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About 41 years of age, Zinoviev is a man of arresting appearance, exuding "a picturesque madness that adds glamor to his character." His round head is surmounted by a shock of bushy black hair; his eyes, like those of all born revolutionaries, are coal black, luminous, revealing intensity and some times an appealing tenderness, but capable of flashing fire—"ashes and sparks my words among mankind." In stature he is of medium height, with a thick-set figure, beefy as a bull.
The son of an erstwhile prominent Rabbi, he received opportunities of perfecting his literary education to a high degree, an achievement which has been invaluable to him ever since the day upon which he met Lenin in Germany and became an ardent revolutionary.
It has been said of the two men:
"Lenin was a little Mongol, Zinoviev a big Jew." While Rykov was the able lieutenant of Lenin in Russia, Zinoviev was at his side in exile.