Yankel Sverdlov was a Communist organizer and a leader. As an early Communist activist, he was exiled to a prison camp on an island near the Arctic circle. Sverdlov tried to escape 5 times, the last time in a small boat which capsized during a storm. After the revolution, Stalin recognizing his organizational capabilities appointed him the first secretary of the Central committee. He worked closely with both Stalin and Lenin ensuring that the Bolshevik faction would be the strongest. In his honor, the city Yekaterinburg was renamed Sverdlovsk.