Alexander Filippovich Katusev
Александр Филиппович Катусев
1939–2000
✕ Forced out after the coup, suicide
The Deputy Prosecutor General whose TV broadcast lit the fuse of the Sumgait pogrom
A Soviet military jurist of Belorussian birth, Alexander Katusev was appointed Deputy Prosecutor General of the USSR in 1987 and led high-profile corruption investigations in Uzbekistan. His name entered history on 27 February 1988, when he appeared on Central Television and named two Azerbaijani youths killed in a clash near Askeran, specifying their nationality; the broadcast became the immediate spark for the Sumgait pogrom that evening. As Chief Military Prosecutor (1989–1991), he investigated and debunked the Panfilov Twenty-Eight myth in his essay 'Another's Fame,' but was forced into retirement after the August coup.
Career Timeline
- 1950sGraduated Dneprodzerzhinsk Metallurgical School, worker at Dnieper Metallurgical Combine
- 1965Graduated Kharkov Law Institute
- 1966Investigator, garrison procuracy, Transbaikal Military District
- c. 1970s–1987Investigator, senior investigator, head of investigation departments, chief of Main Investigation Directorate, USSR Procuracy
- 1987–1989Deputy Prosecutor General of the USSR
- 1989–1991Chief Military Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutor General of the USSR
- 1991Forced into retirement after the August coup