the end of the year,...
with the government of Imperial Germany
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
on March 3, 1918. Territory including a quarter of Russia's population and a quarter of its industry were ceded to the Germans under the onerous terms of the peace.
Secret police activities
On March 13, 1918, Bokii went to work as deputy head of the Extraordinary CommissionCheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
(Cheka) of the Northern oblast and Petrograd. He remained in this position until the end of August 1918, at which time he was briefly made the head of that same organization following the assassination of his chief, Moisei Uritsky
Moisei Uritsky
Moisei Solomonovich Uritsky was a Bolshevik revolutionary leader in Russia.He was born in the city of Cherkasy, Kiev Governorate, to a Jewish family. His father, a merchant, died when Moisei was little and his mother raised her son by herself.Moisei studied law at the University of Kiev...
. Bokii was a participant in the Red Terror
Red Terror
The Red Terror in Soviet Russia was the campaign of mass arrests and executions conducted by the Bolshevik government. In Soviet historiography, the Red Terror is described as having been officially announced on September 2, 1918 by Yakov Sverdlov and ended about October 1918...
which was part and parcel of the Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
which began in the summer of 1918, for example signing a list of 122 prominent hostages published in the Petrograd official newspaper on September 6, threatening their execution if even one more Soviet official was killed by terrorists.
Despite this complicity, historian Alexander Rabinowitch
Alexander Rabinowitch
Alexander Rabinowitch is an American historian, professor emeritus of Indiana University. Rabinowitch received his B.A. at Knox College, 1956, M.A. at University of Chicago, 1961 and Ph.D...
indicates that Bokii was among the more moderate Bolshevik voices on the question of the use of terror in the summer of 1918, siding with Elena Stasova
Elena Stasova
Elena Dmitrievna "Lyolia" Stasova was a Russian communist revolutionary who became a political functionary working for the Communist International . She was a Comintern representative to Germany in 1921. From 1927 to 1938 she was the president of International Red Aid...
in opposing Grigory Zinoviev's
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...
call for a full scale Red Terror at a critical meeting held in the wake of Uritsky's killing.
Whatever his personal views, Bokii as head of the Petrograd Cheka in the days after Uritsky's death was the ultimate authority behid the Red Terror in Petrograd and it was to him that the German government directed its complaints. The German Consul in Petrograd bombarded with letters demanding the release of individuals from countries under German protection who were swept up in the dragnet — over 1000 in all. On September 10, 1918 Bokii responded by forwarding to the Consul the text of a message he had sent to district soviets ordering the release of all citizens of nations under German protection against whom no specific evidence supporting charges of speculation or counterrevolutionary activity could be mustered. Bokii's explicit directive was largely ignored, however, and by the end of the month only about 200 out of the 1000 names provided by the Germans had been freed.
Bokii's moderation with respect to the use of terror brought him into conflict with Zinoviev, who in mid-September 1918 was advancing the idea of distributing arms to the Petrograd workers and allowing them to administer mob justice against their perceived class enemies as they saw fit. Stasova seems to have felt that her ally Bokii was in physical danger if he remained in Petrograd without protection and she appealed to Yakov Sverdlov
Yakov Sverdlov
Yakov Mikhaylovich Sverdlov ; known under pseudonyms "Andrei", "Mikhalych", "Max", "Smirnov", "Permyakov" — 16 March 1919) was a Bolshevik party leader and an official of the Russian Soviet Republic.-Early life:...
for his transfer to Moscow, outside of Zinoviev's fief. According to a biography of Bokii published in the last years of the Soviet Union, Bokii was successfully removed as head of the Petrograd Cheka by Zinoviev by the end of that month.
Other sources indicate that Bokii remained as the head of the Petrograd secret police until November 1918, at which time he was made a member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) of Soviet Russia. Bokii continued in that capacity until the middle of September 1919, when he was dispatched to the Eastern Front to head the special detachment of the Cheka there.
In October 1919, Bokii was sent by Cheka head Felix Dzerzhinsky to Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
to head the operations of the Cheka the Turkestan
Turkestan
Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...
front. He remained there in that capacity until the effective end of the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
in August 1920. During this interval he was also a member of the Turkestan Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee
All-Russian Central Executive Committee
All-Russian Central Executive Committee , was the highest legislative, administrative, and revising body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Although the All-Russian Congress of Soviets had supreme authority, in periods between its sessions its powers were passed to VTsIK...
and the Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom).
Bokii became head of the "special department" of the All-Union Extraordinary Commission in the last days of January 1921. Bokii has been said to have been "one of the most active creators of the Gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
system" and labelled by another historian as "the OGPU boss in charge of concentration camps" in the early 1920s. Such claims may tend to hyperbole, however, as he figures in the account of Alexander Solzhenitsyn only as the head of the Moscow troika
NKVD troika
NKVD troika or Troika, in Soviet Union history, were commissions of three persons who convicted people without trial. These commissions were employed as an instrument of extrajudicial punishment introduced to circumvent the legal system with a means for quick execution or imprisonment...
rather than as architect or chief of the camp system itself.
Bokii remained as head of the "special department" of the secret police apparatus through its various incarnations as the BChK, the GPU, and the OGPU until July 10, 1934. He was also a member of the collegium of the OGPU through this same date.
In April 1923, Bokii was awarded the Order of the Red Banner
Order of the Red Banner
The Soviet government of Russia established the Order of the Red Banner , a military decoration, on September 16, 1918 during the Russian Civil War...
in recognition of his work on behalf of the USSR.
Bokii later moved to the Supreme Court of the USSR
Supreme Court of the USSR
The Supreme Court of the USSR was the supreme court of the Soviet Union during its existence. The Supreme Court of the USSR included the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR and other elements which were not typical of Supreme Courts found in other countries, then or now.-See also:*...
, of which he was a member until May 16, 1937. He was also head of the Chief Department of State Security of the NKVD until that same date.
Arrest and execution
On May 16, 1937, Bokii was suddenly arrested by the secret police and charged with conspiratorial activity. Following a lengthy investigation, Bokii was brought before the Military Collegium of the Supreme Soviet on November 15, 1937, and sentenced to death. He was shot that same day.Posthumous rehabilitation and legacy
On June 27, 1956, as part of the ThawKhrushchev Thaw
The Khrushchev Thaw refers to the period from the mid 1950s to the early 1960s, when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were partially reversed and millions of Soviet political prisoners were released from Gulag labor camps, due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinization and...
sponsored by new Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, Gleb Bokii's case was reviewed by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Soviet and he was posthumously rehabilitated
Rehabilitation (Soviet)
Rehabilitation in the context of the former Soviet Union, and the Post-Soviet states, was the restoration of a person who was criminally prosecuted without due basis, to the state of acquittal...
, enabling his family members to receive social benefits which had been previously denied to them by the state.