The investigator who became Armenia's security minister at thirty-one
Extracting a confession from poet Titian Tabidze in 1937, Krimyan recorded his sole co-conspirator: 17th-century folk hero Saakadze — a name every Georgian knew except the interrogator.
Born into a working-class family in Kars in 1913, Krimyan entered the security organs at eighteen as a trainee with the Transcaucasian GPU. He rose fast inside the Georgian NKVD in Tbilisi during the Great Terror, becoming chief of its Investigative Department, and led the 1937 investigation of Ivan Orakhelashvili. Appointed Armenia's Minister of State Security in 1945 at just thirty-one, he was removed in 1947 for 'un-party behavior' and demoted to Ulyanovsk. Dismissed from the organs entirely in 1951 over illegal arrests and interrogation methods, he was swept up after Beria's fall, tried at Tbilisi, and shot in 1955.
Career Timeline
- 1932–1935Trainee in the Economic Department of the Transcaucasian GPU, then authorized officer
- 1935–1937Senior operative, then assistant section chief, UGB NKVD of the Georgian SSR
- 1937–1938Section chief, UGB NKVD of the Georgian SSR
- 1938–1940Deputy chief, then chief, of the Investigative Department, NKVD of the Georgian SSR
- 1940–1941Deputy chief of the NKVD Administration for Lvov Oblast
- 1941–1943Deputy chief of the NKGB and NKVD Administration for Yaroslavl Oblast
- 1943–1945Chief of the NKGB Administration for Yaroslavl Oblast
- 1945–1947People's Commissar, then Minister, of State Security of the Armenian SSR
- 1947–1950Chief of the MGB Administration for Ulyanovsk Oblast
- 1951–1953Head of the personnel department, Ministry of Food Industry of the Armenian SSR
- 1953–1955Arrested, tried at Tbilisi and executed
Related historical events
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeInvestigator in the Georgian NKVDHe was a section chief in the Georgian NKVD state security directorate in 1937 and 1938 and went on to head the republic's Investigative Department. He was sentenced to death for this period at the 1955 Tbilisi trial.
- 1953The Fall of BeriaThe Tbilisi trial, 1955He had left the organs in 1951 and was working in Armenia's food industry ministry when he was arrested in September 1953. He was shot on 15 November 1955.
The Torture Interrogator of 1937–1938
Krimyan earned notoriety during the Great Terror of 1937–1938 as one of the Georgian NKVD's most brutal interrogators. Lev Lurye characterized him as 'an utter sadist.' Under Beria's close associates Bogdan Kobulov and Sergei Goglidze, Krimyan was entrusted with politically sensitive cases and built a reputation as a 'specialist' in extracting confessions through beatings and torture.
His most notable victims included the poet Titian Tabidze and the writer Mikheil Javakhishvili. Krimyan tortured Tabidze for two months to obtain a confession; when the poet named the 17th-century folk hero Giorgi Saakadze as his sole co-conspirator, Krimyan, ignorant of the name every Georgian knew, entered it into the protocol without question. Javakhishvili was beaten so savagely that he was near death within half a day; witness Khemchumov testified that 'Krimyan beat him nearly to death with a twisted whip.' Former NKVD employee Petrosyan stated that Krimyan knocked out four of his teeth with a fist and forced him to lick his own blood off the floor.
Krimyan's methods followed the systemized practices of the Georgian NKVD at the time: beatings with rubber truncheons and ropes, the insertion of pencils between fingers for twisting torture, forcing detainees to stand bearing heavy loads, alternating detainees between 'hot' and 'cold' punishment cells, and 'conveyor-belt' interrogations that deprived prisoners of sleep for days on end. Dr. Kureli, a physician at the Tbilisi internal prison, testified that deaths from beatings were uniformly recorded as 'heart disease' without autopsy.
Krimyan continued his beatings even inside the trucks transporting condemned prisoners to their execution. Prison guard Testov testified that Krimyan, Savitsky, and Gamsakhurdia beat the condemned prisoner Dzidziguri to death with revolver butts inside the truck before reaching the execution ground. Another condemned prisoner, Sloboda, had his face turned into 'a solid mask of blood.' Former security officer Markovin, who had blocked Krimyan's promotion, was beaten by Krimyan and Savitsky during transit while they jeered: 'So, will you give us our ranks now?'
Despite these atrocities, Krimyan was awarded the Order of the Red Star in July 1937 and admitted to the Party in May 1939. At the 1955 Tbilisi trial, his former NKVD colleague Nadaraya testified that 'Kobulov, Savitsky, Krimyan, and Khazan were the organizers of all the torture and killings.'