Chairman of the Leningrad City Executive Committee and one of the six executed in the Leningrad Affair
On 13 August 1949, Lazutin was summoned with other Leningrad leaders to Georgy Malenkov's office and arrested on the spot.
Born into a working-class family in Petropavlovsk, in present-day Kazakhstan, he began working as a railway fitter at fourteen. After rising through the Komsomol in Kazakhstan, he was transferred to Leningrad in 1937, and during the siege he served as city party secretary for trade and industry, responsible for keeping the city supplied. As chairman of the Leningrad City Executive Committee (effectively mayor) from 1946 to 1949, he oversaw the post-war reconstruction plan, the resumption of television broadcasting, and the dedication of the cruiser Aurora as a permanent memorial. Arrested in August 1949 in Georgy Malenkov's office alongside other Leningrad leaders, he was one of the six chief defendants in the fabricated Leningrad Affair, sentenced to death on 30 September 1950 and shot the following day.
Career Timeline
- 1919–1925Railway fitter in Petropavlovsk
- 1925–1931Komsomol secretary and labour department head, Kazakh ASSR
- 1931–1937Studied at Leningrad Refrigeration Institute; instructor, Frunze District Party Committee
- 1937–1941Head of trade department, then deputy head of food industry and trade, Leningrad City Committee
- 1941–1944Secretary for trade and industry, Leningrad City Committee, responsible for supply during the siege
- 1944–1946First Deputy Chairman, Leningrad City Executive Committee
- 1946–1949Chairman of Leningrad City Executive Committee (effectively mayor)
- 1949–1950Leningrad Affair: arrested 13 Aug 1949, sentenced to death 30 Sep 1950, executed 1 Oct; rehabilitated 1954