The Ordzhonikidze NKVD chief who opened fire ahead of schedule
The decision that wound up his case in the spring of 1938 put it this way: 'All the criminal acts turned out to be the work of class enemies who had penetrated the NKVD administration and, thanks to the political myopia and complacency of its chief Bulakh, built themselves a solid nest there.'
A 'North Caucasian' Chekist who rose from head of the third department to chief of the Ordzhonikidze krai NKVD when Dagin left for Gorky. In the kulak operation of 1937 he opened the shooting ahead of the sanctioned date, starting on 29 July and provoking Frinovsky's furious reaction, then proposed above-average figures and drove arrests far past his quota. When complaints about the region's arbitrariness reached Moscow he was removed in March 1938 and arrested at the end of April; he was shot in 1940.
Career Timeline
- 1920–1936Cheka, OGPU and NKVD officer in the North Caucasus
- 1936–1937Head of the third department, Ordzhonikidze krai NKVD
- 1937–1938Head of the Ordzhonikidze krai NKVD
- 1937Opened the mass operation early and overshot its quota
- 1938Removed in March, arrested in April
- 1940Shot