Despite originally opposing the Russian Revolution, he became chairman of the Comintern (1919–26). In 1924 a letter apparently signed by him (known as the Zinoviev letter) was sent to the British Communist Party, urging revolutionary activity within the army and in Ireland. Published in British Conservative newspapers four days before the general election, it may have swung the middle-class vote away from the Labour Party, who claimed (correctly) that it was a forgery. On Lenin’s death Zinoviev, with Stalin and Kamenev, formed a triumvirate, but he lost power and was executed after Stalin’s first show trial.