The Gosbank chairman Stalin called 'our Red banker' and removed a week later
On 14 July 1936, in Stalin's office, Gosbank chairman Maryasin voiced fears for his fate. Stalin embraced him: 'You're no oppositionist. You're our Red banker. What are you afraid of?' A week later, his office was sealed with a lump of plasticine.
Born in Mogilyov, he joined the Bolsheviks in 1915 and rose through party organs: from the Ukrainian CP(B) to deputy head of the Organizational Distribution Department of the Central Committee in Moscow, where he became a close friend of Nikolai Yezhov. After graduating from the Institute of Red Professors in 1930 he entered Gosbank, serving as its chairman from April 1934 to July 1936 while simultaneously acting as Deputy People's Commissar of Finance and member of the Council of Labor and Defense. Arrested five months after his removal, he was shot in August 1938, tortured on the direct orders of Yezhov, whom he had once affectionately called 'Lyovushka.'
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1917–1918Commissar of educational institutions, Moscow Military District
- 1918–1920Head of Vsevobuch department, All-Russian General Staff
- 1920–1921Chairman of Voronezh City Committee, Executive Secretary of Oryol Gubernia Committee
- 1922–1923Chairman, Central Economic Council of the Turkestan ASSR
- 1923–1924Head of Trade & Financial Policy, Main Economic Administration, VSNKh
- 1925–1927Head of Information-Statistical Dept, member of CC CP(b) Ukraine
- 1927–1928Deputy Head, Organizational Distribution Dept, CC VKP(b)
- 1928–1930Studied at the Institute of Red Professors
- 1934–1936Gosbank Chairman, Deputy Narkomfin, member of Council of Labor and Defense
Related historical events
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionHead of a department in the All-Russian General StaffDuring the Civil War, he led the Vsevobuch department of the All-Russian General Staff.
- 1928–1937The Five-Year Plans and the Soviet TransformationChairman of Gosbank
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeFinancial official targetedThe former State Bank chairman was arrested in late 1936, tortured and shot in 1938.
From Removal to Rehabilitation: the Cherkassy Site, Lefortovo, and 1956
After his removal on 14 July 1936 Maryasin was not found another post at once. His office was sealed with a lump of plasticine, and colleagues avoided their former chief. He wrote to Stalin twice asking for a meeting, and only in August did he receive a place. From August to December 1936 he headed construction of the Cherkassy canning combine in Kiev Oblast, a demotion from Gosbank chairman and deputy finance commissar to a provincial building site.
He was arrested on 20 December 1936. On 10 September 1937 the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court sentenced him to death for participation in a counter-revolutionary terrorist organization, but the sentence was carried out almost a year later, on 22 August 1938. This delay matches the interrogation record: held in Lefortovo prison, he was beaten unlike other prisoners, not only until he confessed but after the investigation had ended and no further testimony was being taken from him.
The reckoning came in 1956. He was rehabilitated posthumously on 30 May 1956 by a ruling of the Military Collegium. His brother Alexander Maryasin, director of the Dorogomilov chemical plant, met the same end: arrested on 20 November 1936, shot on 26 May 1937, rehabilitated posthumously on 7 July 1956.