Azerbaijan's people's commissar of internal affairs in the mass operations, arrested in the Beria case
As Azerbaijan's people's commissar of internal affairs in 1937–1938, he served on the special troika and took part in the Great Purge. Arrested in the Beria case in 1953, he died in custody.
Born into a peasant family in Kapana, Kutaisi province, to an Armenian father and a Georgian mother (Topuridze was her maiden name), he was a Menshevik in 1905–1910 and joined the Bolsheviks in 1918. From 1920 he served in the Azerbaijani Cheka; from 1934 he headed the Azerbaijani GPU and NKVD, and as people's commissar of internal affairs in 1937–1938 he sat on the special troika. From April 1938 he ran the NKVD's administrative and economic directorate, and in 1947–1953 he was deputy chairman of Azerbaijan's Council of Ministers. Arrested in July 1953 in the Beria case, he was committed to a psychiatric hospital and died in August 1960 before the investigation ended.
Career timeline
1905–1910As a Menshevik, he helped organize rural revolutionary groups and distributed leaflets among peasants.
1918–1920He served in the Red Army before joining the Azerbaijani Cheka in 1920.
1934–1938After heading Azerbaijan's GPU and NKVD, he was people's commissar of internal affairs in 1937–1938 and served on the special troika implementing the Great Purge.
1938–1953He headed the NKVD's administrative and economic directorate and was deputy chairman of Azerbaijan's Council of Ministers in 1947–1953. Arrested in the 1953 Beria case, he died during the investigation.
Beria's closest deputy, executor of Katyn and the mass deportations
Merkulov recalled: "After late-night work, Beria always took Kobulov — only Kobulov — home or to his dacha." No one else in the Lubyanka was that close.
Born in Tiflis, the son of an Armenian tailor, he joined the party in January 1925 and began his security career in the Georgian Cheka in 1922. Beria spotted him in 1931 and moved him into the Georgian GPU's Secret-Political Department; he went on to serve as deputy people's commissar of internal affairs of the Georgian SSR (1937–1938) and head of the NKVD Investigative Section (1938–1939). In 1940 he sat on the troika that issued death sentences on Polish officers and others in the Katyn massacre, and as deputy people's commissar of NKVD and NKGB he directed the deportations of Chechens, Ingush, Crimean Tatars and others. From 1946 he was deputy head of the Main Directorate of Soviet Property Abroad (GUSIMZ) and from October 1951 its first deputy head; he became first deputy minister of internal affairs in March 1953, was arrested with Beria on 27 June and shot on 23 December 1953.
Career timeline
1922–1931Junior security officer in the Georgian Cheka and GPU
1931–1937Spotted by Beria and moved into the Secret-Political Department of the Georgian OGPU/NKVD
1937–1938Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, Georgian SSR, directing local purges
1938–1939Head of NKVD Investigative Directorate — directs the Yezhov case and major political investigations
1939–1941Head of Main Economic Directorate NKVD; member of the 1940 troika that issued death sentences in the Katyn massacre
1941–1945Deputy People's Commissar of NKVD and NKGB — commands the mass deportation of Chechens, Ingush, Crimean Tatars and other nations
1953.03–06First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs under Beria
1953.06–12Arrested with Beria; sentenced to death and shot
