The only Yezhov deputy to survive, who ran the GULAG as Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs
When Beria replaced Yezhov and arrested Yezhov's men one by one, Chernyshev alone was not removed. Instead he was given the GULAG as well, and ran the entire camp system for the next two years.
A state security official who served as Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs for fifteen years from 1937 until his death in 1952, and the only one of Yezhov's deputy commissars to escape the purge. From 1939 to 1941 he concurrently headed the GULAG, overseeing the entire camp system, and during the war directed the operational planning of mass deportations from the Baltic states. After the war he supervised construction for the Soviet atomic project, channelling GULAG labour into nuclear facilities.
Career Timeline
- 1915–1917Praporshchik, Imperial Russian Army; WWI
- 1917–1920Deputy chairman of Ryazan city soviet; CHON organiser
- 1920–1927Cheka/OGPU troop commander, Turkestan Front
- 1927–1937Commander of Far Eastern OGPU/NKVD border troops
- 1937–1939Deputy People's Commissar of NKVD; Head of Main Militia Directorate
- 1939–1941Deputy People's Commissar of NKVD; Head of GULAG
- 1941–1952Deputy People's Commissar/Minister of NKVD/MVD; atomic construction oversight
Related historical events
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionCheka/OGPU force commander
- 1928–1937The Five-Year Plans and the Soviet TransformationDeputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeYezhov's sole surviving deputyServed under Yezhov from August 1937 as Deputy People's Commissar of the NKVD and head of the Main Militia Directorate, and was the only one of Yezhov's five deputy commissars to escape the purge. Retained under Beria in 1939 and additionally appointed head of the GULAG.
The June 1941 Baltic Deportation Operation
On 16 May 1941, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of People's Commissars adopted a secret resolution mandating the arrest and deportation of 'anti-Soviet elements' from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Chernyshev, as Deputy People's Commissar of the NKVD, was the operational lead for the NKVD side of the operation; concurrently heading the GULAG, he directly controlled both the train formations and the assignment of camp destinations.
On 13 June 1941, the day before the operation, Chernyshev sent an 'echelon disposition memorandum' to NKGB Deputy Commissar Ivan Serov (Central Archives of the FSB, fond 3-os, opis 8, delo 44, ll. 63–65). The document specified the arrival times of 25 special trains at designated stations across the three republics: 12 for Lithuania, 7 for Latvia, 6 for Estonia. Each train carried roughly 1,500 people, and Chernyshev's plan was designed to move approximately 60,000 people simultaneously. The operation was launched at dawn on 14 June. Chernyshev also signed the 'Instructions on Food Supply for Deportees During Transit,' overseeing provisioning and guard deployment.
Within a week, approximately 34,000 people had been arrested or deported from Lithuania, 15,500 from Latvia, and 10,000 from Estonia, just eight days before the German invasion of the USSR on 22 June. After the invasion, Chernyshev continued to supervise the transit of additional prisoners and deportees evacuated from the Baltic republics, and remained the senior administrator of the entire forced-resettlement system throughout the war.