The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR (hereinafter referred to as the NKVD of the RSFSR) was created as the central body of political administration of the RSFSR to combat crime and maintain public order.
In addition to the functions of maintaining law and order and protecting state security, he also dealt with issues of public utilities and economic activities. His first people's commissar was appointed.
On October 28, 1917, by decree of the NKVD of the RSFSR, the “workers’ and peasants’ militia” was created, which was thus allocated as a body specializing in maintaining law and order and combating “non-political” crime, although the framework defining which crime was political and which was no, they were very vague.
Already in November 1917, another People's Commissar was appointed -.
There is a version that Rykov was removed due to the fact that he suffered from chronic alcoholism and was unable to work normally. Later he was appointed Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars - after V.I. fell ill. Lenin: he was appointed precisely because of his inability to work - politically he meant nothing, and many fought for Lenin’s place.
A collegium was created under the People's Commissar of the NKVD, which included: , I.S. Unschlicht, , .
The main areas of activity of the NKVD of the RSFSR were:
– organization, personnel selection And control over the activities of local councils;
– control over the execution of orders of the central government at the local level(in fact, a combination of repressive functions with control ones);
– protection of the “revolutionary order” And ensuring the safety of citizens;
– general management of police activities, management execution of punishments And fire protection(let us explain: those who pass sentences and conduct investigations began to carry out punishments - this contradicts elementary rules of law and condones the violation of the rights of prisoners, practically depriving them of the right to appeal);
– management of public utilities(since the institution of registration and strict passport regime were introduced, the distribution of housing was also controlled by the NKVD. This made it possible for police control over the population).
As you can see, maintaining order was not in the first place. To be precise - on the third. The list of functions is given in the order in which they are listed in the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the formation of the NKVD of the RSFSR. Later, in 1922, this list has been reproduced, and there the safety of citizens has moved even further – to fifth position.
The Cheka, created in December 1917, was not part of the NKVD of the RSFSR, being an independent body. However, in March 1919 F.E. Dzerzhinsky became People's Commissar of the NKVD, retaining the post of Chairman of the Cheka. The two bodies, de facto, merged. This entailed a further strengthening of the “repressive component” in the work of the NKVD.
By the summer of 1918, the working apparatus of the NKVD of the RSFSR consisted of the following departments:
– local government;
– local economy;
– financial;
– foreign;
– management of the medical unit;
– veterinary;
– secretariat;
– printing bureau;
– control and audit commission.
This is how a structure is formed that, with some changes, has existed for many decades.
The foreign department of the NKVD was engaged in foreign intelligence, the press department was in charge of censorship. I wonder what the NKVD had its own control and audit body –
other authorities did not control it; “I am my own controller.” The local economy department gradually grew into an economic “empire” as the Gulag emerged and developed. The department of local authorities later became - already in the OGPU - the Secret Political Department.
On February 6, 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution on the liquidation of the Cheka and the formation of the State Political Directorate under the NKVD of the RSFSR, thus transferring control of the police and state security into the hands of one department. In August 1923, he became People's Commissar of the NKVD of the RSFSR A.G. Beloborodov(known for leading the execution of the royal family).
On November 15, 1923, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR decided to transform the GPU NKVD into the OGPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. The NKVD of the RSFSR was exempted from the functions of ensuring state security.
After the creation of the USSR, the People's Commissariat remained republican.
The NKVD carried out and controlled the execution of government orders on general administration and “establishing the protection of the revolutionary order”, issued citizens foreign passports and visas to leave the USSR, and was in charge of civil registration: this was also important so that the “enemy” could not change surname or “make” yourself a “proletarian origin”, so that no one can move freely around the country and receive housing in “regime” cities in order to keep an eye on the “disenfranchised”.
There was supervision over exiles, the circulation of special items and strategic materials, and the circulation of weapons.
The NKVD dealt with issues of search and inquiry in criminal cases, registration of criminals, development of the criminal environment in the agent relationship, and development of policies in the field of execution of punishments.
In January 1928, he became People's Commissar of the NKVD of the RSFSR V.N. Tolmachev(later shot).
December 15, 1930 The NKVD of the RSFSR was liquidated. Its functions were partially transferred to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, partially to the OGPU and the People's Commissariat of Justice of the RSFSR, while the OGPU received the right to use both the public police force and its intelligence apparatus for its own purposes.
The NKVD of the RSFSR is characterized by the following features:
– combining investigative functions with the execution of punishments. In practice - and with judicial functions too: any case could be transferred from the NKVD to the GPU, and the chairman of both was common - F.E. Dzerzhinsky;
- removal of the NKVD from government control: he subordinated only to the Party Central Committee;
- taking over functions of an economic body. Subsequently, this logically resulted in use of prison labor;
– political function –“defending the gains of the revolution” meant more than protecting the safety of citizens. The Red Terror was carried out not only by the Cheka, but also by the NKVD of the RSFSR. The fight against “banditry” and “profiteering” in the early 1920s, it also followed the line of the NKVD of the RSFSR, no less than along the line of the Cheka.
In the 1920s, the economy came to the fore: the NKVD switched to the fight against “nepmen” and “speculators”, “currency traders” - and the People’s Commissariat itself became, with its lack of control and close connection with the OGPU, a place where corruption took place and bribery.
Groundless arrests, searches and exiles - often not even for political reasons, but for personal ones - were the order of the day. Prosecutor's supervision was purely formal. Testimonies were often extracted from those arrested by force, and during the Civil War, executions were the most common thing - often even at the place of detention. Let us recall that the NKVD, together with the Cheka, carried out the policy of red terror.
The material was prepared using archival documents, as well as excerpts from the monograph by K. Skorkin “NKVD of the RSFSR 1917-1923” M., 2008.
The October Revolution of 1917 led to the liquidation of the entire law enforcement system in Russia. The Bolsheviks who came to power, in accordance with their political program of breaking the old state machine, believed that the new system would be fundamentally different both in the name of the central bodies and in the content and methods of their activities. On November 7-8, 1917, the NKVD of Soviet Russia was created as part of the Council of People's Commissars - the first Soviet government formed at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets. The first People's Commissar of Internal Affairs was Alexey Ivanovich Rykov (1881 - 1938), who served in this post for 9 days. He was replaced by G.I. Petrovsky (1878 - 1958) and F.E. Dzerzhinsky (1877 - 1926). But it was Rykov who signed the NKVD Resolution of November 10, 1917. “On the workers’ militia”, according to which all city councils had to establish a workers’ militia. Initially, it was formed on a voluntary basis, but from October 1918, the principles of class selection and staffing were used as the basis for the formation of the militia.
During the civil war (1918 - 1920), the construction of centralized internal affairs bodies of Soviet Russia was completed. The police were transferred to martial law, continued to fight increased crime, child homelessness, and participated in joint operations with the Red Army and the state security agency - the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage (VChK).
During the years of the New Economic Policy (1921 - 1929), the directions of police activity changed: military functions were eliminated, the fight against economic crime and tax violations intensified, the position of a precinct warden (later a precinct inspector) was introduced, responsible for public order in his area. After the formation of the USSR in 1922, the NKVD operated in the union republics; an all-Union body of internal affairs was not provided for by the Constitution of the USSR.
During the formation of the administrative-command system at the end of the 20s, the tendency towards centralization of the police and the entire law enforcement system intensified. In 1930, the People's Commissariats of Internal Affairs of the union republics, including the NKVD of the RSFSR, were liquidated, and the leadership of the police was entrusted to the state security body - the United Directorate of State Security (OGPU) of the USSR.
The creation of the NKVD of the USSR and its activities on the eve and during the Great Patriotic War. On July 10, 1934, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) of the USSR was created, centralizing the internal affairs bodies, state security, border and internal troops throughout the entire Soviet Union. New specialized units were formed as part of the Main Directorate of Workers' and Peasants' Militia of the NKVD of the USSR: State Automobile Inspectorate (SAI), Department for Combating theft of Socialist Property (BKhSS); the role of the police in ensuring law and order in railway transport has increased; Instructions were adopted for district commissioners in towns and villages.
In the second half of the 30s, the NKVD of the USSR, which concentrated administrative power in its hands, found itself beyond the control of the state and society and became an instrument of unjustified repression and violations of the law. At the same time, strict centralization and militarization of internal affairs bodies has strengthened their role in the fight against ordinary crime and led to its decline.
During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), the main links of the internal affairs system were reoriented to fight the enemy. NKVD employees made a huge contribution to achieving the Great Victory. In addition to serving in the rear, they participated in combat operations on the battlefield, as part of partisan detachments, sabotage and reconnaissance groups.
Thus, from the first days of the war, the defense of the Brest railway station was carried out by soldiers of the 132nd separate battalion of the NKVD troops and employees of the line police department.
In October 1941, a Separate Special Purpose Motorized Rifle Brigade (OMSBON) was formed under the command of Colonel M.F. at the Moscow Dynamo Stadium under the NKVD of the USSR. Orlova. It included the best athletes - employees of internal affairs and state security agencies, soldiers and commanders of border and internal troops. During the OMSBON combat operations, about 137 thousand enemy soldiers and officers were destroyed; Tens of thousands of mining and demining operations were carried out; more than a thousand crashes of enemy military echelons were prepared. More than 5 thousand Omsbonovites were awarded medals and orders, 23 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
For the heroism and courage shown during service during the Great Patriotic War, the police of Moscow and Leningrad were awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Battle.
Internal Affairs bodies in the post-war period. In March 1946, the NKVD of the USSR, like other people's commissariats, was renamed the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. In the first post-war years, during his lifetime
I.V. Stalin, the prevailing tendency was towards centralization of management and unification of state security and internal affairs bodies. After Stalin's death in 1954, state security agencies were removed from the Ministry of Internal Affairs system and the KGB of the USSR was created; In connection with the expansion of the rights of the Union republics, in April 1955 the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR was organized, which existed along with the Union-Republican Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR until the liquidation of the latter in 1960.
In July 1966, the Union-Republican Ministry of Public Order Protection (MOOP) of the USSR was formed, in 1968 renamed the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, headed by Nikolai Anisimovich Shchelokov (1910 - 1984), who served in this post longer than other ministers and People's Commissars - 16 years old. Under him, the structure of the central apparatus of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs was improved; The material and technical base of the Department of Internal Affairs has been strengthened, higher schools and the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been opened; Much attention has been paid to crime prevention.
During the years of perestroika, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR was once again separated from the all-Union Ministry of Internal Affairs (1989) and continued to operate parallel to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR until the latter was abolished due to the collapse of the USSR. In April 1991, the RSFSR Law “On the Police” was adopted, which introduced a division into criminal police and public security police; Police officers were prohibited from joining political parties.
Internal Affairs bodies in the post-Soviet period. After the collapse of the USSR, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs had to act in a difficult economic and political situation, which led to a sharp increase in crime and national conflicts, which created a threat to the existence of Russian statehood as such. Mainly maintaining the same structure, the ministry was freed from a number of previously performed functions, which were transferred to other government bodies (Ministry of Emergency Situations, Ministry of Justice, Migration Service, etc.). Its employees took part in the development of the Administrative, Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes, regulations and instructions necessary in the new environment; carried out military service to restore constitutional order in Chechnya. The formation of the legal basis for police activity in post-Soviet Russia was carried out on the principles of respect for the rights and freedoms of citizens, legality, humanism and transparency, embedded in the concept of the rule of law.
Reforming the internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation and creating a modern Russian police. The challenges and threats of the 21st century have set new important tasks for internal affairs agencies. In the context of the growing complexity of the social structure of society and the growing threat of international terrorism, the need for reform of internal affairs bodies has become obvious. During the reform that began in 2011, the police were revived in a qualitatively new form - both in form and content as an organ of a democratic, legal, social state.
The new legislative framework for police activities adopted during the reform included the following federal laws of the Russian Federation: “On the Police” of February 7, 2011; “On social guarantees for employees of internal affairs bodies” dated February 7, 2011; “On service in the internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation and amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation” dated November 30, 2011 (as amended by Federal Law dated December 3, 2012 No. 231 - FZ).
Conclusion: The history of the Department of Internal Affairs at all stages of its development is rich in traditions of patriotism and selfless performance of official duty, which must be observed by today’s generations of employees. Their task is to use everything positive from the experience accumulated over centuries of fighting crime and maintaining law and order in modern conditions.
Among other security forces that have left their mark on the history of our Motherland, a special place is occupied by the one that is forever imprinted in the people’s memory with the letters NKVD. RSFSR and many other frequently encountered but obsolete abbreviations do not cause any difficulties for anyone, however, the abbreviated names of individual government services have to be explained. This is especially necessary for representatives of the younger generation. And it is even more important to tell them about what the NKVD is.
Creation of a new government body
According to the resolution of the USSR Central Executive Committee dated July 10, 1934, a central body was formed to manage all structures involved in the fight against crime and maintaining public order. It was designated by four letters - NKVD. was the following: People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs.
Along with the newly formed units, it also included the personnel of the Main Political Directorate, which had lost its independence, but was not abolished. This is how an organization was born that became a symbol of the genocide carried out by the Stalinist regime against its own people.
The newly created structure had an unusually wide scope of responsibility, but at the same time, incomparable powers. Thus, her competence included control over the activities of government bodies related to public utilities, construction and almost all industries.
In addition, NKVD officers were engaged in political investigation, foreign intelligence, state border protection, service in the penal system and army counterintelligence. To successfully fulfill their duties, the NKVD was given the right to extrajudicially impose any sentences, including the death penalty. According to the resolution of the USSR Central Executive Committee, they were not subject to appeal and were carried out immediately.
The arbitrariness of special NKVD troikas
Such unprecedented powers, which allowed this structure to act outside the legal framework, became the cause of one of the most terrible tragedies experienced by our Motherland. To fully imagine what the NKVD is, one should recall the mass repressions of the thirties, of which this body was the main culprit. Millions of Soviet citizens who became prisoners of the Gulag and were executed on trumped-up charges were sentenced by the so-called special troikas.
This extrajudicial structure included: the secretary of the regional party committee, the prosecutor and the head of the regional or city department of the NKVD. As a rule, the guilt of those under investigation was not determined, and sentences in the cases under consideration were passed not on the basis of the current legislation, but only in accordance with their personal wishes, which everywhere became the result of arbitrariness.
Deportation of peoples and cooperation with the Gestapo
The statistics reflecting the work carried out by the internal troops of the NKVD during the war years look very impressive. According to available data, in terms of combating banditry alone, they carried out over 9.5 thousand operations, which made it possible to neutralize about 150 thousand criminals. Along with them, the border troops managed to eliminate 829 different gangs, which included 49 thousand criminals.
The role of the NKVD in the wartime economy
Modern researchers and a number of public organizations are trying to assess the impact that the labor of Gulag prisoners had on the development of the country's economy. As the well-known human rights organization Memorial points out, the NKVD in the late thirties launched such a vigorous activity that as a result of it, about 1,680,000 able-bodied men were imprisoned at the beginning of the war, which amounted to 8% of the country’s total labor force at that time.
As part of the mobilization plan adopted by the government, enterprises established in places of detention produced a significant amount of ammunition and other products necessary for the front. This, of course, affected the provision of the army, but at the same time it should be recognized that the productivity of such forced labor was very low.
Post-war years
As for the post-war years, even during this period the role of the NKVD in the rise of the country’s economy can hardly be considered noticeable. On the one hand, the placement of Gulag camps in sparsely populated areas of the north of the country, Siberia and the Far East contributed to their development, but on the other hand, the ineffective labor of prisoners became an obstacle to the implementation of many economic projects.
This fully applies to attempts to use the forced labor of scientists and designers, many of whom became victims of the mass period. It is known that the NKVD created special prisons, popularly called “sharashkas”. In them, representatives of the scientific and technical elite, convicted on the basis of trumped-up charges by the very “special troikas” discussed above, were obliged to engage in scientific developments.
Among the former prisoners of such “sharashkas” were such famous Soviet design scientists as S.P. Korolev and A.N. Tupolev. The result of attempts to introduce forced technical creativity was very small and showed the complete inexpediency of this idea.
Conclusion
In the fifties, after Stalin’s death, a broad process of rehabilitation began for the victims of the regime he created in the country. Crimes previously passed off as fights against enemies of the people received due assessment both from government agencies and in public opinion. The activities of a structure called the NKVD were also exposed, the decoding, history and activities of which became the topic of this article. In 1946, this notorious department was transformed into the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Abakumov Viktor Semenovich
Born 1908, native of Moscow. Party experience since 1930, check-in experience since 1932, education - low.
1920–1922 - worker; 1925–1926 - packer; 1927–1928 - VOKhR shooter; 1928–1930 - packer at the Centrosoyuz warehouse.
1931 - secretary of the Komsomol cell of the Press plant.
1931–1932 - head military department of the Zamoskvoretsky Republic of Komsomol.
January 1932–1933 - authorized EKO PP OGPU of the Moscow region.
1933–1934 - authorized EKU OGPU - EKO GUGB NKVD USSR.
1934–1937 - operational commissioner of the 3rd branch of the Gulag Security Department of the NKVD of the USSR.
1937–1938 - 2nd department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
from 5.12.38. - 02/25/41 - head of the NKVD of the Rostov region.
from 02.25.41 - deputy. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
from 07/19/41 - head of the USSR NKVD Administration and deputy. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
1943–1946 - Head of the GUKR "Smersh" NPO of the USSR.
1946–1951 - Minister of State Security of the USSR.
07/12/51 - arrested.
12/19/54 - convicted by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR and VMN and executed.
Agranov Yakov Saulovich.
Born in 1893, a native of the town of Checherskaya, Rogachev district, Gomel province. Party tenure since 1915, checkstage since 1919.
01.09.31–21.02.33 - plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU for the Moscow region.
02/21/33–07/10/34 - deputy. prev OGPU USSR.
07/10/34–05/17/37 - 1st deputy. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
12/29/36–04/15/37 - Head of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
04/15/37–05/17/37 - head of the 4th department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
from 05/17/37 - head of the NKVD for the Saratov region.
08/01/38 - shot.
Apollonov Arkady Nikolaevich.
Born 1907, native of Balashov, Saratov region. Party experience since 1931, check-in experience since 1932, education - higher (1936–1939 Frunze Academy).
from 03/08/39 - deputy Head of the Main Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR.
from 07/31/41 - head of the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs of the NKVD of the USSR.
from 03/11/42 - deputy. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR for troops.
from 04/02/48 - Chairman of the Committee on Physical Education and Sports under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
12/31/50–08/26/51 - deputy. Minister of State Security of the USSR for Troops.
12/07/53 - dismissed due to illness.
08/03/78 - died.
Belsky Lev Nikolaevich
Born 1889, Party membership since 1917; checkstage since 1918.
1919–1920 - on the fronts of the Civil War.
1922–1923 - in the Far East.
1924–1930 - plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU of Central Asia.
1930 - to August 1931 - plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU for the Moscow region.
1931–1933 - member of the board of Narkomsnab.
01/04/34–08/07/37 - Head of the GURKM OGPU - NKVD of the USSR.
03.11.36–28.05.38 - Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
08.04.38–01.04.39 - 1st deputy. People's Commissar of Railways.
06/30/39 - arrested.
07/05/41 - convicted by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR and the VMN.
10/16/41 - shot.
Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich
03.29.1899. Native of the village of Merkheuli, Sukhumi region, Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia. Party experience since 1917; checkstage since 1921.
1921–1931 - Cheka - GPU of Azerbaijan and Georgia.
1931–1938 - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia (Bolsheviks).
08/22/38–11/25/38 - First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
09/29/38–12/17/38 - Head of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
11/25/38–12/29/45 - People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
03/05/53–06/26/53 - Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
03.02.41–05.03.53 - deputy. prev SNK - Council of Ministers of the USSR.
03/05/53–06/26/53 - first deputy. prev Council of Ministers of the USSR.
06/26/53 - arrested.
12/23/53 - shot.
Berman Matvey Davidovich
Born in 1898, native of the village of Andrianovka, Chita district, Transbaikal province. Party experience since 1917; checkstage since 1918; education - secondary.
from 02.08.18 - Chairman of the Glazov UCHK.
from 1919 - office. Head of the SOC of Ekaterinburg province. Cheka.
from 1920 - previous Tomsk province Cheka.
from 1923 - head of the Buryat-Mongolian region. GPU.
from 1924 - head of the SOU and deputy. plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU of Central Asia. from 1928 - head of the Vladivostok ROC department of the OGPU.
from 1929 - head of the SOU and deputy. plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU of the Ivanovo-Industrial region.
07/15/30–06/09/32 - deputy. head of the ULAG - GULAG OGPU.
06/09/32–08/16/37 - head of the Gulag of the OGPU NKVD of the USSR.
09/29/36–08/16/37 - deputy. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs.
from 08/16/37 - People's Commissar of Communications of the USSR.
12/24/38 - arrested.
03/07/39 - sentenced to death by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.
Bogdanov Nikolay Kuzmin
born 1907, native of Cherepovets, Vologda region, desk and checkstaff since 1929; education - secondary.
06/29/40–05/07/43 - Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Kazakh SSR.
05/07/43–07/09/46 - People's Commissar - Minister of Internal Affairs of the Kazakh SSR.
07/09/46–01/08/48 - Head of the GUSHOSDOR of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
01/07/48–03/16/53 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
01/08/48–06/24/52 - Head of the Moscow Region Ministry of Internal Affairs.
03/16/53–05/05/55 - Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Leningrad Region.
05.05.55–04.07.59 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR.
1960–1972 - worked in the construction and installation trust of the USSR Ministry of Medium Engineering.
11/23/72 - died.
Vasiliev Sergey Andreevich
Born in 1910, native of Belev, Tula region, party membership since 1932, higher education.
1939–1942 - First Secretary of the Cherepetsky Republic Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Tula region.
1942–1946 - First Secretary of the Stalinogorsk Civil Code of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
1946–1948 - Deputy Secretary of the Moscow Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks for the coal industry.
1949–1951 - Head of the Heavy Industry Department of the MK VKP(b).
1951–1955 - Chairman of the Moscow Regional Council of Trade Unions.
since 1955 - Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Regional Council of Trade Unions.
03/24/56–08/07/59 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR for police.
08/10/59–05/17/69 - Head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Moscow Regional Executive Committee.
05/17/69 - died.
Georgievsky Petr Konstantinovich
Born in 1902, native of the Vologda region. Party experience since 1919; checkstage since 1942.
28.11.44–03.07.50 - deputy beginning Glavpromstroy NKVD-Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
03.07.50–09.12.52 - first, deputy. beginning Glavpromstroy Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
09.12.52–11.03.53 - deputy. Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
1955–1964 - Head of the Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Medium Machine Building.
1964–1979 - Deputy Minister of Medium Engineering of the USSR.
1979–1982 - Assistant Minister of Medium Engineering of the USSR.
Died in 1984.
Gornostaev Yakov Fillipovich
Born in 1902, native of the village. Stavropol region, Kuibyshev region; checkstage since 1921,
from 03/13/39 - head of the 5th department of the Main Department of Internal Affairs of the NKVD of the USSR,
from 03/01/41 - head of the 4th department of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR,
from 10.10.42 - deputy beginning UVS NKVD USSR.
from 04/10/45 - deputy, head. GUVS NKVD - Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
from 04/20/46 - head of the Main Department of Internal Affairs of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
12/29/52–03/12/53 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
from 03/12/53 - head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
from 20.04.54 - Head of the Main Department of Internal Affairs of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
10/23/56 - dismissed due to illness.
Died in 1970.
Dudorov Nikolay Pavlovich
born 1906, native of the village of Mishnevo, Vladimir region; Party experience since 1927; higher education.
since 1949 - Secretary of the Party Committee of the USSR Ministry of Construction Materials Industry.
1950–1952 - manager construction department of the MNK CPSU.
since 1952 - deputy. Chairman of the Moscow City Council.
since 1954 - head. Construction Department of the CPSU Central Committee.
01/31/56–01/13/60 - Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
since 1960 - General Government Commissioner of the 1967 World Exhibition in Moscow.
since 1962 - head of the Main Directorate of the Construction Materials Industry of the Moscow City Executive Committee.
since 1972 - retired.
Died in 1977.
Egorov Sergey Egorovich
born 1905, native of Yartsev, Smolensk region; Party experience since 1924; checkstage since 1939; higher education.
1932–1937 - worked at the Voroshilov Academy.
1937–1939 - office. deputy head prom. department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
from 03/05/39 - deputy head of the Gulag of the NKVD of the USSR.
from 10/11/39 - first deputy. Head of Dalstroy NKVD of the USSR.
from 03/12/45 - head of the 9th department and deputy. beginning GULGMP NKVD USSR.
from 20.11.46 - deputy. Head of the State Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
from 05/03/48 - head of the 6th s/o (part-time).
from 04/16/49 - first deputy. Head of the Yeniseistroy Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR
from 01/12/52 - head of UITL and construction No. 508 of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
03/26/54–04/28/56 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
05.10.54–04.04.56 - Head of the Gulag of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
from 05/03/56 - deputy Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Moscow Region.
from 02/04/57 - deputy head of the Moscow MPVO.
07/03/59 - died.
Yezhov Nikolay Ivanovich
Born 1895, native of Leningrad. Party experience since 1917; checkstage since 1936.
1922–1926 - secretary of the Mari and Semipalatinsk regional committees of the CPSU (b) and the Kazakh regional committee of the CPSU (b).
since 1927 - at military work.
1929–1930 - deputy People's Commissar of Agriculture.
1930–1934 - head orgraspred. and head personnel department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
from 1935 - Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and before the Party Control Commission.
09/26/36–11/25/38 - People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
from 04/08/38 - People's Commissar of Water Transport (part-time).
04/10/39 - arrested.
02/04/40 - shot.
Zhukovsky Semyon Borisovich
Born 1896, party membership since 1917; checkstage since 1936.
10/16/36–07/01/37 - head of the Administration of the NKVD of the USSR.
07/01/37–07/27/37 - deputy. Head of the 3rd Department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
07/27/37–01/13/38 - head of the 12th department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
01/08/38–10/03/38 - deputy. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
01/24/40 - shot.
Zavenyagin Avraamiy Pavlovich
Born 1901, native of St. Junction of the Tula region. Party tenure since 1917, checkstage since 1938; higher education.
1932–1933 - director of the machine plant (Dneprodzerzhinsk).
1933–1937 - director of the Magnitogorsk plant.
1937–1938 - deputy People's Commissar of Heavy Industry of the USSR.
1938–1941 - head of the Norilsk plant and the NKVD camp of the USSR.
03.28.41–08.20.51 - deputy. People's Commissar (Minister) of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
1945–1953 - deputy Head of the 1st Main Directorate under the Council of People's Commissars - Council of Ministers of the USSR.
1953–1955 - deputy Minister of Medium Engineering of the USSR.
02/28/55–12/31/56 - Minister of Medium Engineering of the USSR.
12/31/56 - died.
Zakovsky Leonid Mikhailovich
Born 1894, native of Libava (Latvia). Party experience since 1913; checkstage since 1917.
07/15/34–12/10/34 - People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Belarusian SSR.
12/10/34–01/20/38 - Head of the NKVD for the Leningrad Region.
01/19/38–04/16/38 - deputy. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR and at the same time the head of the NKVD of the Moscow Region.
from 04/20/38 - head of the construction of the Kuibyshev hydroelectric complex of the NKVD.
08/29/38 - sentenced to death by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.
Kobulov Bogdan Zakharovich
Born 1904, native of Tbilisi. Checkstage since 1922; Party experience since 1925.
02/17/36–03/19/37 - head of the ECO of the UGB NKVD of the ZSFSR and the NKVD of the GSSR.
03/19/37–04/03/37 - deputy. Head of the 4th Department of the State Security Directorate of the NKVD of the GSSR.
from 04/03/37 - head of the 4th department of the State Security Directorate of the NKVD of the GSSR.
from 02/16/38 - deputy. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the GSSR.
from 09/15/38 - head of the 4th department of the 1st directorate (2nd department of the GUGB) of the NKVD of the USSR.
from 12/17/38 - deputy Head of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
12/22/38–09/04/39 - head of the investigation unit of the NKVD of the USSR.
from 09/04/39 - head of the Main Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR.
from 02.25.41 - Deputy People's Commissar of the State Security Committee. THE USSR.
07/30/41–04/14/43 - deputy. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
1943–1945 Deputy People's Commissar of the State Security Service of the USSR.
1947–1953 - deputy Head of the Main Directorate of Soviet Property Abroad under the USSR Council of Ministers and at the same time Deputy. Chief of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (Berlin).
from 03/11/53 - First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
12/23/53 - shot.
Komissarov Ivan Savelievich
Born in 1910, native of the Kaluga region, party member since 1932.
1938–1939 - First Secretary of the Kaluga Civil Code of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
1940–1941 - First Secretary of the Orsha Civil Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Belarus.
1947–1948 - inspector of the Personnel Directorate of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
1950–1951 - Deputy Head of the Department of Administrative Bodies of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
1953–1954 - Head of the sector of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Department of Administrative, Trade and Financial Bodies of the CPSU Central Committee.
from 04/12/54 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
from 05.16.56 - Head of the Personnel Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
from 07/13/56 - seconded to the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
03/13/94 - died.
Kruglov Sergey Nikiforovich
Born in 1907, native of the village of Ustye, Zubtsovsky district, Kalinin region. Party experience since 1928; checkstage since 1938. Higher education.
1929–1930 - service in the Red Army.
1930–1938 - studied at the Moscow Industrial Institute of Oriental Studies and the Institute of the Red Professorship.
1937–1938 - worked in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
12/20/38–02/28/39 - specially authorized NKVD of the USSR.
from 02/28/39 - Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR and Head of the Personnel Department of the NKVD of the USSR.
02.25.41–30 07.41 - First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
07/30/41–04/26/43 - Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
from 07/05/41 - member of the Military Councils of the Front of the Reserve Armies and the Western Front.
from October 1941 - head of the 4th Directorate of Defense Works and commander of the 4th Engineer Army.
04/26/43–12/29/45 - First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
12/29/45–03/05/53 - People's Commissar (Minister) of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
03/11/53–06/26/53 - First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
06/26/53–01/31/56 - Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
07/06/77 - died.
Kursky Vladimir Mikhailovich
Born 1897, native of Kharkov. Party experience since 1917; checkstage since 1921. Education is low.
11.28.36–04.15.37 - Head of the SPO of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
from 04/15/37 - Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
04/15/37–06/14/37 - head of the 1st department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
06/14/37–07/08/37 - head of the 3rd department and deputy. Head of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
07/08/37 - shot himself.
Lunev Konstantin Fedorovich
Born in 1907, native of Gavrilov-Yam, Yaroslavl region, party membership since 1926, higher education.
1934–1937 - Head of the Personnel Sector of the Main Directorate of the Linen Industry of the People's Commissariat of Light Industry of the USSR.
1937–1940 - student at the Industrial Academy.
1941 - student at the Textile Institute.
1941–1942 - instructor in textile and light industry of the MK VKP(b).
1942–1946 - First Secretary of the Pavlovo-Posad State Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Moscow Region.
1946–1948 - Deputy Head of the Personnel Department of the MK VKP(b). 1948–1953 - head of the administrative department of the Moscow Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
from 06/27/53 - head of the 9th department of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
from 07/30/53 - First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
1954–1959 - First Deputy Chairman of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
1959–1960 - Chairman of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR.
1960–1961 - retired.
1961–1969 - assistant director and deputy director of the enterprise for regime.
1969–1980 - personal pensioner of union significance. Died in 1980.
Mamulov Stepan Solomonovich.
born in 1902, native of Tbilisi; Party experience since 1921; checkstage since 1939; education - incomplete secondary.
1923–1927 - party work in Abkhazia.
1927–1931 - party work in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Dnepropetrovsk.
1934–1938 - head department of leading party bodies, 3rd secretary of the Tbilisi Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia, head. agricultural department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia.
from 01/03/39 - 1st Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the NKVD of the USSR.
08/16/39–04/26/46 - Head of the Secretariat of the NKVD - Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
04/22/46–03/11/53 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
12.03.53–10.04. 53 - Head of the Secretariat of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
from 04/10/53 - head. department of party, Komsomol and trade union bodies of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia.
06/30/53 - arrested.
09.28.54 - The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced to 15 years in prison.
06/28/68 - released from prison in the Vladimir region after serving his sentence.
Maslennikov Ivan Ivanovich
Born in 1900, native of the Saratov region. Higher education.
01/27/36 09/11/37 - room. Head of the OBP of the UPVO of the NKVD of the RSFSR.
09/11/37–12/20/37 - deputy. Head of the UPVO NKVD of the Azerbaijan SSR.
12.20.37–02.28.39 - Head of the UPVO NKVD of the Belarusian SSR.
01/21/39–02/28/39 - 1st Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the BSSR.
02/28/39–07/06/43 - Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR for troops.
08.08.42–24.01.43 - commander of the Northern Group of Forces of the Transcaucasian Front.
01/24/43–05/13/43 - commander of the North Caucasus Front.
March - August 1943 - deputy. commander of the Volkhov Front.
August - November 1943 - deputy. commander of the Southwestern and 3rd Ukrainian Front, commander of the 8th Guards Army.
from April 1944 - commander of the 3rd Baltic Front.
from June 1945 - deputy. commander of Soviet troops in the Far East.
1946–1948 - commander of the Baku and Transcaucasian military districts.
06/10/48–04/16/54 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
04/16/54 - shot himself.
Merkulov Vsevolod Nikolaevich.
Born 1895, native of the city of Zagatala, Azerbaijan SSR. Party experience since 1925; checkstage since 1921.
from 1913 - studying at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics in Petrograd.
1916–1918 - military service.
1918–1921 - in teaching work.
1921–1931 - Cheka and GPU of Georgia.
from November 1931 - on party work in Transcaucasia and Georgia.
from 1937 - head. industrial and transport department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia.
from 01.09.38 - deputy Head of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
from 12/16/38 - First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR and Head of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
from 02/03/41 - People's Commissar of the State Security Service of the USSR.
from 07.20.41 - First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
04/14/43–05/04/46 - People's Commissar (Minister) of the State Security Service of the USSR.
from 04/25/47 - head of the Main Directorate of Soviet Property Abroad under the USSR Council of Ministers.
10/27/50–12/16/53 - Minister of State Control of the USSR.
12/23/53 - shot.
Mitrakov Ivan Lukich
Born 1905, native of the village. Slopota, Bryansk region.
from 12/22/42 - Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.
03/30/46–08/20/49 - First Deputy Minister of Construction Materials Industry of the USSR.
08/20/49. - 03/11/53 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
from 10/03/50 - head of Dalstroy of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
from 11/30/51 - head of the USVITL Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Nikiforov Andrey Vasilievich
Born 1909, native of the Moscow region.
1938–1941 - Chairman of the regional plan of the Kalinin region.
1941–1945 Deputy Secretary of the Kalinin Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks for Industry.
1945–1951 - responsible controller, member of the CPC Bureau under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
from September 1951 - in the USSR MGB.
from 07/03/52 - Deputy Minister of State Security of the USSR.
since 1953 - deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Bryansk region.
from October 1953 - Deputy Head of the 5th Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
03/26/54–01/12/57 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
02/20/57 - seconded to the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
09/10/76 - died.
Obruchnikov Boris Pavlovich
Born 1905, native of Syzran, Kuibyshev region. Party experience since 1926; checkstage since 1936; education - secondary.
07.07.36–23.04.37 - room. Head of the Special Department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
from 04/23/37 - deputy. head of the 4th department of the 3rd department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
from 10/21/37 - deputy the head of the 5th department of the 3rd department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR and the head of the 6th department of the 2nd department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
from 03.08.39 - deputy Head of the 5th department of the State Main Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR.
from 02/25/41 - Deputy People's Commissar (Minister) of Internal Affairs of the USSR for Personnel and Head of the Personnel Department of the NKVD - Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
from 01/29/47 - Head of the Personnel Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
from 07/05/52 - Deputy Minister of State Security of the USSR.
03/12/53–07/03/53 - Head of the Personnel Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
03/05/54 - dismissed due to facts of discredit.
01/03/55 - stripped of the rank of "Lieutenant General".
Panyukov Alexander Alekseevich
born 1894, native of Perm; Party experience since 1917; checkstage since 1940.
02.04.41–08.07.48 - head of the Norilsk plant and the camp of the NKVD - Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
06/28/48–10/12/50 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
from 04/16/49 - head of the Yeniseistroy Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
07/30/54 - dismissed from the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs to the reserve.
Died in 1962.
Perevertkin Semyon Nikiforovich
born 1905, native of the Voronezh region; Party experience since 1932; higher education.
1934–1938 - studied at the Frunze Academy. 1941 - studied at the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army. 1941–1945 - commander of a division, corps.
1946–1953 - Deputy Chief of the Main Directorate of Combat Training of the Ground Forces of the Soviet Army.
from 07/08/53 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR for troops.
15.0356 - 13.01.60 - First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
1960–1961 - Head of the Directorate of Military Establishments of the Ground Forces of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
05/17/61 - died in a plane crash.
Petushkov Vladimir Petrovich
Born in 1910, native of the Moscow region, party experience since 1938, checkstage since 1939, higher education.
1938–1939 - worked in the People's Commissariat of Railways of the USSR.
1939–1945 - worked in railway construction in the Far East.
12/18/45–02/14/46 - head of the technical department of the UITK GULAG NKVD of the USSR.
1946–1953 - worked in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - CPSU.
07/03/53–04/12/54 - Head of the Personnel Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
02/22/54–09/02/57 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
1957–1962 - First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR.
1962–1966 - First Deputy Minister of Public Order of the RSFSR.
1967–1968 - First Deputy Minister of Public Order of the USSR.
1968–1974 - First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
04/14/74 - died.
Prokofiev Georgy Evgenievich
Born 1895, native of Kyiv. Party experience since 1919.
02/24/26–08/06/31 - head of the ECU of the OGPU of the USSR.
08/06/31–10/25/31 - Head of the Special Department of the OGPU of the USSR.
16.10.31–17.11.32 - deputy. People's Commissar of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate.
11/17/32–01/04/34 - third deputy. prev OGPU and head of the GURKM OGPU.
07/10/34–09/29/36 - second deputy. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
09/29/36–04/05/37 - first deputy. People's Commissar of Communications of the USSR.
08/14/37 - shot.
Ryzhov Mikhail Ivanovich
Born in 1889, native of the Tambov region.
07/01/37–10/19/37 - head of the Administration of the NKVD of the USSR.
08/16/37–12/29/37 - Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
12/29/37–10/29/38 - People's Commissar of the Forestry Industry of the USSR.
He died in prison while under investigation in 1939.
Ryasnoy Vasily Stepanovich
born 1904, native of Samarkand; Party experience since 1922; checkstage since 1937; education - secondary.
1923–1926 - at Soviet work in the Turkmen SSR.
1926–1927 - service in the Red Army.
1928–1931 - member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Turkmenistan.
1931–1933 - studied at the Stalin Industrial Academy.
1933–1935 - head of the political department of the Lemeshkinsky MTS, Stalingrad region.
1935–1937 - First Secretary of the Lemeshkinsky RK of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
from 1937 - worked in the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
from 07/31/41 - head of the NKVD of the Gorky region.
from 07.29.43. - People's Commissar Ext. affairs of the Ukrainian SSR.
from 01/15/46 - First Deputy People's Commissar (Minister) of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
from 02/24/47 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
from 02.14.52 - Deputy Minister of State Security of the USSR.
from 03/12/53 - head of the 2nd Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
05/28/53–03/30/56 - Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the city of Moscow and the Moscow region.
05.07. 56 - dismissed from the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs due to facts of discredit.
12/12/95 - died.
Safrazyan Leon Bogdanovich.
Born 1893, native of Baku.
1929–1934 - head of construction and director of the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant.
1934–1935 - head of construction of the Yaroslavl Automobile Plant.
1935–1937 - head of construction of the Gorky Automobile Plant.
1937–1938 - Head of the Main Directorate of Capital Construction of the People's Commissariat of Mechanical Engineering.
1938–1941 - Head of the Glavvoenstroy under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.
03/22/41–02/05/46 - Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
07/31/41–02/05/46 - Head of the GUAS NKVD of the USSR.
from 02/05/46 - deputy People's Commissar (Minister) for the Construction of Fuel Enterprises.
from 12/28/48 - Deputy Minister of the Oil Industry of the USSR.
09/21/54 - died while on duty.
Serov Ivan Alexandrovich
Born 1905, native of the Vologda region. Party experience since 1926; checkstage since 1939; higher education.
1928–1935 - service in the Red Army.
1935–1938 - Military Academy of the Red Army.
from 02/09/39 - deputy chief of the GURKM NKVD of the USSR.
from 02/18/39 - head of the GURKM of the NKVD of the USSR.
from 07/29/39 - deputy head of the GUGB and head of the 2nd department of the GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR.
from 02.09.39 - People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR.
from 02.25.41 - First Deputy People's Commissar of the State Security Service of the USSR.
from 07/30/41 - Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
05/29/45 - awarded the title "Hero of the Soviet Union".
from 06.06.45 - Deputy Chief of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (Berlin).
02/25/47–03/13/54 - First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
03/13/54–12/08/58 - prev. KGB under the USSR Council of Ministers.
1958–1963 - Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
03/12/63 - deprived of the title "Hero of the Soviet Union".
1963 - room Commander of the Turkestan Military District for Educational Institutions.
1963–1965 - office. Commander of the Volga Military District for educational institutions.
09/01/65 - dismissed due to illness.
07/01/90 - died.
Stakhanov Nikolay Pavlovich
born 1901, native of Balashov, Saratov region; checkstage since 1927; Party experience since 1937.
1927–1942 - served in the border troops of the OGPU - NKVD of the USSR.
03/12/42–03/11/53 - Head of the Main Directorate of the NKVD - Ministry of Internal Affairs - MGB of the USSR.
from 08.26.51 - Deputy Minister of State Security of the USSR.
03/11/53–02/22/55 - Head of the GUM of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
02/25/54–02/22/55 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
from 02.22.55 - Minister of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR.
since 1961 - retired.
Died in 1977.
Strokach Timofey Amvrosievich
born 1903, native of the Primorsky Territory; checkstage since 1924; Party experience since 1927.
1924–1941 - served in the border troops of the OGPU - NKVD of the USSR.
03/28/41–01/16/46 - Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR.
01/16/46–03/19/53 - People's Commissar (Minister) of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR.
03/19/53–06/11/53 - Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Lviv region.
07/03/53–05/31/56 - Minister of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR.
05/28/56–03/08/57 - Head of the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs and Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
05/22/57 - dismissed from the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs due to illness.
Died in 1963.
Tolstikov Oleg Viktorovich
Born 1905, native of the city of Belev, Tula region.
06/29/55–07/20/59 - First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR for MPVO.
07/20/59–01/13/60 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR for the Ministry of Defense and Chief of Staff of the country's Ministry of Defense.
1960–1970 - Chief of Staff of the country's civil defense and First Deputy Chief of Civil Defense of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
16.1170 - dismissed due to age.
09/23/71 - died.
Filaretov Gleb Vasilievich
Born 1901, party membership since 1919; checkstage since 1938; higher education.
1917 - archivist and assistant driver (Alapaevsk, Ekaterinburg province).
1917–1920 - Red Guard.
1920–1924 - service in the Red Army.
1924–1925 - cadet of the Soviet Party school (Sverdlovsk).
1925–1927 - worked at the plant as a machinist.
1927 - student of the Red Directors course (Sverdlovsk).
1927–1929 - office. Director of the Nevyansk Mechanical Plant.
1929–1931 - office manager (Sverdlovsk).
1931–1932 - deputy Head of Soyuzvzryvprom (Moscow).
1932–1937 - student at the Industrial Academy named after. Kaganovich (Moscow).
1937–1938 - Director of the Izolyator plant (Moscow).
1938 - deputy People's Commissar of Local Industry (Moscow).
04.10.38–17.02.39 - Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR for economic affairs.
11/16/38–02/18/39 - head of the Gulag of the NKVD of the USSR (part-time).
Died in 1979.
Filippov Taras Filippovich
Born 1899, native of the Smolensk region.
1920–1943 - served in the border troops and internal troops of the OGPU - NKVD of the USSR.
04/09/43–07/19/43 - Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR NKVD.
07/19/43–12/31/46 - Head of the NKVD Troops Directorate for the Protection of Railways.
12/31/46–03/03/47 - Deputy Head of the NKVD Troops Directorate for the Protection of Important Industrial Facilities and Railways.
03/08/47–10/29/49 - Head of the Main Directorate of Vital Affairs of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
10/29/49–03/19/53 - Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Leningrad Region.
03/19/53–05/03/54 - Head of the Main Directorate of Military District of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
03/11/55–03/24/56 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR and head of the GUM of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
06.29.56. - 11/14/57 - Deputy of the Military Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - KGB of the USSR for scientific work.
11/14/57 - dismissed due to illness.
03/23/74 - died.
Frinovsky Mikhail Petrovich
Born 1898, native of Narovchat, Penza region. Party experience since 1918; checkstage since 1919.
1919–1925 - head of the OO Cheka - GPU - OGPU of the Galician Army, the First Cavalry Army and the Southwestern Front.
1925–1927 - Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the OGPU of the North Caucasus Territory and head of the PA of the North Caucasus Military District.
1927 - advanced training courses for senior commanders of the Red Army at the Frunze Academy.
1929–1930 - commander of the Dzerzhinsky division.
1930–1933 - prev. GPU of the Azerbaijan SSR.
from 04/08/33 - Head of the Main Directorate of Border Guards of the OGPU of the USSR.
from 07/10/34 - head of the Main Directorate of Border and Internal Security of the NKVD of the USSR.
from 10/16/36 - Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
04/15/37–09/08/38 - First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR and Head of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
from 09/08/38 - People's Commissar of the USSR Navy.
04/06/39 - arrested.
02/04/40 - shot.
Kholodkov Mikhail Nikolaevich
born 1904, native of the Ryazan region; Party experience since 1932; higher education. 1938–1941 - studied at the Industrial Academy. 1946–1951 - worked at plant No. 43.
1951–1956 - Secretary of the Oktyabrsky RK of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - CPSU of Moscow.
04/28/56–08/07/59 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
05/06/58–01/13/60 - Head of the State University of Internal Affairs of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Chernyshev Vasily Vasilievich
Born 1896, native of Ryazan province. Party experience since 1917; checkstage since 1920; education is low.
1915–1917 - military service.
1917–1920 - deputy chairman and chairman of the Ryazan City Council.
from 1920 - head of the 34th division of the Cheka troops.
from 1921 - head of the Cheka troops of the Turkmen Front.
from 1922 - chief of staff of the Volga district of the GPU - OGPU.
from 1924 - head of the OGPU OGPU of the Kazakh SSR.
from 1927 - head of the UPVO UNKVD of the Far East.
08/07/37–09/12/52 - Deputy People's Commissar (Minister) of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
08/07/37–02/18/39 - Head of the GURKM of the NKVD of the USSR.
02/18/39–02/25/41 - head of the Gulag of the NKVD of the USSR.
09/12/52 - died.
Chernyaev Konstantin Petrovich
Born in 1909, native of Ashgabat.
1940–1942 - Deputy Secretary of the ZIL Party Committee.
1942–1943 - party organizer of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks at the Dynamo plant.
1943–1947 - party organizer of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks at the Hammer and Sickle plant.
1947–1950 - First Secretary of the Pervomaisky Republic Committee of the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
1950–1952 - Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
1952–1956 - head of the sector of the department of party bodies of the union republics of the CPSU Central Committee.
05/16/56–05/01/60 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR for Personnel and Head of the Personnel Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
Shmakov Petr Grigorievich
Born 1909, native of the village. Pavda, Sverdlovsk region, party membership since 1929, higher education.
1942–1947 - manager of the Uralzoloto trust.
1947–1950 - Chairman of the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Gold and Platinum Mining Workers. 1950–1952 - Chairman of the Central Committee of the trade union of mining workers.
07/03/52–03/11/53 - Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
1953–1956 - Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of Soviet Property Abroad, Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR.
1956–1962 - Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR.
Essay
G.G. Yagoda - first People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR
People's Commissar Berry State Security
Introduction
Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda (1891-1938) since 1920 became a member of the presidium of the Cheka, and since 1924 - deputy chairman of the OGPU. Under his leadership, the greatest facilities of the era were built, in which the slave labor of tens of millions of prisoners was used, and an inhuman machine for the systematic arrest and extermination of people was created so that, by the required time, new thousands of prisoners would take the place of those who died from overwork.
In 1935, he was the first in the country to be awarded the special rank of General Commissioner of State Security, equivalent to the military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. In 1936, he was appointed People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.
This essay will discuss the life and work of G. Yagoda as People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR.
1. Genrikh Grigorievich Yagoda - life and execution
On April 25, 1930, by order of the OGPU No. 130/63, in pursuance of the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "Regulations on forced labor camps" dated April 7, 1930, the Administration of the OGPU Camps (ULAG) was organized (SU USSR. 1930. No. 22. P. 248). Since November 1930, the name GULAG (Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps of the OGPU) began to appear. On July 10, 1934, as a result of another reorganization of the Soviet intelligence services, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR was created, which included five main departments. One of them was the Main Directorate of Camps (GULAG). In 1934, the USSR Convoy Troops were reassigned to the Internal Security of the NKVD. On October 27, 1934, all correctional labor institutions of the People's Commissariat of Justice of the RSFSR were transferred to the Gulag. The “Godfather” of the Gulag was a native of Rybinsk, Genrikh Yagoda.
Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda (real name - Enon Gershonovich (or Enoch Gershenovich) Yehuda)
Born on November 7 (20), 1891 in Rybinsk. Shot on March 15, 1938 in Moscow. Soviet statesman and politician, one of the main leaders of the Soviet state security agencies (VChK, GPU, OGPU, NKVD), People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR (1934-1936).
Born into a Jewish artisan family. Before the revolution he lived in Nizhny Novgorod, where he met Ya.M. Sverdlov. Yagoda's acquaintance with Maxim Gorky dates back to the pre-revolutionary years, with whom they later maintained friendly relations.
He was related by family relations with the Sverdlov family. Yagoda's father, Girsh Filippovich, was a cousin of Mikhail Izrailevich Sverdlov, father of Yakov Sverdlov. Subsequently, Yagoda married Ida Leonidovna Averbakh (daughter of Yakov Sverdlov’s sister Sofia Mikhailovna), his second cousin. Ida Averbakh's brother was the famous Soviet writer Leopold Averbakh.
In 1904-1905 participated in the work of an underground printing house. In 1907 he joined the RSDLP. In 1911 he was exiled for 2 years.
Already at the age of 17, he came to the attention of the police, joining the Nizhny Novgorod group of anarcho-communists (the group was led by a secret police agent), began transporting explosives and preparing an ex in the city bank. He was arrested in 1911 and 1912, and was exiled for two years to Simbirsk under public police supervision. He was amnestied in connection with the anniversary of the House of Romanov, moved to St. Petersburg, where he worked as a statistician in the artel of the Union of Cities, in the health fund of the Putilov plant, in the editorial office of the journal “Questions of Statistics”. In 1914 he married Ida Averbakh, the niece of Ya.M. Sverdlov.
In 1930, one of Yagoda’s deputies, Trilisser, an old party member who had served ten years in tsarist penal servitude, on his own initiative undertook research into the biography of his boss. Yagoda’s autobiography, written at the request of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee, turned out to be false. Yagoda wrote that he joined the Bolshevik Party in 1907, was sent into exile by the tsarist government in 1911, and subsequently took an active part in the October Revolution. Almost all of this was untrue. In fact, Yagoda joined the party only in the summer of 1917, and before that he had nothing in common with the Bolsheviks. - A.M. Orlov
Since 1913 he worked at the Putilov plant. In 1915 he was drafted into the army. Participated in the First World War, served in the 5th Army Corps, corporal of the 20th regiment. In the fall of 1916 he was wounded and was soon demobilized. In 1917, he collaborated with the newspaper Soldatskaya Pravda.
From 1918 he worked in the Petrograd Cheka. In 1918-1919 employee of the Higher Military Inspectorate of the Red Army. In 1919 he was noticed by Ya.M. Sverdlov and F.E. Dzerzhinsky and transferred to Moscow. In 1919-1920 member of the board of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade. From 1920, a member of the Presidium of the Cheka, then a member of the board of the GPU. From September 1923 - 2nd deputy. Chairman of the OGPU.
Very precise, overly respectful and completely impersonal. Thin, with a sallow complexion (he suffered from tuberculosis), with a trimmed mustache, wearing a military jacket, he gave the impression of a zealous nonentity. - L.D. Trotsky about G.G. Yagoda
In the internal party struggle he supported I.V. Stalin. He led the defeat of anti-Stalin demonstrations in October 1927. One of the organizers of dispossession. He led the suppression of uprisings of peasants dissatisfied with the dispossession of kulaks in the Volga region, Ukraine, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, the Caucasus, etc. During the suppression, he used the most brutal methods (mass executions, deportations of entire villages to concentration camps).
Since the early 1930s, Deputy Chairman of the OGPU. Yagoda actually headed this institution due to V.R.’s illness. Menzhinsky.
In July 1934, the NKVD of the USSR was formed. Both the new People's Commissariat and the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) were headed by Genrikh Yagoda.
Under the leadership of Yagoda, the Gulag was established and the network of Soviet forced labor camps was expanded, and the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal by prisoners began. Yagoda and the Gulag leadership attracted prominent writers, led by Maxim Gorky, to cover this construction site.
Genrikh Yagoda loved to do good to writers and artists, organizing literary evenings and salons. The fight against homelessness was waged by the then famous Bolshevo labor commune of the OGPU, which bore the name of its high patron, who visited the children more than once. Among the organizers of the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal (it was built by prisoners of the famous Gulag - the Main Directorate of Camps - located in the OGPU - NKVD system), a prominent place belonged to the head of the Chekist department. Justifying the mass death of forced construction workers with the tasks of “forging new human material,” Yagoda even organized for a group of Soviet writers led by A.M. Gorky made an introductory trip to this construction site, the result of which was the book “White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Stalin” published in Gorky’s series “history of factories and factories.” History of construction".
G.G. Yagoda officially bore the title of “the first initiator, organizer and ideological leader of the socialist industry of the taiga and the North.” In honor of Yagoda’s services in organizing camp construction, a special monument was even erected at the last lock of the White Sea-Baltic Canal in the form of a thirty-meter five-pointed star, inside of which was a giant bronze bust of Yagoda.
He actively participated in organizing trials of the “murderers” S.M. Kirov, “The Kremlin Case”, etc.
In 1935, Yagoda was the first to be awarded the title of “Commissar General of State Security.” In August 1936, the first Moscow demonstration trial against Kamenev and Zinoviev took place. In September 1936, he was removed from the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs and appointed People's Commissar of Communications. In April 1937, he was also removed from this post and expelled from the CPSU(b).
April 1937 arrested by the NKVD “due to the discovery of anti-state and criminal crimes.”
By polling members of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks from March 31 to April 1, 1937, they decided:
About Yagoda. Approve the following proposal of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks:
Due to the discovery of anti-state and criminal crimes by the People's Commissar of Communications G.G. Yagoda, committed when he was the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, consider it necessary to expel him from the party and the Central Committee and authorize his arrest.
Yagoda was opposed by his main associates Ya.S. Agranov, L.M. Zakovsky, S.G. Firin, S.F. Redens, F.I. Eichmans, Z.B. Katsnelson, I.M. Leplevsky and others.
In a letter to A.Kh. Artuzova to N.I. Yezhov in 1937 assessed Yagoda as a limited person, unworthy in all respects of the posts he held in the OGPU. In character, in intellectual strength, in culture, in education, in knowledge of Marxism, Yagoda is the antipode of V.R. Menzhinsky. - B. I. Gudz
In February 1938, Yagoda appeared at the Third Moscow Trial as one of the main defendants. To the charge of espionage he replied: “No, I do not plead guilty to that. If I were a spy, I assure you that dozens of states would be forced to disband their intelligence services.”
During the investigation, among the charges brought against Yagoda was the poisoning of V. Menzhinsky, V. Kuibyshev, M. Gorky and M. Peshkov (Gorky’s son). He poisoned the latter, allegedly in order to get closer to his beautiful wife. It was alleged that Yagoda created a secret laboratory where he experimented with poisons (in 1953, a similar charge was brought against another state security commissioner, L. Beria). B. Bazhanov claims that “Yagoda was not a pharmacist at all, as the rumors he spread about himself said, but an apprentice in the engraving workshop of old man Sverdlov,” the father of Yakov Sverdlov, whom he later robbed (Bazhanov B.G. Memoirs of Stalin’s former secretary M. 1990, p. 96).
At dawn on March 13, the court announced the verdict: the defendant was found guilty and sentenced to death. The last attempt to save life was a petition for pardon, in which Yagoda wrote: “My guilt before my Motherland is great. Not redeeming her in any way. It's hard to die. I am on my knees before all the people and the party and ask you to have mercy on me and spare my life.”
The Central Executive Committee of the USSR rejected the request. Shot on March 15 in the Lubyanka prison of the NKVD. His wife Ida Leonidovna Averbakh was also shot.
Following People's Commissar Yagoda, all eighteen of his close associates of state security of the 1st and 2nd rank were executed (Viktorov B. Without the “secret” stamp. Notes of the Military Prosecutor. Issue 3. M., 1990. P. 270).
He stood out among the other defendants in at least three ways:
Yagoda was shot separately from the other accused; there are no documents about his burial place.
Yagoda, the only one convicted at this trial, was not rehabilitated either under Khrushchev or later. The reason was his participation in the repressions.
Some of the charges brought against Yagoda, for example, participation in the murder of Kirov and the poisoning of Maxim Gorky, may have been true.
2. The activities of Genrikh Yagoda as People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR
All former Soviet citizens associate the name of Genrikh Yagoda with the names of the main criminals of the Stalin era, so deeply has the rust of slander around this name been absorbed into people's consciousness. Hundreds of articles have been written about the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs G. Yagoda, in which the same statement is repeated that Yagoda was one of the main creators of the machine of terror, while the victims of the most terrible of those years - 1937 - are deliberately attributed to him.
Overcoming many years of slander is not easy, almost impossible, but at some point it is necessary to break the web woven by hundreds of people around the name of this person. The author of a solid work on the first 13 People's Commissars of Internal Affairs, V. Nekrasov, in an essay about Yagoda, cites excerpts from some sources, rightly calling their tone “unbridled and cheeky” and attempts to “introduce G.G. Yagoda as a political rogue and adventurer" - "insolvent." “Lenin personally knew Yagoda, signed certificates for his approval as a member of the board of the Cheka and the People’s Commissar of Foreign Trade.”
G.G. Yagoda did a lot of useful things to strengthen Soviet power and strengthen the bodies of the Cheka-GPU-OGPU.” The description of the deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR to the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee in December 1927 states: “One of the active workers and closest assistants of Comrade Dzerzhinsky in creating the Cheka-OGPU was Comrade Yagoda Genrikh Grigorievich, who showed rare energy, stewardship and dedication in the most difficult times the fight against counter-revolution. At the same time, as the head of the Special Department, Comrade Yagoda has great merit in organizing and raising the combat capability of the Red Army.” For this activity, Yagoda was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
In 1931-1932, Yagoda took an active part in the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal, for which he was awarded the Order of Lenin. After its completion, he worked on the construction of the Moscow-Volga canal. In an order dated April 27, 1936, Yagoda called for “Bolshevik unity, iron discipline among security officers and engineers, and organization among the Canal Army men.”
On October 28, 1935, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decided to transfer to the NKVD the Department of Highways and Automobile Transport (Gushossdor), along with five road transport institutes, 30 technical schools and seven workers' faculties. Already in 1936, survey work began on drawing up projects and estimates for the construction of the country's main highways. Of course, this was a creative activity needed by the state. Nekrasov is forced to admit that “in conditions of a military threat, this work acquired special significance.”
There are many orders of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs aimed at “strengthening the rule of law,” for example, the order “On violation by local bodies of the NKVD of the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of June 17, 1935 on the procedure for making arrests.” On May 31, 1936, signed by Yagoda, an order was issued “On the condemnation of workers of the Orel prison for violating revolutionary legality.” Nekrasov cites the figures of police officers brought to criminal liability: in 1935 - 13,715 people, in 1936 - 4,568 people. We are talking about bringing to criminal liability police officers who violated well-known regulations, and not about the execution of innocent people.
Next, Nekrasov acts in the usual role of Yagoda’s accusers, whom he himself had just criticized: “It was under Yagoda and under his direct leadership that unprecedented processes began,” writes a long-time security officer in this deliberate lie, “as a result of which many innocent people were convicted and shot.”
Nekrasov is clearly misleading readers by claiming that Yagoda and Stalin promised Kamenev and Zinoviev that they would save their lives. This is an obvious lie; Yagoda had nothing to do with Stalin’s promises.
There is a lot of evidence that Yagoda did not agree with many of Stalin’s political decisions, objected to the persecution of Trotskyists, and was generally against the trial of Kamenev and Zinoviev.
During the preparation of this trial, Stalin removed Yagoda from conducting the investigation, especially since Yagoda did not agree with the imposition of the death sentence on the old Bolsheviks. Yagoda was even accused of “covering up” I.N. Smirnov,” one of the defendants in the first Moscow trial. R. Conquest writes about this. The consequence of these sentiments and sympathies was his actual replacement by Yezhov even before Yagoda’s removal from the post of chairman of the NKVD, which occurred almost immediately after the end of the first Moscow trial, and his transfer to the People’s Commissariat of Communications.
More decisively, Stalin began to subjugate the punitive authorities only after the death of F. Dzerzhinsky in July 1926.
Arkady Vaksberg also succeeded in slandering Yagoda, who thoughtlessly attributes crimes to Jews that they did not commit. Despite the fact that there was a huge apparatus for suppressing dissent created by Stalin, Vaksberg specifically singles out the names of several Jews whom he accuses without sufficient grounds. Here is an example of one of such statements by Vaksberg: “Of the first leaders of the repressive apparatus created almost immediately after the coup, which terrified the whole country in the form of the Cheka, and then the GPU, and then the NKVD, and so on, - of all of them the closest to Genrikh Yagoda turned out to be Stalin and completely worked “for him.” The above phrase by Vaksberg contains not only historical inaccuracies and blunders, but also misses the Leninist period of the existence of the Cheka within the bodies of Soviet power
Appointing Yagoda to the post of chairman of the NKVD, Stalin awarded him the title of General Commissioner of State Security and allowed him to settle in the Kremlin. Obviously, with these honors, the far-sighted Stalin wanted to lull the vigilance of the vain Yagoda in order to use his name as a screen for his crimes. In fact, almost immediately after Yagoda’s appointment to this position, Stalin removed the NKVD chairman from the most important matters, entrusting their management to Yezhov. However, the very appointment of Yagoda to an important government post served as a pretext for creating multi-layered lies against Jews, which was used by anti-Semites to reduce the impression of the crimes of the Russian NKVD led by Yezhov.
It is no coincidence that Stalin and Zhdanov sent a telegram from Sochi to Molotov on September 25, 1936: “We consider it absolutely necessary and urgent that Comrade. Yezhov would be appointed to the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. Yagoda definitely showed himself to be clearly incapable of exposing the Trotskyist-Zinoviev bloc. The OGPU was four years late in this matter. This was noticed by all party workers and the majority of NKVD representatives.” Commenting on the text of the telegram, Khrushchev said at the 20th Congress that “Stalin did not meet with party workers and therefore could not know their opinion.”
Stalin sends this telegram exactly a month after the death sentence was imposed on 16 participants in the trial, including Zinoviev and Kamenev. It is clear that, in the opinion of the murderer, Yagoda was unable to cope with his duties and should have been replaced long ago. There is no doubt that Yagoda had been in disgrace for quite a long time and had nothing to do with the preparation of the trial of the Trotskyist-Zinoviev bloc. The opinions of the majority of party workers, to which the cunning man refers, express the desire of Stalin himself. The very next day, September 26, 1936, Yagoda was removed from the post of head of the OGPU; on September 30, 1936, he handed over his affairs to Yezhov and was appointed to the post of People's Commissar of Communications. Yagoda served as People's Commissar of the NKVD for less than two years. During this period, Stalin, with the help of Yezhov, tried to introduce into the duty of the NKVD the extrajudicial prosecution of people turned into enemies of the state and party. Individuals are being destroyed, but mass terror has not yet been organized. Yagoda clearly opposed its beginning, Stalin writes about this in a telegram: “he turned out to be incapable.”
Four months after Yagoda was removed from the post of chairman of the NKVD, by resolution of the USSR Central Executive Committee of January 29, 1937, the former general commissioner of state security was transferred to the reserve. Already by March 31, 1937, Yezhov had collected a dossier on Yagoda, and the Politburo sent the following statement to all members of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party: “In view of the discovery of anti-state and criminal crimes by the People's Commissar of Communications Yagoda, committed when he was the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, and also after his transfer to the People's Commissariat of Communications, The Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks considers it necessary to expel him from the party and immediately arrest him. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party informs the members of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party that in view of the danger of leaving Yagoda free for at least one day, it was forced to order the immediate arrest of Yagoda. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party asks members of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party to authorize the expulsion of Yagoda from the party and his arrest. On behalf of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party, Stalin."
Yagoda was arrested on April 4, 1937, and in early March 1938 stood trial on the “case of the Anti-Soviet Right-Trotskyist Bloc” fabricated by Stalin at the third Moscow trial in January 1938. Stalin used the rumors he himself created to justify in this way the charges brought against Yagoda at the third Moscow trial in 1938 for the poisoning of his boss V. Menzhinsky M. Gorky, the son of the writer Maxim, who at the end of April slept all night on a bench drunk and caught a cold and died, V. Kuibyshev and even tried to poison N. Yezhov.
Telling his biography at the trial in his “last word,” Yagoda said: “Here is my life in a nutshell: from the age of 14 I worked in an underground printing house as a typesetter. This was the first underground printing house in Nizhny Novgorod. For 15 years I was in the fighting squad during the Sormovo uprising. I joined the party at the age of 16-17, the Nizhny Novgorod organization knows about this. In 1911 I was arrested and sent into exile. In 1913-1914 he returned to Leningrad, worked at the Putilov plant, at the health insurance office on insurance issues, together with Krestinsky. Then the front, where I was wounded. The revolution of 1917 finds me in Leningrad, where I form Red Guard detachments. 1918 - Southern and Eastern fronts."
Yagoda was shot on March 15, 1938, along with 16 other accused, 15 relatives from his family were killed, including his wife Ida Altshuller, sisters, their husbands, brothers, almost all the children and even elderly parents. Yagoda's father was 77 years old, his mother Maria Gavrilovna was 73 years old. Of the five children, the youngest son, Heinrich, who was 7 years old at the time of his father’s execution, accidentally survived. Of all the executed and repressed relatives of Yagoda, only sister Rosalia was rehabilitated, who died on the way to Kolyma in 1948 after her second arrest. Another sister, Esther, was shot on June 16, 1938.
Conclusion
To conclude this essay, let us briefly outline the main dates in the life of Genrikh Yagoda.
Genrikh Grigorievich Yagoda (Enon Gershonovich Yehuda) - Soviet statesman and politician, one of the leaders of the Soviet state security agencies (VChK, GPU, OGPU, NKVD), People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR (1934-1936).
Genrikh Yagoda was born in Rybinsk into a Jewish craft family.
The Yagoda family was related to the Sverdlov family.
Soon after Enon's birth, the family moved to Nizhny Novgorod, where his father worked as an apprentice for printers.
In 1907, as a teenager, he joined the Nizhny Novgorod anarchist-communists.
In 1911, Genrikh Yagoda was given the task of contacting a Moscow group of anarchists to jointly rob a bank.
In the summer of 1912, Genrikh Yagoda was detained in Moscow: being a Jew, he did not have the right to live in Moscow and settled there using a false passport issued in the name of a certain Galushkin from his sister Rosa, a member of the anarchist party.
The amnesty on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty shortened the period of exile by a year.
This allowed Genrikh Yagoda not only to return from exile in the summer of 1913, but also to settle in St. Petersburg. To do this, he had to convert to Orthodoxy and formally renounce Judaism.
From 1913 he worked at the Putilov plant. In 1915, Genrikh Yagoda was drafted into the army and sent to the battlefields of the First World War. In the fall of 1916 he was wounded and was soon demobilized. Returned to St. Petersburg.
He was a participant in the October Revolution in Petrograd.
From 1918 he worked in the Petrograd Cheka. In 1918-1919, an employee of the Higher Military Inspectorate of the Red Army. In 1919 he was noticed by Ya.M. Sverdlov and F.E. Dzerzhinsky and transferred to Moscow.
In 1919-1920, member of the board of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade. From 1920, a member of the Presidium of the Cheka, then a member of the board of the GPU. From September 1923 - 2nd Deputy Chairman of the OGPU.
“Very precise, overly respectful and completely impersonal. Thin, with a sallow complexion, with a trimmed mustache, wearing a military service jacket, he gave the impression of a zealous nonentity” - L.D. Trotsky about G.G. Yagoda.
In the internal party struggle he supported I. Stalin. He led the defeat of anti-Stalin demonstrations in October 1927.
Since the early 1930s, deputy chairman of the OGPU. In July 1934, the NKVD of the USSR was formed. Both the new People's Commissariat and the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) were headed by Genrikh Yagoda.
Under the leadership of Yagoda, the GULAG (Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps) was established, and the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal by prisoners began.
He actively participated in organizing trials of the “murderers” S.M. Kirov, “The Kremlin Case” and others.
In 1935, Yagoda was the first to be awarded the title of “Commissar General of State Security.”
In August 1936, the first Moscow demonstration trial against Kamenev and Zinoviev took place.
In September 1936, he was removed from the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs and appointed People's Commissar of Communications.
April 1937 arrested by the NKVD “due to the discovery of anti-state and criminal crimes.”
Initially, Yagoda was accused of committing “anti-state and criminal crimes,” then he was also accused of “connections with Trotsky, Bukharin and Rykov, organizing a Trotskyist-fascist conspiracy in the NKVD, preparing an assassination attempt on Stalin and Yezhov, preparing a coup and intervention.”
In February 1938, Yagoda appeared at the Third Moscow Trial as one of the main defendants.
At dawn on March 13, 1938, the court announced the verdict: the defendant was found guilty and sentenced to death.
During the years of perestroika, during the posthumous rehabilitation of convicts, Yagoda was not rehabilitated.
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