NKVD chief who sat on a mass-operation troika and killed himself before his arrest
Born in Tomsk to a Jewish shop assistant's family, he was mobilised into a Kolchak army band in 1918, deserted to the Red partisans and served in the Cheka from 1919. He chaired the Turkmen GPU, was OGPU plenipotentiary in Kazakhstan, and headed the NKVD of West Siberian krai and of the Western and Moscow oblasts, among other posts, sitting on the special troika under Order No. 00447. At the same time he spoke out against fabricating evidence to raise 'clearance rates'. He became a member of the NKVD collegium in April 1938, but expecting arrest, shot himself on 13 May and died the same day.
Activities and affiliations
- Security, intelligence and policing · Soviet Union