Regional party boss of collectivization and the Great Terror who heard Stalin ask why there were so many spies on his watch
In September 1937, after Vareikis reported to Stalin that 500 spies had been identified and shot among Far Eastern railway workers alone, Stalin asked: 'Comrade Vareikis, why is it that there are so many spies in your area of work?'
Born into a Lithuanian working-class family, he worked as a lathe operator in Moscow factories and joined the Bolsheviks in 1913. During the Civil War he commanded the defense of Simbirsk and helped suppress the Left SR uprising. After heading the Central Committee press department, he served as First Secretary of the Central Black Earth, Voronezh, Stalingrad, and Far Eastern Territories in succession. During collectivization he personally directed the suppression of the Ostrogozhsk uprising and presided over troikas that convicted tens of thousands. In 1937, from his Far Eastern post, he oversaw the deportation of 170,000 Koreans to Central Asia and reported to Stalin that 500 spies had been uncovered among railway workers alone, only to be arrested that October and shot in 1938. Rehabilitated in 1956.
Career Timeline
- 1913Joined RSDLP(b)
- 1918.01–1918.06People's Commissar, Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic; Secretary, Regional Party Committee
- 1918.06–1920.08Chairman, Simbirsk Provincial Party Committee
- 1920–1921Chairman, Vitebsk Provincial Executive Committee; People's Commissar of Food
- 1921–1923Deputy Chairman, Baku Soviet
- 1923.08–1924.02Responsible Secretary, Kiev Provincial Party Committee
- 1924.02–1924.10Responsible Secretary, Central Committee of CP(b) of Turkestan
- 1924–1930Candidate Member, Central Committee, VKP(b)
- 1924.10–1926.01Head, CC Press Department; Editor, Molodaya Gvardiya
- 1926.01–1928.04Secretary, Saratov Provincial Party Committee
- 1928.08–1934.06First Secretary, Central Black Earth Oblast Party Committee
- 1930–1937Member, Central Committee, VKP(b)
- 1934.06–1935.03First Secretary, Voronezh Oblast Party Committee
- 1935.03–1936.12First Secretary, Stalingrad Krai Party Committee
- 1937.01–1937.10First Secretary, Far Eastern Krai Party Committee
- 1937.10Arrested
- 1938.07.29Sentenced to death and shot (Kommunarka)
Related historical events
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionPeople's Commissar of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic
- 1928–1937The Five-Year Plans and the Soviet TransformationFirst Secretary of regional party committee
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeRegional party leader targetedA regional party secretary who enforced purges and the Korean deportation in the Far East, he was himself arrested in 1937 and executed the next year.