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Biography. The most educated executioner There is little information about this man

Biography. The most educated executioner There is little information about this man

Vsevolod Nikolaevich Merkulov(1895-1953) was born in the village of Zakatali - Azerbaijan, in the family of a nobleman. Russian.

In 1913 he graduated with honors from a gymnasium in Tiflis and entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University.
In 1916 he was drafted into the army, served in Orenburg in a reserve regiment, was promoted to ensign and until March 1918 fought on the Southwestern Front.
He joined the Bolshevik Party late - in 1920, when it finally became clear that they would win. So, his choice was not ideological in nature.

In the Cheka - from 1921: assistant to the commissioner, then - commissioner of the economic department of the GPU of Georgia. In 1927-1929 - Head of the Department of Information, Agitation and Political Control of the GPU of the Georgian SSR, in 1929-1931. - Head of the Secret Political Department of the GPU of the Adjara Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and, at the same time, deputy chairman of the GPU of Adjara.
In 1931, he headed the secret political department of the GPU of the Transcaucasian SFSR, but a few months later he resigned. From that time on, he was L.P.’s closest collaborator. Beria, who promoted him to the position of first head of the trade sector, and then of transport and industry of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia. He did a lot for the economic development of this region.
In November 1938, Merkulov was appointed deputy head of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR. Soon he headed this department, and until February 1941 he was L. Beria’s deputy as people’s commissar.
In 1940, V. Merkulov was part of a group of people responsible for the extermination of captured Polish officers, as well as other persons interned in Eastern Poland in 1939. It is noteworthy that later, in 1943-1944, Merkulov headed a government commission USSR to “investigate” this case (at that time attributed to the Germans).
Merkulov was also responsible for the repressions in the Baltic states in 1940-1941, where mass arrests and deportations of the population to Siberia were carried out.
From February to July 1941, and then from 1943 to 1946. - People's Commissar of State Security of the USSR. In June 1941, he gave the order to “cleanse” places of detention in Western Ukraine, as a result of which about 10 thousand people were shot.
In 1946-1950 V. Merkulov works in the Main Directorate of Soviet Property Abroad under the government of the USSR. In 1950-1953 - Minister of State Control of the USSR.
After Stalin’s death, he was listed on leave “for health reasons,” then went abroad (to the GDR) “on vacation,” upon returning from where he was arrested on September 18, 1953. During the investigation, Merkulov was asked to give detailed testimony against L. Beria, V. Abakumov and other persons, but he refused and was shot on December 23, 1953, as “an English and American spy.”
Not rehabilitated.
He was engaged in literary activities (wrote plays under the pseudonym V. Rokk).

October 25, 1895 – December 23, 1953

Soviet statesman and politician, army general

Member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1939-1953), deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st and 2nd convocations.

Biography

Born into a military family. His father was a captain in the tsarist army, a hereditary nobleman, his mother was of princely blood, from a respected Georgian family.

In 1913 he graduated from the Tiflis gymnasium with a gold medal and continued his studies at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University. In 1916 he was drafted into the army after completing the 3rd year. In 1916-1917 service in the imperial army: cadet of the Orenburg school of ensigns, ensign of the reserve regiment in Novocherkassk, ensign of the marching company in Rovno, ensign of the 331st Orsk regiment of the South-Western Front. He was demobilized in March 1918 and went to Tiflis to visit relatives.

In 1918-1921 clerk and teacher at the Tiflis School for the Blind, where his mother was the director. From October 1921 in the OGPU: assistant to the commissioner of the Georgian Cheka, commissioner of the economic department of the GPU of Georgia.

In 1926-1927 - Head of the Economic Department of the GPU of Georgia. In 1927-1929 - Head of the Department of Information, Agitation and Political Control of the GPU of Georgia. In 1929-1931 - Head of the Secret Operations Unit and Deputy Chairman of the GPU of the Adjara Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In May - October 1931 - head of the secret department of the Transcaucasian GPU.

Since 1931, in party work: assistant secretary of the Transcaucasian regional committee of the CPSU(b), head of the Soviet trade department of the Transcaucasian regional committee of the CPSU(b), head of the special sector of the Central Committee of the CP(b) of Georgia, head of the industrial and transport department of the Central Committee of the CP(b) of Georgia.

In September 1938, he returned to work in the state security agencies as deputy chief of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.

In 1938-1941. - First Deputy People's Commissar of the NKVD - Head of the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB). In 1940, he was part of the “troika”, which was involved in imposing death sentences on captured Polish officers, as well as Polish gendarmes, jailers, border guards, etc. (Katyn execution).

In the period from February 3, 1941 to July 20, 1941 and from April 14, 1943 to May 7, 1946 - People's Commissar (Minister) of State Security of the USSR. He signed a decree to cleanse the prisons of Western Ukraine from “enemies of the people,” as a result of which more than 10,000 people were shot in Lviv, Rivne and other regions.

During the period 1941-1943. - First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, State Security Commissioner of the 1st rank.

In 1943-1944. - headed the “Commission for the preliminary investigation of the so-called Katyn case.”

In 1946-1947 - Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of Soviet Property Abroad under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. In 1947-1950 - Head of the Main Directorate of Soviet Property Abroad under the Council of Ministers of the USSR for Austria.

From October 27, 1950 to May 22, 1953 - Minister of State Control of the USSR. On May 22, 1953, by decision of the USSR Council of Ministers, Merkulov was granted leave for four months for health reasons.

Arrested in connection with the arrest of Beria on September 18, 1953 (according to other sources in July), the Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR, together with Beria and others, sentenced to death on December 23, 1953. Shot. He was cremated and buried at the Donskoye Cemetery.

Literary activity

During the Great Patriotic War, V. N. Merkulov, under the pseudonym Vsevolod Rokk, wrote the play “Engineer Sergeev,” which was shown in many theaters.

Awards

Order of Lenin (04/26/1940, in connection with the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin)
Order of the Red Banner (11/3/1944)
Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree (03/08/1944)
9 medals
Order of the Republic (Tuva) (8.03.1943)
Badge “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-OGPU (V)” (1931)

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 31, 1953, he was deprived of military (army general), special (commissar of state security 1st rank) ranks and state awards.

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Vsevolod Nikolaevich Merkulov(October 25 [November 6], Zagatala, Russian Empire - December 23, executed) - Soviet statesman and politician, army general (07/09/1945, re-certification from 1st rank GB commissar (02/04/1943)). Head of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR (1938-1941), People's Commissar (Minister) of State Security of the USSR (1941, 1943-1946), Minister of State Control of the USSR (1950-1953), writer and playwright. He was part of L.P. Beria’s inner circle, worked with him from the beginning of the 1920s, and enjoyed his personal trust.

Born into the family of a hereditary nobleman, captain of the tsarist army. Mother Ketovana Nikolaevna, nee Tsinamdzgvrishvili, a noblewoman from a Georgian princely family.

In 1913 he graduated from the Tiflis Third Men's Gymnasium with a gold medal. At the humanitarian gymnasium, he became so interested in electrical engineering that his articles were published in a special magazine in Odessa. He continued his studies by enrolling in. There he began writing and publishing stories about student life: “While still at the university, he wrote several romantic stories, which were published in literary magazines and received positive reviews,” his son recalled. From September 1913 to October 1916 he gave private lessons.

In July 1918, he married Lydia Dmitrievna Yakhontova and moved to live with her.

In contrast to the version of Merkulov’s voluntary, on his own initiative, joining the Cheka, there is also information indicating that he began working there under coercion by the Chekists (as an officer) to be an informant for the white officers.

In September 1938 he returned to work in the state security agencies. Merkulov recalled: “The first month after Beria arrived in Moscow, he forced me every day from morning until evening to sit in his office and watch how he, Beria, worked.” On September 11, 1938, he was awarded the special title of Commissioner of State Security of the 3rd Rank (on the same day, Beria was awarded the special title of Commissioner of State Security of the 1st Rank).

By a resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, adopted by poll on August 21-23, 1946, he was transferred from member to candidate member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Merkulov began to have health problems. In 1952 he had his first heart attack, and four months later his second. He was in the hospital for a long time. On May 22, 1953, by decision of the USSR Council of Ministers, Merkulov was granted leave for four months for health reasons.

Merkulov noted that some time after Stalin’s death “he considered it his duty to offer Beria his services to work in the Ministry of Internal Affairs... However, Beria rejected my offer, obviously, as I now believe, believing that I would not be useful for the purposes that he intended for himself.” then, taking control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. That day I saw Beria for the last time.”

V. N. Merkulov wrote 2 plays. The first play was written in 1927 about the struggle of American revolutionaries. The second, “Engineer Sergeev,” in 1941 under the pseudonym Vsevolod Rokk, is about the heroism of a worker who went to the front. The play was performed in many theaters.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 31, 1953, he was stripped of the military rank of army general and state awards.

We continue to publish a series of biographies of the leaders of the USSR state security*. This time, a columnist for "Power" Evgeny Zhirnov restored the history of the life and service of the hereditary nobleman, People's Commissar of the State Security and playwright Vsevolod Merkulov.
A man with quirks
The fate of Vsevolod Merkulov could have been typical for a Russian nobleman born at the end of the nineteenth century into the family of an officer: cadet corps, military school, promotion to officer, world war, heroic death or the White Army and emigration. It turned out differently. In 1903, Captain Nikolai Merkulov died, and his widow and eight-year-old Seva moved from the Azerbaijani town of Zakatala to the capital of Transcaucasia, Tiflis.
Thanks to her solid connections (after all, she came from a Georgian princely family), brilliant education and remarkable strong-willed qualities, the young widow was soon able to get a position as director at the Tiflis school for blind children. Seva Merkulov was assigned to the Third Tiflis Men's Gymnasium. He studied successfully, but it was at this time that he developed a trait that determined his entire future life. Tendency to make unexpected, contradictory moves.
At the humanitarian gymnasium, he became so interested in electrical engineering that his articles were published in a special magazine in Odessa. And when in 1913 he entered the physics and mathematics department of St. Petersburg University, he began to write and publish stories about student life.
But he did not feel any desire for military service. Unlike many of his fellow university students in 1914, he did not succumb to a patriotic impulse and did not volunteer for the trenches of what was then called the Second Patriotic War. Vsevolod Merkulov calmly continued to study, earning a living by giving private lessons. In the autumn of 1916, when the situation on the Russian-German front became catastrophic, he was, however, drafted into the army. But after a month of serving as a private in the St. Petersburg student battalion, he entered an accelerated officer course and, after completing it, almost ended up as part of a marching company at the front. Luckily for him, a revolution occurred in October of the seventeenth. Ensign Merkulov returned to Tiflis.
Vsevolod Merkulov waited out the season of independence that began in 1918 in Georgia, working as a teacher in a school for the blind, which was still headed by his mother. The government of the Georgian Mensheviks invited German, Turkish, and English troops for its defense, and the nobleman Merkulov, despite his origin, sided with the Bolsheviks. He joined a group of sympathizers. It is possible that it was then that he met Lavrentiy Beria, who worked at the permanent mission of the RSFSR under the name Lakerbaya and carried out special intelligence tasks for the Red Army. In 1921, shortly after the Bolsheviks arrived in Georgia, Vsevolod Merkulov became a clerk in the Georgian Cheka.
For a person with socially alien roots, Merkulov’s career in the Cheka developed simply rapidly. In 1925, he became the head of first the information and intelligence department and then the economic department of the Georgian GPU. He is accepted into the party. But even here a spirit of contradiction emerged. Vsevolod Merkulov married the daughter of the Tsarist General Yakhontov, who emigrated overseas, a fellow Minister of War in the Provisional Government of Kerensky. While leading the investigation in the Adjara GPU for some time, he allowed himself from time to time liberal antics - he dropped cases against people who did not seem to him personally to be enemies of the proletarian government. Thus, he released film director Lev Kuleshov from prison, who, according to Merkulov’s son, was grateful to his father for this for the rest of his life. Although, perhaps, he did this with a long-range view: already in 1927, Merkulov wrote his first play, which was shown in Georgian theaters, and, perhaps, was thinking about cinema.
But despite all the "quirks", the security officer Merkulov continued to receive promotions - in 1931 he was appointed head of the secret political department of the GPU throughout Transcaucasia, and also became the owner of the main departmental award - the badge "Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU". The secret of its unsinkability was then widely known in narrow KGB circles. Merkulov became a speechwriter for his boss, who knew little Russian, the Chairman of the Transcaucasian GPU Lavrentiy Beria.

Member of "Beria's gang"
Since the early 30s, speechwriter Merkulov has been following Beria everywhere and everywhere. At the end of 1931, Beria was elected first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia, and Merkulov immediately became his assistant, and then alternately managed several departments of the Georgian Central Committee. They say he was happy to be freed from his burdensome job in state security. He navigates the Black Sea on a yacht, shoots a documentary about Batumi as a cameraman and director. And on top of everything else, he signs up for the flying club. Beria put an end to this hobby of his. He learned that Merkulov had gone on a plane ride and gave the personal writer a beating: responsible employees should not endanger their lives.
Surely Merkulov, together with other associates of Beria, participated in the great purge in Georgia. But unlike his colleagues, he was not seen as being petty. The Kobulov brothers in 1937, on legal and not entirely grounds, received a lot of valuable property of those arrested and executed. The youngest of them, Hmayak, chose richer people as enemies of the people. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Georgia Sergei Goglidze specialized in the accumulation of jewelry. But regarding Merkulov, no such information remains in the archival documents. Apparently, Merkulov followed orders, trying to get as dirty as possible. Perhaps he consoled himself and his loved ones with the thought that his current position was temporary, that he was about to return to literary work. But I had to return to the GB apparatus.
The next turn in the party line took Beria and his team by surprise. In August 1938, the Kremlin was deciding what to do with the presumptuous People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yezhov. And on August 20, a new first deputy was imposed on the “iron commissar” - Lavrenty Beria. And after him, a third of the apparatus of the Georgian Central Committee moved to Moscow, to the NKVD. The Merkulov family left Tbilisi without much joy. As Merkulov’s son recalled, they did not want to leave their home and relatives.
In October 1938, he headed the counterintelligence department of the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD (GUGB), and in December, when Yezhov was finally removed, he became the head of the GUGB and Beria’s first deputy. Why, of all the members of his team, did Beria appoint Merkulov as first deputy? Education? But most of Beria’s associates also studied at universities or graduated from gymnasiums. Merkulov could hardly be called a friend of Beria. Their sons were friends, but Beria and Merkulov, who lived in the same Tskov house in Tbilisi, never visited each other. Over many years of work, their relationship never went beyond the subordinate-chief framework. And, apparently, this strict subordination of Merkulov to the boss was the main reason for choosing Beria.
And judging by the documents, he basically put the decisions made by Beria in the form of orders of the NKVD of the USSR. He was also involved in organizing the management process. For example, he took part in the creation of a system for the continuous production of dossiers on external and internal enemies (see “Power” #42 for 2000).
True, the purely clerical functions he assumed did not exempt him from participating in obvious atrocities. Merkulov’s son recalled that his father somehow did not sleep for several days. And he told his mother that Stalin had given him an assignment that he didn’t want to carry out, but would have to. Most likely, it was about subordinating to him, as the first deputy people's commissar, a special laboratory involved in the development of poisons, in which experiments were carried out on prisoners. And Merkulov personally approved the regulations on this laboratory. He, judging by the documents on the Katyn case, in 1940 was a member of the “troika”, which determined which of the Polish officers captured by the Soviets should be shot as potential enemies.
According to KGB sources, Beria more than once scolded Merkulov, a “soft-bodied intellectual”, for refusing to beat those under investigation. However, in the literature on repression there are references to the fact that Merkulov interrogated those arrested using intimidating means. Most likely, both are true. At home he said that “work is work and you can’t talk about it.” And only after Stalin’s death did he somehow mention that the leader treated him very differently. “Almost hugged him, then almost shot him.”
Apparently, this fear never left him. During the war, in 1942, when Merkulov was returning from the Far East, he unexpectedly asked to land the plane in Sverdlovsk, where his son was serving at that time, and also to bring Lieutenant Merkulov to the airfield. In fact, he didn’t say anything special to his son. Some general words. But then it turned out that on that day on Red Square, a Red Army soldier from Execution Place shot at Mikoyan’s car. And Merkulov made an unplanned stop to say goodbye to his son, just in case. But the leader decided not to punish Merkulov. On the contrary, it was he who was entrusted with the duties of the head of the First Department of the NKVD - government security.
To calm himself down, Merkulov used the usual technique, telling himself and those around him that all this was temporary and that soon he would be able to work in the field of art. He hosted many famous actors, directors, and musicians in his house. His guests were Lyubov Orlova and Grigory Alexandrov, the conductor of the Bolshoi Theater Melik-Pashayev, and film directors Kalatozov and Kuleshov. During the war, the play “Engineer Sergeev” by Vsevolod Rokk, first-rank state security commissioner Merkulov, appeared on the country’s stages. How he could write anything at all given his workload at Lubyanka remains a mystery. And there are different versions on this score (see interview with Gennady Sergeev). But many theaters staged the play. And after Merkulov’s appointment in 1943 as head of the People’s Commissariat of State Security, separated from the NKVD, “Engineer Sergeev” appeared on the stage of Maly.
The play's wild success and constant sell-outs were not only due to the wonderful acting of the actors. As state security veterans told me, there was an unspoken recommendation for all security officers to visit the Maly Theater. And comrades from the periphery who came to Moscow were provided with tickets to Maly for “Sergeev” in a centralized manner. Merkulov even began to think about film adaptation of the play and began writing the script together with Lev Kuleshov. But the People's Commissar's cinematic dreams were not destined to come true. At a reception in the Kremlin, one of the famous actresses said to Stalin, pointing to Merkulov who was nearby: they say, our people’s commissars write wonderful plays. To which the leader reasonably noted that until all the spies are caught, the People's Commissar had better mind his own business. Merkulov wrote nothing more than reports.

Before sunset
By the end of the war, as veterans recalled, Merkulov somehow wilted. No, outwardly he remained the same. Always extremely polite and attentive to subordinates. By the way, he was the only GB chief who paid for books and goods that employees bought at his request. Another deputy of Beria, Bogdan Kobulov, in such cases looked at the performer, said: “Put it in the corner,” and forgot about his existence. Merkulov always took out his wallet and very carefully, penny for penny, returned the money.
The reason for his bad mood was fatigue not so much from the Patriotic War, but from the endless apparatus war. The Father of Nations divided the intelligence services, forcing them to solve the same problems, endlessly and viciously competing with each other. And if Beria’s NKVD and Merkulov’s NKGB could always agree for a simple reason - Merkulov still unquestioningly obeyed Beria, the NKGB and Smersh were at enmity to the death. And the soft-bodied intellectual Merkulov time after time, on points and outright, began to lose to the rude and uneducated chief of Smersh, Viktor Abakumov.
But for Merkulov, one failure followed another. For example, according to the data available to the NKGB, a branched nationalist organization operated in Uzbekistan, headed by the first secretary of the Uzbek Central Committee, Usman Yusupov. And a state security general was sent to Tashkent to check Merkulov. But he managed to establish that Yusupov’s only vice was intemperance in the female department, which was not considered a special vice in the Kremlin. As this general told me, Merkulov winced after his report, but did not draw any organizational conclusions.
Merkulov continued to work diligently at his post, but, as they say, without a spark. If anyone showed ingenuity, it was most likely his subordinates. For example, during the next Soviet elections in Crimea, a ballot was found in a ballot box on which the voter wrote that all this Soviet power was nonsense and even his son did not believe in it. Somehow we managed to find out that vacationers voted there, that the “limber” was most likely from Leningrad, and in the cradle of the revolution, in all schools, students wrote essays “How I spent the summer,” which were checked by GB employees. Finding the culprit from a sharply narrowed circle of suspects turned out to be an easy task.
But still, Merkulov’s successes or failures played a secondary role in his removal from office. After the war, Stalin needed to reduce Beria's greatly increased political weight. First, he himself was removed from the leadership of the NKVD, and then it was Merkulov’s turn. Stalin accused him of being unable to correctly formulate state security tasks for the post-war period. The Central Committee commission for inspection of the Ministry of State Security found a lot of shortcomings in Merkulov’s work.
For almost a year, like many of Beria’s other associates expelled from the Lubyanka, he was unemployed. And in 1947, having slightly restored the positions lost after Stalin’s attacks, Beria assigned him to the Main Directorate of Soviet Property Abroad (GUSIMZ) assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Merkulov lived in Budapest, led the work of joint stock companies in Eastern Europe and Austria and was involved in the supply of goods from defeated countries to the USSR for reparations. And he tried to be remembered in the Kremlin as little as possible.
He returned to Moscow in 1950, when he was appointed Minister of State Control. And here he tried to behave as inconspicuously as possible. I was sick and suffered two heart attacks. In a word, he was a politically played card.
So they couldn’t immediately recognize Merkulov as Beria’s accomplice after the arrest of Lavrenty Pavlovich. Khrushchev summoned him and asked him to write a statement that Beria was an agent of foreign intelligence services. But this was tantamount to signing one’s own death warrant. Merkulov refused. He was handed over to the prosecutor's office. But here, too, he agreed to write only that he regretted working with Beria. There was nothing in the Lubyanka archives that could be blamed on him without casting a shadow on the members of the Politburo. Finally, someone remembered the head of the special laboratory, Mairanovsky, who was in prison. Merkulov signed the regulations on the laboratory. This means he participated in a conspiracy to poison the country's leaders.
Merkulov felt that the clouds were gathering. And he asked his son to repair his pistol. Apparently, he wanted to commit suicide as a last resort. But either I didn’t dare, or I didn’t have time. He did not return from the next interrogation at the prosecutor's office - September 18, 1953. The apartment was searched, and Merkulov’s family was soon evicted from their house on Gorky Street to a tiny room in a communal apartment on Sukharevka. From time to time, a representative of the prosecutor's office appeared there and announced that the family was allowed to give Merkulov two hundred rubles for shopping at the prison kiosk. And in December 1953, Merkulov’s son, an Air Force lieutenant colonel, was suddenly placed under surveillance, which was also suddenly removed. After some time, the household of Army General Merkulov learned that he, along with other members of the “Beria gang,” had been sentenced to capital punishment and the sentence had been carried out.
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*For an essay about A. Shelepin, see #40 for 1999; about L. Beria - in #22 for 2000; about F. Bobkov - in #48 for 2000; about I. Serov - in #49 for 2000; about Yu. Andropov - in #5 for 2001; about V. Chebrikov - in #7 for 2001; about V. Semichastny - in #14 for 2001.

The newspapers won't lie

Work
March 24, 1944
"Engineer Sergeev". Play by Vsevolod Rokk at the Maly Theater branch
Vsevolod Rokk's play "Engineer Sergeev" is dedicated to the Soviet people during the days of the Great Patriotic War. The central theme of the work is the noble, all-conquering sense of duty to the Motherland, which guides the thoughts and actions of Soviet patriots. The events unfolding in the play relate to the first months of the war. The viewer is presented with pictures of those harsh days when the Soviet people, temporarily leaving their native places, which were threatened by the enemy, were forced with their own hands to render unusable everything that could not be saved and taken to the rear. The engineer Sergeev and the team of people he leads are faced with the task of in no case allowing the power plant - their brainchild - to fall into the hands of the enemy.
In Sergeev, the author embodied the best feelings and thoughts of Soviet people. The playwright created an attractive image of a patriotic engineer, wholeheartedly devoted to the people, not sparing his life to defeat the hated enemy. And if the engineer Sergeev was at the center of the play, then to the same extent S. Mezhinsky, an excellent performer of the role of Sergeev, was at the center of the performance. The viewer's eyes are fixed on him from the first minute when he appears with his family.
Engineer Sergeev does not yet imagine that his city may be within reach of the enemy. He blesses his lieutenant son for military feats, confident that the Nazis will be driven away. He is completely occupied with thoughts about the operation of the power plant, which supplies energy to all the defense factories located around him. But something new bursts into his thoughts, into his feelings, into his life. The words of Comrade Stalin call in the event of a forced withdrawal of the Red Army units to destroy everything that cannot be taken out. Sergeev inevitably faces the question of what and how he will do if the enemy approaches his home. He has no hesitation. But, as a patriot who cherishes the wonderful fruits of Stalin’s five-year plans, he deeply worries about the death of the power plant. S. Mezhinsky managed to make these tragic and noble traits of the hero close to every viewer.
The traitorous engineer Talkin, a Nazi agent, tries to prevent the explosion and, taking advantage of Sergeev’s momentary absence, disconnects the wire. When Sergeev and he are left alone throughout the power plant, Talkin confesses to his actions. Sergeev pretends that he has always been like-minded with Talkin, and, having lulled his alertness, kills the traitor. The Germans break into the power plant. Resourcefulness saves the Russian patriot again. He pretends to be Talkin. He is entrusted with managing the station. Having decided to carry out his plans to the end, Sergeev blows up the station along with the Germans there and, dying, hurls words of severe accusation at the enemies, predicting an inevitable verdict. In the last scenes, S. Mezhinsky's performance reaches high dramatic tension, causing the viewer a feeling of deep excitement.
Having focused his attention on the engineer Sergeev, the author somewhat did not finalize the images of other heroes. This primarily applies to the fitter Pavlik, outlined only in separate strokes, and to some extent to the old master Pyzhik.
However, these shortcomings are smoothed out by the exciting tension and captivating spontaneity with which the play is written. The shortcomings are also made up for by the sincere and inspired performance of the ensemble cast.
The audience warmly accepts the performance. He is imbued with the harsh heroism of the war and the optimism with which Soviet patriots carry out their heroic deeds, giving their lives in the name of victory. The main character of the play, engineer Sergeev, wins deep love, in whom the viewer sees a representative of the Soviet intelligentsia, whose work was so highly appreciated by Comrade Stalin. This is the value of the play, this is the merit of the theater.
M. Zhivov

Characters of the play
Sergeev, Nikolai Emelyanovich, 47 years old, director of hydroelectric power station
Natalya Semyonovna, 40 years old, his wife
Boris, 21 years old, their son, tank driver
Shurochka, 19 years old, their daughter
Talkin, Pavel Petrovich, 47 years old, engineer
Pyzhik, Taras Nikanorovich, 45 years old, hydroelectric plant technician
Surovtsev, Andrey Andreevich, 35 years old, beginning. RO NKVD, art. State Security Lieutenant
Voloshin, Vladimir Mikhailovich, 30 years old, secretary of the party committee of the hydroelectric power station
Pavel, 22 years old, station technician
Vera, 25 years old, secretary to the director of a hydroelectric power station
Rynzin, Korney Petrovich, 55 years old, chairman of the collective farm "Red Dawns"
Mikhail Soykin, 30 years old, agronomist, lame
Sanka, 15 years old, boy on the collective farm
Partisan collective farmer Uncle Anton, 45 years old
Collective farmer
Chekist
Von Clinstengarten, 55, German Army General
Krieger, 28 years old, lieutenant in the German army
Gunther, 35 years old, German army captain
Workers, collective farmers, Red Army soldiers, partisans, German soldiers and officers

Selected places from "Engineer Sergeev"
(From picture 1: engineer Sergeev escorts his tankman son to the front)
Sergeev. Lieutenant of tank forces! Being a tank driver was his dream since childhood. Only now, brother, he will have to go straight from school to the front line, into battle! I think it won't let you down!
Voloshin. He's a fighter! Do you remember the year before last, during the flood at the dam, how he pulled Nina out of the whirlpool?
Sergeev. How not to remember! Yes, my Boris, even when he was a boy, this happened... So where did we stop?
Voloshin. I was talking about the party meeting. Yesterday I spent it. Open. We read Comrade Stalin's speech again. What a wonderful speech! And everyone listened to the third one, on the radio, with such tension, as if they wanted to immediately learn it by heart. And when Comrade Stalin said: “I am addressing you, my friends!” - so everything turned upside down inside me.
Shurochka (with fervor). And so do I, Comrade Voloshin!
Sergeev. Let's have a drink, comrades! (He gets up with a glass in his hand, is silent for a few seconds, collecting his thoughts.) Our homeland, comrades, has entered a period of great trials. There will still be a lot of grief ahead. Many thousands of good Soviet people will die in this war, but “Better death, but death with glory, than shame of inglorious days.”

(From picture 4: senior lieutenant of state security Surovtsev is developing a plan to blow up a hydroelectric power station)
Surovtsev. We now need to develop a plan and act. Who can you involve in this matter? Just fewer people.
Sergeev. Voloshin?
Surovtsev. Necessarily! He is also the secretary of the party committee. More?
Sergeev. Pyzhika, he is an absolutely proven person.
Surovtsev. Will do!
Sergeev. Engineer Talkin.
Surovtsev (winces). We know little about Talkin.
Sergeev. He's a smart person.
Surovtsev. Explanatory! Do you remember, at the dam, what nonsense he talked about idealism and materialism? OK. Call them here, let's talk...
Sergeev. How are things with Soykin? Did you find out?
Surovtsev. I sent him to the disposal of the regional administration, to the city. Our district prosecutor kept pestering me: release Soykin, you don’t have sufficient grounds to keep him under arrest. So I sent him to the city. I would like to gain time. Soykin himself is not saying anything yet. But I feel in my gut that he is up to no good.
Faith (enters). Nikolai Emelyanovich, Pyzhik is already here. Voloshin will arrive now, but I can’t find Talkin anywhere.
Sergeev. You'll still look for Talkin, and when Voloshin comes up, let him come in with Pyzhik...

"The text is primitive, the situations are fake, it's scary to play..."
A veteran of the Academic Maly Theater, People's Artist of Russia, recalls his participation in the play "Engineer Sergeev" Gennady Sergeev.

“I started playing when I was still a student. Since 1942, I studied at the Shchepkinsky School. Young actors of the Maly Theater were at the front, and we took part in performances from our first year. We were involved in crowd scenes. At the rehearsals of "Engineer Sergeev" we portrayed some Germans, some Russians. But it so happened that Shamin, who played the NKVD lieutenant, fell ill. After the premiere of the play, three performances were performed. That day I entered the theater, they told me: urgently to the director Konstantin Aleksandrovich Zubov. It was a cameo role, so they brought me in right away.
— Did you know who is hiding under the pseudonym Vsevolod Rokk?
— It was no secret who wrote the play. Merkulov came to rehearsals. He was sitting next to Zubov. He didn’t stand out in any way, didn’t make any noise, didn’t make any comments. When we were rehearsing scenes where the students were not busy, we sat in the stalls not far from them. It was heard that Merkulov kept asking Zubov: what is the best way to do this or that? The play was remade on the fly. It was clear that the playwright did not know what stage and stagecraft were, that dialogues, for example, could not be stretched out indefinitely - the audience would stop listening. So Zubov shortened all this verbosity.
But he couldn't fix everything. The text is primitive, the situations are ridiculous, completely false. In a word, a crude play by a mediocre author. It came out well and was received very well thanks to the acting. After all, the best cast of the theater was chosen for such a playwright. It was impossible otherwise, you understand. Especially, of course, Semyon Borisovich Mezhinsky stood out, who played the main role - engineer Sergeev. He played great. So that everyone was captivated. Chernyshov played the traitor Soykin grandiosely. Korotkov played the German amazingly. Without the slightest caricature. There was a standing ovation...
— Was Merkulov happy?
- Still would. After the premiere we went to Merkulov for a banquet. There were about ten cars parked at the theater. And we were taken out of town, it seems, to Ilyinskoye. It was his dacha or not, I don’t know. Rather, it was a palace. Startling. Such decoration can now only be seen on the richest. He received us well and hospitably. He gave water, fed, speeches were made... First, all the words that are usually said at receptions were said, and then Merkulov said, I remember well: “You helped out my play. You helped out with your magnificent acting.”
Such a wide reception, of course, surprised me. Here I have to tell you this. The luminaries of the Maly Theater did not like Soviet power. They didn’t demonstrate it, but they didn’t like it. So the authorities tried to attract them with various benefits. In our theater during the war, in addition to ordinary food cards, we also had letter cards, which were used to purchase goods in special stores. And besides, lunches in the theater canteen were free. But I have never seen such delicacies as at that reception. It was strange. The war was still going on. But everyone remained silent. They didn't even say anything to each other. It was scary.
—Wasn’t it scary to play?
- Certainly. After all, he is the chief of state security. Even at the dacha, from time to time a chill ran down his spine. And you say, play...
— And how long did “Engineer Sergeev” last?
— Until 1946. As soon as Merkulov was removed from the ministry of state security, the play was removed from the repertoire. Straightaway. We did it quickly. Always. And it was never resumed in any theater. There are, however, no fewer bad plays. Sofronov was such a “great playwright.” We were lucky! The Moscow Art Theater did not stage Sofronov. But Maly failed to fight back. It’s good that Mikhalkov Sr.’s plays – Sergei – were not staged. It was difficult for us with plays until Alexander Volodin appeared.
And we were reminded about “Engineer Sergeev” in 1956. The curator of our theater from Lubyanka - a lieutenant colonel, a young and cultured guy, knew three languages - after the twentieth congress, he once came to see our head of the personnel department. I was there too. He asks me: “You once played in “Engineer Sergeev”?” “I played,” I say. - “Do you know who wrote it?” Well, of course, he was at the banquet. “Yes, no,” he says, “a completely different person wrote it. For Merkulov.” He did not say who exactly: “Why stir up the past, especially since this person is no longer alive.”

With the assistance of the publishing house VAGRIUS "Vlast" presents a series of historical materials in the ARCHIVE section
All photos are published for the first time.

Vsevolod Nikolaevich Merkulov(November 7 (October 25), 1895, Zagatala, Zagatala district (Transcaucasia) of the Russian Empire, now the territory of Azerbaijan - December 23, 1953, executed) - Soviet statesman and politician, army general (07/09/1945).

Head of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR (1938-1941), People's Commissar (Minister) of State Security of the USSR (1941, 1943-1946), Minister of State Control of the USSR (1950-1953).

Became part of the inner circle L. P. Beria, worked with him since the early 1920s, enjoyed his personal trust.

Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 1st and 2nd convocations. Member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1939-1946, candidate 1946-1953).

Biography

Born into the family of a hereditary nobleman, captain of the tsarist army. Mother Ketovana Nikolaevna, nee Tsinamzgvarishvili, a noblewoman - a descendant of princely blood of the Georgian family.

According to Nikita Petrov, Merkulov’s father, “a nobleman, a military man with the rank of captain, served as the head of the Zagatala district station”: “In 1899 or 1900, Merkulov’s father was convicted of embezzlement of funds in the amount of 100 rubles, and served 8 months in prison in Tiflis, filed a petition for pardon, considering himself a victim of slander... In 1908, my father died.

Since childhood, I have been interested in literary creativity.

In 1913 he graduated from the Tiflis Third Men's Gymnasium with a gold medal. At the humanitarian gymnasium, he became so interested in electrical engineering that his articles were published in a special magazine in Odessa. He continued his studies by entering the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University. There he began writing and publishing stories about student life: “While still at the university, he wrote several romantic stories, which were published in literary magazines and received positive reviews,” his son recalled. From September 1913 to October 1916 he gave private lessons.

In October 1916, after completing the 3rd year, he was drafted into the army. In 1916-1917 service in the imperial army (He did not participate in hostilities.):
- October - November 1916 - private student battalion, Petrograd.
- November 1916 - March 1917 - cadet of the Orenburg school of ensigns, graduated from it.
- April 1917 - August 1917 - ensign of the reserve regiment, Novocherkassk.
- September 1917 - October 1917 - ensign of a marching company, Rivne.
- October 1917 - January 1918 - ensign of the 331st Orsk Regiment of the 83rd Infantry Division of the 16th Army Corps of the 4th Army of the Southwestern Front. The regiment was located in the Lutsk direction, in the area of the Stokhod River. Merkulov did not participate in hostilities.
- In January 1918, due to illness, he was evacuated to Tiflis to stay with relatives.
- Demobilized in March 1918.
While living with his sister, he published a handwritten magazine, printing copies on a chapirograph and selling them for 3 rubles.

In July 1918 he married Lidia Dmitrievna Yakhontova and moved to live with her.

From September 1918 to September 1921, he was a clerk, then a teacher at the Tiflis School for the Blind, where his mother was the director.
In 1919, he joined the Sokol society, where he practiced gymnastics and participated in evenings and amateur performances.

In the organs of the OGPU

In contrast to the version of Merkulov’s voluntary, on his own initiative, joining the Cheka, there is also information indicating that he began working there under coercion by the security officers (as an officer) to be an informant for the white officers.

From September 1921 to May 1923 - assistant commissioner, commissioner, senior commissioner of the Economic Department of the Cheka under the Council of People's Commissars of the SSR Georgia.

“I must say (now, 30 years later, I believe I can do this without the risk of being accused of self-praise) that at that time, despite my 27 years, I was a naive, very modest and very shy person, somewhat reserved and silent. I didn’t give speeches and I still haven’t learned how to make them. My tongue seemed to be constrained by something, and I could not do anything with it. The pen is another matter. I knew how to handle him. I was also never a suck-up, a sycophant or an upstart, but I always behaved modestly and, I think, with a sense of my own dignity. This is how I appeared before Beria when he called me then. You didn’t have to be particularly insightful to understand all this, and I think that Beria guessed my character at first glance. He saw the opportunity to use my abilities for his own purposes without the risk of having a rival or anything like that,” Merkulov later recalled.

- As an employee of the Cheka, Merkulov twice, in 1922 and 1923, submitted an application to the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Only the second time, in May 1923, he was accepted as a candidate with a two-year probationary period. In 1925, he applied for admission to the party, it was as if he was accepted, but the party card was never issued. Only Beria's intervention saved the situation. In 1927, Merkulov was given a party card as a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) indicating his party experience since 1925.
From 1923 to January 23, 1925 - head of the 1st department of the Economic Department of the Plenipotentiary Representation of the OGPU for the Trans-SFSR - Cheka under the Council of People's Commissars of the Trans-SFSR.
In 1925 - head of the Information and Agents Department of the Plenipotentiary Representation of the OGPU for the Trans-SFSR - Cheka under the Council of People's Commissars of the Trans-SFSR.
In 1925-1926 - Head of the Economic Department of the Cheka - GPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the SSR Georgia.
In 1926-1927 - Head of the Economic Department of the GPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the SSR Georgia.
In 1927-1929 - Head of the Department of Information, Agitation and Political Control of the GPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the SSR of Georgia.
In 1929-1931 - Head of the Secret Operations Unit and Deputy Chairman of the GPU of the Adjara Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. From May 4 to July 1930 and about. head of the Adjarian regional department of the GPU.
From May 1931 to January 29, 1932 - head of the Secret Political Department of the Plenipotentiary Representation of the OGPU for the Trans-SFSR and the GPU under the Council of People's Commissars of the Trans-SFSR.

At party work

From November 12, 1931 to February 1934 - assistant secretary of the Transcaucasian regional committee of the CPSU (b) and 1st secretary of the Central Committee of the CP (b) of Georgia.
In March 1934 - November 1936 - head of the Department of Soviet Trade of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
Until November 1936 - head of the Special Sector of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the CPSU (b)
From November 11, 1936 to September 9, 1937 - head of the Special Sector of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia (Bolsheviks).
From July 22, 1937 to October 1938 - head of the Industrial and Transport Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia.
Since November 23, 1937 - member of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia (Bolsheviks).

In the NKVD and NKGB

On September 11, 1938, he was awarded the special title of Commissioner of State Security of the 3rd rank (on the same day Beria was awarded the special title of Commissioner of State Security of the 1st rank).

With the appointment of Beria as head of the GUGB, Merkulov is appointed to the position of his deputy.

From September 29 to December 17, 1938 - Deputy Chief of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
From October 26 to December 17, 1938 - head of the III department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR.
From December 17, 1938 to February 3, 1941 - First Deputy People's Commissar of the NKVD - Head of the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB).

“Although at the end of 1938, when Beria became the People’s Commissar, he instituted the USSR instead of Yezhov and, despite my requests not to do this, nominated me as his first deputy, in operational work he still relied mainly on Kobulov. Now it is absolutely clear to me that Beria nominated me for this position mainly only because I was the only Russian from his entourage. He understood that he could not appoint Kobulov or Dekanozov as first deputy. Such nominations will not be accepted. There was only one candidate left. I think that Beria understood, at least internally, that I was not suited by nature for this position, but apparently he had no other choice,” Merkulov recalled.

From March 21, 1939 to August 23, 1946 - member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Transferred from member to candidate member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks by the plenum of August 21 - 23, 1946 by poll.

“From the act of acceptance and delivery of cases of the Ministry of State Security, it is established that the security service work in the Ministry was carried out unsatisfactorily, that the former Minister of State Security, Comrade V.N. Merkulov. hid from the Central Committee the facts about the major shortcomings in the work of the Ministry and the fact that in a number of foreign countries the work of the Ministry was a failure. In view of this, the Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decides: Withdraw comrade. Merkulova V.N. from the membership of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and transferred to candidate membership of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of August 23, 1946

According to the decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of March 5, 1940, Merkulov headed the “troika” of the NKVD, which was to decide on death sentences for interned Polish officers and citizens (Katyn execution).

In November 1940, Merkulov, as part of a delegation headed by Molotov, went to Berlin for negotiations with the leaders of the German Empire. He attended a breakfast given by Hitler at the Imperial Chancellery on November 13, 1940 in honor of the Soviet delegation. And in the evening of the same day, Molotov gave a return dinner at the Soviet embassy in Berlin, to which, in addition to Ribbentrop, Reichsführer SS Himmler also arrived.

In the period from February 3, 1941 to July 20, 1941 and from April 14, 1943 to May 7, 1946 - People's Commissar (from March 1946 - Minister) of State Security of the USSR.

“Smartly using the well-known provocative Shakhurin case against me, Abakumov became the Minister of State Security of the USSR in May 1946,” Merkulov believed.

As the son of Vsevolod Merkulov recalled: “According to his father, he was fired from the post of minister because of his softness. After the war, when a new wave of repressions began, Stalin needed a tough and straightforward person in this position. Therefore, after his father, Abakumov headed the MGB... ".

He signed a decree to cleanse the prisons of Western Ukraine of “enemies of the people,” as a result of which more than 10,000 people were shot in Lviv, Rivne and other regions.

From July 31, 1941 to April 16, 1943 - First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs.
From November 17, 1942 to April 14, 1943 - head of the 1st department of the NKVD of the USSR.
On February 4, 1943, he was awarded the special rank of State Security Commissioner of the 1st rank. The special title was abolished by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 6, 1945.

In 1943-1944. - headed the “Commission for the preliminary investigation of the so-called Katyn case.”

From August 23, 1946 to November 18, 1953 - candidate member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - CPSU. He was removed from the list of candidates for membership in the CPSU Central Committee by poll.

In the Main Directorate of Soviet Property Abroad I was then appointed deputy head of the Main Directorate of Foreign Property and went abroad. This appointment took place on the initiative of Comrade Stalin. I regarded it as an expression of confidence on the part of Comrade Stalin, given that I was sent abroad, despite my release from such a post as the Minister of State Security of the USSR.

From February 1947 to April 25, 1947 - Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of Soviet Property Abroad under the USSR Ministry of Foreign Trade.
From April 25, 1947 to October 27, 1950 - Head of the Main Directorate of Soviet Property Abroad under the USSR Council of Ministers for Austria.

At the Ministry of State Control “In 1950, it was Comrade Stalin who named me as a candidate for the post of Minister of State Control of the USSR... I felt almost rehabilitated after being released from work in the MGB in 1946,” Merkulov recalled.

From October 27, 1950 to December 16, 1953 - Minister of State Control of the USSR.

Arrest and death

He noted that some time after Stalin’s death “he considered it his duty to offer Beria his services to work in the Ministry of Internal Affairs... However, Beria rejected my offer, obviously, as I now believe, believing that I would not be useful for the purposes that he intended myself then, taking control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. That day I saw Beria for the last time.”

On September 18, 1953, he was arrested in connection with the Beria case. He was in solitary confinement in Butyrka.

On December 16, 1953, he was officially removed from the post of minister “due to the fact that the USSR Prosecutor’s Office uncovered the criminal, anti-state actions of Merkulov during his work in the MGB and the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.”

On December 23, 1953, together with Beria and others, he was sentenced to the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR under Art. 58-1 "b", 58-7, 58-8, 58–11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR to capital punishment - the death penalty and was shot on the same day at 21:20. He was buried at the Donskoye Cemetery.

By the ruling of the military collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. bn-00164/2000 dated May 29, 2002, Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria and Vsevolod Nikolaevich Merkulov were recognized as not subject to rehabilitation.

Literary activity

He recalled how at the end of the war a reception was held in the Kremlin, which was attended by Stalin, members of the Politburo, military personnel, writers, and artists. As head of state security, my father tried to stay close to Joseph Vissarionovich. At some point, Stalin approached a group of artists and started a conversation with them. And then one artist exclaimed with admiration, saying, what wonderful plays your minister writes (by that time the People's Commissariat of State Security had been renamed the ministry). The leader was very surprised: he really did not know that his father wrote plays that were shown in theaters. However, Stalin was not delighted with this discovery. On the contrary, turning to his father, he sternly said: “The Minister of State Security should do his job - catch spies, and not write plays.” Since then, dad never wrote: like no one else, he knew that the words of Joseph Vissarionovich were not discussed. Rem Vsevolodovich Merkulov

Merkulov participated in editing the report “On the question of the history of Bolshevik organizations in Transcaucasia,” with which L.P. Beria spoke in 1935.
Merkulov prepared an article about L.P. for the Small Soviet Encyclopedia. Beria.
“The faithful son of the Lenin-Stalin party” (biographical essay about L.P. Beria, volume 64 pages and circulation of 15 thousand copies), 1940.

Family

Father - Nikolay Merkulov, served as the chief of the Zakatala district, was a captain in the tsarist army, a hereditary nobleman (died in 1903).
Mother - Ketovana Nikolaevna, from the respected Georgian princely family of Tsinamzgvarishvili.
Wife - Lidia Dmitrievna Yakhontova(marriage registered in July 1918). Lydia Dmitrievna had an uncle, Viktor Aleksandrovich Yakhontov, who was a major general in the tsarist army, in 1917 a comrade of the Minister of War in the government of Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky, and since 1919 he lived in the United States of America, in the city of New York.
Son - Rem Vsevolodovich Merkulov(b. 1924), professor, candidate of technical sciences, deputy. head Department of Moscow State Technical University "MAMI".

MERKULOV VSEVOLOD NIKOLAEVICH

(1895 , Zagatala city, Zakatala district. Caucasian governorship - 23.12.1953 ). Born into the family of a captain in the royal army. Russian. In KP with 09.25 . Member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (18th Congress). 08.46 promoted to candidate. Candidate for membership Central Committee of the CPSU 23.08.46-18.11.53 . Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 1-2 convocations.

Education: 3 men's gymnasium, Tiflis 1913 ; Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Petrograd University 09.13-10.16 ; Orenburg school of warrant officers 11.16-03.17 .

Gave private lessons 09.13-10.16 .

In the army: Private student battalion, Petrograd 10.16-11.16 ; reserve warrant officer infantry shelf, Novocherkassk 04.17-08.17 ; ensign of the marching company, Rivne 09.17-10.17 ; ensign of the 331st Orsky Regiment 10.17-01.18 ; Due to illness, he was evacuated to Tiflis 01.18 .

Unemployed, Tiflis 03.18-08.18 ; clerk, teacher at a school for the blind, Tiflis 09.18-09.21 .

In the bodies of the Cheka-OGPU: pom. completed Georgian Cheka 09.21-1921 ; completed IVF Georgian Cheka 1921-? ; Art. completed IVF Georgian Cheka ?-05.23 ; beginning 1st department of ECO PP OGPU for the TSFSR-Transcaucasian Cheka ?-23.01.25 ; beginning INFAGO PP OGPU for the ZSFSR-Transcaucasian Cheka 23.01.25-1925 ; beginning IVF Georgian Cheka 1925-20.07.26 ; beginning ECO GPU Georgian SSR 20.07.26-1927 ; beginning INFAGO and PC GPU Georgian SSR 1927-02.29 ; deputy prev GPU of the Adjara Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, beginning. SOC 02.29-05.31 ; vrid prev. GPU of the Adjara Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic 04.05.30-07.30 ; beginning SPO PP OGPU for the ZSFSR and GPU ZSFSR 05.31-29.01.32 .

Pom. Secretary of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee and 1 Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Georgia 12.11.31-02.34 ; head dept. owls trade of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks 03.34-11.36 ; head special sector of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks ?-11.36 ; head special sector of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia 11.11.36-09.09.37 ; head industrial-transport dept. Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Georgia 22.07.37-10.38 .

In the bodies of the NKVD-NKGB-MGB: deputy beginning GUGB NKVD USSR 29.09.38-17.12.38 ; beginning 3 dept. GUGB NKVD USSR 26.10.38-17.12.38 17.12.38-03.02.41 ; beginning GUGB NKVD USSR 17.12.38-03.02.41 ; People's Commissar of the State Security Service of the USSR 03.02.41-20.07.41 ; 1st deputy People's Commissar internal affairs of the USSR 31.07.41-14.04.43 ; beginning 1 department NKVD USSR 17.11.42-14.04.43 ; People's Commissar-Minister of the State Security Service of the USSR 14.04.43-04.05.46 .

Deputy beginning GUSIMZ under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR 02.47-25.04.47 ; beginning GUSIMZ under the USSR Council of Ministers 25.04.47-27.10.50 ; Minister of State Control of the USSR 27.10.50-17.09.53 .

Arrested 18.09.53 ; sentenced by the Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR 23.12.53 to VMN. Shot.

Not rehabilitated.

Ranks: GB Commissioner 3rd rank 11.09.38 ; GB Commissar 1st Rank 04.02.43 ; army General 09.07.45 .

Awards: badge “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (V)” No. 649 1931 ; Order of Lenin No. 5837 26.04.40 ; Order of the Republic of Tuva No. 134 18.08.43 ; Order of Kutuzov 1st degree No. 160 08.03.44 ; Order of the Red Banner No. 142627 03.11.44 ; 9 medals.

Note: He switched to party work already in November 1931.

From book: N.V.Petrov, K.V.Skorkin
"Who led the NKVD. 1934-1941"