Alexei Yevgenyevich Melnikov

Soviet Union state institutions Marxism–Leninism 1904–1996 ○ Died

Head of the Baltic Shipping Company whom Yezhov said he meant to use to arrange his flight to Britain

Born in 1904 into a workers' family in Saratov, he served in the Red Army from 1918 to 1923 and studied cargo-handling mechanization at the Leningrad Institute of Water Transport Engineers. After work as an engineer, including at the Leningrad seaport, he headed the Baltic Shipping Company from 1937 to 1939 and was a delegate to the 18th Party Congress. In the interrogation of 26 April 1939 Yezhov stated that he knew from NKVD materials of Melnikov's ties to a British agent, had had Yevdokimov draw him into the conspiracy, and had meant to ask him, on a trip to England, to arrange Yezhov's own flight there. Arrested that month, he was exiled to Krasnoyarsk Krai without charge and worked at the Norilsk combine. Rehabilitated and readmitted to the party in 1954, he later headed the central port design bureau and the Lenmorniiproekt institute in Leningrad. He died in 1996.

Also known as: Aleksei Melnikov · Alexey Melnikov