Divisional commander who headed the NKVD border and internal troops and was shot
From December 1933 to May 1934, he led Soviet troops intervening in Xinjiang in support of Chinese authorities, helping suppress the uprising.
Born in St Petersburg to a minor excise official's family, he studied at the Tomsk Technological Institute until mobilised in 1916. In the Civil War he commanded a battalion and a regiment, and in 1920 he graduated from the General Staff Academy. Leading OGPU troops, he directed the suppression of the 1931 Mangyshlak uprising and of the basmachi in 1933, and from December 1933 to May 1934 he led the Soviet force that helped put down the Muslim rebellion in Xinjiang. In April 1937 he became head of the NKVD's border and internal troops, but in January 1938 was demoted to Ukraine and in April arrested. On 19 August he was sentenced to death for a military conspiracy and shot that day; he was rehabilitated in 1956.
Activities and affiliations
- Security, intelligence and policing · Soviet Union
Career Timeline
- 1918Joined the Red Army and served in the Russian Civil War.
- 1920Graduated from the General Staff Academy, then served as a regimental commander and brigade chief of staff and commander.
- 1921Entered the Cheka forces, shifting his military career to security and border troops.
- 1923Became deputy head of the OGPU Border Guard Department and assistant inspector of OGPU troops.
- 1931Directed operations against the uprising on the Mangyshlak Peninsula and Durdy Murta's Basmachi forces.
- 1933–1934Commanded Soviet troops in the Xinjiang operation, supporting Chinese authorities in suppressing the uprising.
- 1937–1938Headed the NKVD border and internal troops, then transferred to head the Ukrainian forces before his arrest.