Chekist who headed the OGPU Economic Directorate and Border Guards and served as Ukraine's deputy interior commissar
Born to a Jewish merchant family in Bobruisk, he studied law at Moscow University. An Internationalist Social Democrat in 1917, he went on to the Cheka's special departments in the civil war. He then served in turn as head of the Arkhangelsk Cheka, head of the GPU–OGPU Economic Directorate, plenipotentiary in Transcaucasia and head of the Border Guard. In the 1930s he headed the Kharkiv GPU and became deputy chairman of the Ukrainian GPU and deputy interior commissar; Ukraine's Security Service lists him among the organizers of the Holodomor. Made deputy head of the Gulag in 1937, he was arrested that July and shot on 10 March 1938. He was rehabilitated in 1957.
Also known as: Zinovy Katznelson · Zinoviy Katznelson
Activities and affiliations
-
1918–1937
Soviet Union state institutionsState security agenciesMain
Security, intelligence and policing -
Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
Security, intelligence and policing
Career Timeline
- 1915–1917Four years of law at Moscow University, Lazarev Institute, ensign school
- 1917.03–09Member of the RSDLP (Internationalists); commissar at the Moscow Military District
- 1918–1920Investigator in Military Control and Cheka special departments; 3rd Army, Southwestern Front, 12th Army
- 1921–1922Cheka plenipotentiary for the Northern Territory; head of the Arkhangelsk provincial Cheka
- 1922.09–1925.04Head of the GPU–OGPU Economic Directorate
- 1925.04–12OGPU plenipotentiary in Transcaucasia
- 1926–1929Head of the OGPU Main Directorate of Border Guards and Troops
- 1929Deputy OGPU plenipotentiary in the North Caucasus; organized collectivization
- 1930.02–12Board member, State Bank of the USSR
- 1930.12–1933.03Deputy OGPU plenipotentiary for Moscow Region
- 1933–1934Head of the Kharkiv Regional GPU
- 1934.01–1937Deputy chairman of the Ukrainian GPU; from July, deputy interior commissar of Ukraine
- 1937.04–07Deputy head of the Gulag and head of Dmitlag
- 1937.07.17–1938.03.10Arrested and shot
- 1957.07.09Rehabilitated
Related historical events
- 1932–1933The Holodomor and the Collectivisation FamineUkrainian GPU officialHead of the Kharkiv Regional GPU in 1933 and deputy chairman of the Ukrainian GPU in 1934; listed among the organizers by Ukraine's Security Service
- 1937–1938The Great PurgePurged NKVD officialArrested on 17 July 1937 while deputy head of the Gulag and shot on 10 March 1938
How did a law student become a Chekist?
Katsnelson was born in 1892 to a Jewish merchant family in Bobruisk, Minsk Province. After the gymnasium he studied law at Moscow University for four years to 1915, spent a year at the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages and graduated from ensign school. From March to September 1917 he belonged to the Internationalist Social Democrats and served as a special commissar at the Moscow Military District. Leiba Feldbin, the later Alexander Orlov, reported to be his cousin, passed through the same schools and the same faction at about the same time.
When the civil war began he became an investigator in Military Control and a senior investigator in the Cheka's Special Department, then took charge in turn of the special departments of the 3rd Army, the Southwestern Front and the 12th Army, hunting counter-revolution inside the army. Orlov too served in the 12th Army's Special Department. In 1921–1922 he was Cheka plenipotentiary for the Northern Territory and ran the Arkhangelsk provincial Cheka.
What posts did he hold in the 1920s?
From September 1922 to April 1925 he headed the GPU–OGPU Economic Directorate, which handled crime and 'wrecking' in economic bodies. In May 1924 Orlov entered it and began his intelligence career, and Lev Mironov became a section head there at about the same time. When Katsnelson moved to Transcaucasia as plenipotentiary in 1925, Orlov followed him.
In 1926–1929 he headed the OGPU Main Directorate of Border Guards and Troops, commanding the Soviet frontier forces. In 1929 he went to the North Caucasus to organize collectivization, and after serving on the board of the State Bank in 1930 he became deputy OGPU plenipotentiary for Moscow Region.
What of Ukraine and his end?
He came to Ukraine in 1933, at the height of the famine, as head of the Kharkiv Regional GPU. In January 1934 he became deputy chairman of the Ukrainian GPU and in July deputy interior commissar of Ukraine, and that year he attended the XVII Party Congress as a Kharkiv delegate. Ukraine's Security Service lists him among the organizers of the Holodomor.
In April 1937 he was made deputy head of the Gulag and head of Dmitlag, in charge of building the Moscow–Volga Canal. But in the purge that cleared out the Yagoda-era cadres he was arrested on 17 July and shot on 10 March 1938. Orlov, who had lost a relative and patron, heard the rumour that same month. Katsnelson was rehabilitated on 9 July 1957.