The camp empire's administrator who ran the GULAG through the Great Patriotic War
In his August 1944 report to Beria, Nasedkin noted that 975,000 GULAG prisoners had been transferred to the Red Army over three years of war and that 'five former prisoners were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.'
A Soviet state-security officer who headed the GULAG (Main Directorate of Corrective Labour Camps) from 1941 to 1947. Born in Kherson, the son of a teacher, he joined the Red Army at fifteen and entered the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD apparatus in 1921, rising through its transport and economic directorates. When Germany invaded, he oversaw the evacuation of 27 camps and 210 colonies (750,000 prisoners) from the front-line zone, then mobilised GULAG labour for ammunition, uniforms, and defence production. His August 1944 report to Beria detailed the camp system's wartime output with clinical precision even as mortality soared past 900,000. Promoted to Lieutenant-General of State Security in 1945, he was sidelined to the reserve in 1948 and died two years later.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1920Joined the Red Army as a headquarters clerk
- 1921Began work as a clerk in Cheka organs
- 1931Economic Department, OGPU Plenipotentiary Representation, Moscow Oblast
- 1935Assistant chief of section, Transport (6th) Department, GUGB NKVD
- 1937Joined the VKP(b)
- 1939Deputy chief, Main Economic Directorate, NKVD; chief of 6th Department (fuel industry)
- 1941–1947Head of GULAG, NKVD/MVD USSR
- 1948Transferred to the reserve
Related historical events
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionRed Army enlistment
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarGULAG labour mobilisation chiefWhen Germany invaded, he evacuated camps from the front-line zone and mobilised prisoners for war production.
- 1943–1949The Soviet Atomic ProjectHead of GULAG, mobilized forced labor for atomic bomb construction
From Cheka clerk to economic directorate official, 1920-1941
Nasedkin's career began not in command posts but in clerical work. He entered the Red Army in November 1920 as a headquarters clerk and copyist, transferred to Cheka organs in May 1921, and served as a records clerk in various road and transport departments. In October 1931 he moved to the economic department of the OGPU plenipotentiary representation for Moscow Oblast, but returned to railway work within the same year. On 1 August 1935 he was appointed assistant section chief of the Transport (later 6th) Department of the GUGB, the state security main directorate. After joining the VKP(b) in January 1937 he soon became a section chief, and in 1938 became an assistant department chief. This ascent coincided with the mass replacement of personnel during the Great Terror.
In 1939 Nasedkin was appointed assistant chief of the NKVD Investigative Section, and on 7 August 1939 he became deputy chief of the NKVD Main Economic Directorate while heading its 6th Department, which oversaw the fuel industry. His route into high office therefore ran first through the economic and investigative branches of the state-security apparatus rather than the camp system. That path, distinct from camp administration, formed the background to his appointment as head of the GULAG in February 1941.