Armenians Sentenced to Execution According to Stalin’s Lists

During the surge of political repressions in the USSR in 1937-38, it became routine practice for Stalin and his inner circle to approve the “List of Persons Subject to Trial by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR” in the Kremlin leader’s office before each meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks): under the 1st category, the maximum penalty was intended (execution), under the 2nd – exile for 10 or more years, under the 3rd – from 5 to 8.

The well-tuned conveyor of death worked flawlessly: the NKVD (Yezhov) formed the lists, Politburo members approved them, and the Supreme Court Military Collegium (Ulrich) formalized the sentences.

The so-called Stalin execution lists resurfaced later – in 1940-42 and even in 1950. Now these tragic lists are stored in the Archive of the President of the Russian Federation (AP RF). There are more than 700 Armenian surnames in them.

The sorrowful Armenian martyrology continues:

Head of Water Management Aivazyan Konstantin Grigorievich 19.04.38. Armenian SSR. Cat.1 For – Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich, Zhdanov

List of 69 people presented by the head of department 8 of the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD, Senior Major of State Security V.E. Tsesarsky AP RF, list 24, file 16, sheet 70. Born in 1896 in the village of Vank, Megrinsky district, Zangezur district, Elisavetpol province. Educated in Baku, a member of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) since 1918. From 1921 to 1923, he held leadership positions in the district committees of the Communist Party of Armenia – in Echmiadzin and Nor Bayazet. From 1926, head of the Armenian water management department. Member of the Central Executive Committee of the Armenian SSR and Transcaucasian SFSR. In 1936, expelled from the ranks of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).

In the personal file of K.G. Aivazyan (State Archive of Armenia, fund 1191, list 2, file 1893, sheet 10), there is a note: “Place of work: SK ‘Sovprene’, position: worker.”

It can be assumed that after being expelled from the party, he was also relieved of his position. Being an active person, he could not sit idle and went to work as an ordinary worker at the synthetic rubber factory – SK “Sovprene.” The enterprise was created by the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR on May 11, 1933, in Yerevan as a factory for producing chloroprene rubber from calcium carbide.

Construction, and then production, was overseen by Nikolai Pavlovich Kursel, who, due to the importance of the object, became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia. Falling into the “clutches” of Yezhov’s regime, on December 28, 1938, Nikolai Kursel was sentenced to execution. Konstantin Aivazyan met the same fate later that year.

Aygunov Zakhar Sumbatovich 03.01.38. Georgian SSR. Cat.1 For – Zhdanov, Molotov, Kaganovich, Voroshilov

Managing Trust Aydinov Ivan Khristoforovich 03.02.38. Moscow-Center. Cat.1 For – Stalin, Voroshilov, Molotov, Kaganovich List of 156 people presented by V.E. Tsesarsky AP RF, op.24, d.414, l.357

Born in 1887 in the village of Krym, Rostov region. Higher education, a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Lived at the address: Moscow, Khokhlovsky per, d.11, apt.9. Before his arrest, he worked as a manager of the All-Union Trust of the Aniline Dye Industry of the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry of the USSR.

Arrested on December 14, 1937. Accused of participating in an anti-Soviet Trotskyist sabotage-terrorist organization, and on February 13, 1938, he was sentenced to the death penalty (VMN) by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. Executed on the same day. Burial place – Moscow Region, “Kommunarka” range. Rehabilitated on September 8, 1956, by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.

In Khokhlovsky Lane, in the same house, in apartment 8 (on the same floor), lived the deputy People’s Commissar of heavy industry of the USSR, Osipov-Shmidt Osip Pavlovich, who was taken slightly earlier by the Chekists – on August 27, 1937. Ivan Khristoforovich was friends with his neighbor and was under his command. After Osipov-Shmidt’s arrest, his apartment was occupied by Iskanderov Avak Bogdanovich, a responsible employee of the People’s Commissariat of the fuel industry of the USSR (born in 1902 in Baku, higher education, member of the RCP(b) since 1920, worked as the director of the Baku oil refinery). However, he was arrested on November 28, 1939, already as the deputy People’s Commissar of the oil industry of the USSR, when both Aydinov and Osipov-Shmidt had already been shot and buried at the “Kommunarka” range near Moscow. Iskanderov himself was buried in the same “Kommunarka” land on July 27, 1941.

Ivan Khristoforovich’s wife, Aydinova Zinaida Petrovna (born in 1896 in Kharkov, Jewish), also suffered. By a special meeting (OSO) at the NKVD of the USSR on March 28, 1938, as a family member of a traitor to the motherland (CHSIR), she was sentenced to 5 years of correctional labor camps (ITL). She arrived at the Akmolinsk camp for wives of traitors to the motherland (AL ZHIR) from Segezha Camp (Karelia) on August 20, 1941, where Zinaida Leontievna, widow of O.P. Osipov-Shmidt, had already been serving her sentence. She was released on March 1, 1943.

Three months earlier than I.Kh. Aydinova – on November 15, 1937 – Babayan Anaida Artemievna (born in 1901 in the settlement of Imanshalu (now Mkhchyan) of the Erivan District of Erivan Province, higher education, member of the CPSU(b), unemployed, last place of work – head of the planning-economic department of the “Zapsibzoloto” trust in Novosibirsk), a friend of Ivan Khristoforovich, who lived in the same house in apartment 21, was executed. She was charged with sabotage and participation in an underground Trotskyist center. Buried in Moscow, at the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery.

Ayrapetov (Arto) Artavazd Arkadievich 22.12.37. Azerbaijan SSR. Cat.1 For – Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich, Voroshilov

Regiment Commander Ayrapetov Sergey Nikolaevich 03.05.38. Tajik SSR. Cat.1 For – Stalin, Molotov

List of 108 people (without indication – who presented) AP RF, file 24, case 416, sheet 258.

From September 27, 1932, the 7th Turkestan Cavalry Brigade was renamed the 7th Turkestan Mountain Cavalry Division of the Order of Lenin and the Red Banner, and on May 21, 1936, it was renamed the 20th Mountain Cavalry Division of the Order of Lenin and the Red Banner, which included the Tajik Cavalry Regiment, renamed the 47th Mountain Cavalry Regiment named after the Central Executive Committee of the Tajik SSR. Major Sergey Nikolaevich Ayratov commanded that regiment from May 15, 1932. He was discharged from the ranks of the Red Cavalry Army on April 27, 1937, and immediately arrested. The 38th year put an end to the regiment commander’s life.

In the “List…” of May 3, 1938, two more members of the command staff of the 20th Division were included: Fedin Andrey Trofimovich, division commander, and Volodkin Ivan Ivanovich, deputy commander.

Chairman of “EXPORTBREAD” Ayratetyan Ervand Gerasimovich 03.01.38. Moscow–Center. Category 1 For – Zhdanov, Molotov, Kaganovich, Voroshilov. List of 147 persons presented by V.E. Tsesarsky. State Archive of the Russian Federation, file 24, doc. 414, p. 185.

Ayratetyan (Ayrapetyants) E.G. was born in 1900 in the city of Shusha, Shusha district of Elisabethpol Governorate. Higher education. Member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). In the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Trade of the USSR, he held the position of Chairman of “Exportbread,” which was engaged in the sale of grain abroad. Lived in Moscow: Gertsen Street, building 14, apartment 13.

Arrested on November 6, 1937, on charges of participating in an anti-Soviet Trotskyist terrorist organization. On January 20, 1938, he was sentenced to the highest measure of punishment (execution) by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR and was shot the same day. He was rehabilitated on October 1, 1955.

I would like to note that from 1926 to 1949, A.I. Mikoyan was responsible for the USSR’s foreign trade: from August 1926 to November 1930, as the People’s Commissar for External and Internal Trade of the USSR, until 1946 – the People’s Commissar for Foreign Trade of the USSR, and until 1949 – the Minister of Foreign Trade of the USSR.

Ayratyan Onik Filipovich 12.09.38. Armenian SSR. Category 1 For – Stalin, Molotov, Zhdanov.

Engineer of the track service Ayrapetyants Grigoriy Gerasimovich 03.02.38. Moscow–Center. Category 1 For – Stalin, Voroshilov, Molotov, Kaganovich. List of 156 persons presented by V.E. Tsesarsky. State Archive of the Russian Federation, file 24, doc. 144, p. 357.

Erwand Gerasimovich’s older brother, chairman of “Exportkhleb,” was born in the city of Shusha in 1891. He had a higher, engineering education and was a member of the VKP (b). He was an assistant to the head of the track service of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CE Railway), an assistant to the head of “Transzheldorizdat” in Moscow. He supervised the construction of the First Typographical Workshop of the People’s Commissariat for Communications of the SSR.

On October 27, 1937, comrades from the NKVD broke into his apartment at 2nd Sokolnicheskaya Street, Building 2a, Apartment 24. Investigator Beninson tortured him into “admitting” that in 1934 he was recruited by the Japanese gendarmerie in Harbin, which connected him with a director of the “Bolshevik” defense plant named Ruda.

From the investigative materials, it appears that at Ruda’s behest, Ayrapetyants was tasked with recruiting Harbin residents for sabotage. In 1935, before leaving for the USSR, he allegedly received an assignment from the director of the “Bolshevik” to organize sabotage work throughout the railway network of the Union: “For these purposes, Ruda assigned Ayrapetyants over 20 Japanese agents from the Harbin residents, working on the line of track service for the General Commissar of State Security (GB) Yezhov, strangling the hydra of counterrevolution.

The tasks of the sabotage agency, headed by Ayrapetyants, included the systematic destruction of track facilities on some of the most important roads of defensive-strategic importance, organizing train wrecks, and preparing a number of sabotage acts in wartime. This sabotage agency, as Investigator Beninson insists, was deployed on the railways of Orenburg, Moscow-Donbass, South-Eastern, Kuibyshev, Ryazan-Uralsk, Stalingrad, Turkestan-Siberian, Tashkent.

Special ranks for employees of the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) were introduced by the decision of the Central Executive Committee of the SSR on 10/07/1935: State Security Commissar (GB) 1st rank, State Security Commissar 2nd rank, State Security Commissar 3rd rank, Senior Major GB, Major GB, Captain GB, Senior Lieutenant GB, Lieutenant GB, Junior Lieutenant.

These ranks were two steps higher than the army ranks: the State Security Commissar of the 1st rank was equivalent to the Commander of the 1st rank of the Red Army, and from May 1940 – to the General of the Army; the captain corresponded to an army colonel, and a GB sergeant wore two “epaulettes” – like a lieutenant of the Red Army.

On 11/26/1935, the title “General Commissar of State Security” also appeared, awarded to Yagoda (later – Yezhov, and subsequently – Beria).

Convicted by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR for membership in an anti-Soviet sabotage and terrorist organization, Ayrapetyants was sentenced to death. He was executed on February 19, 1938. The burial place is the Moscow region, the “Kommunarka” shooting range. The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the SSR rehabilitated him on November 28, 1957.

Incidentally, Ivan Pavlovich Ruda, the permanent director of the “Bolshevik” plant from 1919 to 1937, and a tried-and-true party member, was also executed, but a week later in Leningrad on February 27, 1938.

In the “Memory Book of the Prisoners of AL ZHIR,” information was found about the widow of G.G. Ayrapetyants:

“Ayrapetyants Maria Nikolaevna was born in 1899, Moscow; Russian. Sentenced: OSO at the NKVD USSR on March 22, 1938, charged as a CHSIR. Sentence: 8 years of forced labor. Arrived at Akmolinsk LO (camp division of Karlag. – G.M.) on May 4, 1938, from Butyrskaya prison in Moscow. Released from Karlag on December 24, 1945.”

Airoputyian Samson Grigorievich 09.02.38. Far Eastern Territory. Cat.1 For – Stalin, Molotov

Akopov A.E. 01.11.37. Moscow–Center, former secretaries of regional committees. Cat.1 For – Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Zhdanov

Akopov Akop Alexandrovich 25.09.38. Azerbaijani SSR. Cat.2. For – Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich, Voroshilov

Akopov Alexander Armenakovich 19.04.38. Georgian SSR. Cat.1 For – Stalin, Molotov, Zhdanov

Akopov Alexander Petrovich 12.09.38. Stalingrad Region. Cat. 1 For – Stalin, Molotov, Zhdanov

Akopov Artem Grigorievich 15.09.37. Georgian SSR. Cat.1 For – Stalin, Molotov

Divisional Commissar Akopov Atanes Beglyarovich 19.04.38. Moscow–Center. Cat.1 For – Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich, Zhdanov List of 327 people presented by the head of the 1st special department, Senior Major of State Security I.I. Shapiro AP RF, op.24, d.416, l.6

Chief of the Political Department of the Armenian First Rifle Division, Divisional Commissar.

In the National Archive of Armenia, there is a transcript of the interrogation of the commander of the Armenian division Akop Atoyan, dated September 30, 1937. I provide an excerpt from this document, suspecting that it is falsified from beginning to end: “Having graduated from the Frunze Academy in Moscow in 1928, I was assigned to the Armenian division as the commander of the third regiment. Here I became closely acquainted with the military commissar of the division, Atanes Akopov.”

Further, Atoyan “admits” that in 1929, Atanes Akopov, having probed his political inclinations and “finding my vacillations on the national question, as well as disagreement with the party’s main line on the issue of collectivization, once confessed that he belonged to a Trotskyist organization and intended to create a Trotskyist group within the division.” Akopov, according to Atoyan, informed him that the main task of his organization was to recruit personnel to replace them in case of a change in the country’s political leadership.

Whether this was true, I cannot know, but in the summer of 1932, Atanes Akopov, who by then was serving as the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Armenia for material supply, leveled accusations of nationalism against the First Secretary of the Central Committee Agasi Khandzhyan and, having failed to work with him, left for Baku. Further traces of Akopov are lost, and he later appears in the execution list “Moscow–Center.”

In the “List…” “Moscow–Center” dated April 19, 1938, among the seven compatriots of Atanes Akopov, the first two Secretaries of the Central Committees of the republics are also mentioned: Armenia – Aikaz Arkadievich Kostanyan (1928–1930) and Tajikistan – Suren Konstantinovich Shadunts (1935–1936). Both were 40 years old.

In the same “List…” my eye was caught by a rather well-known name – Pilnyak-Vogau Boris Andreevich. How did he get here? I found out that he was taken almost the same way as depicted in the movie “Burnt by the Sun.” A man in a luxurious white suit came to his country house without guards and politely handed him an invitation “to visit Comrade Yezhov, the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs.” Pilnyak suspected nothing, but his wife was alarmed. Pilnyak said that he would go in his car, but the man in white was effusive in his assurances:

What are you talking about! We’ll take you there ourselves, tonight.” The wife, petrified with horror, tried to shove a bundle of belongings into her husband’s hands, but the same man in white brushed her hand away – as if to say, what a strange act? Pilnyak left and, understandably, never returned. Such was the Chekist humor.

It so happened that all three – Kostanyan, Shadunts, and Pilnyak – were executed on the same day – April 21, 1938 – and buried at the suburban shooting range “Kommunarka.” That day, 78 people were executed there.

Now I return to what was printed (No. 10 for October 2009). I managed to find, albeit sparse, at least some information about the fate of one of the regime’s victims.

Employee of the Party’s City Committee Avakyan (Avakov) Vartkes Antonovich 12.09.38. Armenian SSR. Cat.1 For – Stalin, Molotov, Zhdanov. List of 42 people presented by I.I. Shapiro. State Archive of the Russian Federation, file 24, doc. 419, page 142.

“Born in 1904 in the village of Manglis, Georgia. Place of residence: Leninakan. Workplace: Leninakan city committee of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Armenia, employee” (State Archive of Armenia, fund 1191, inventory 3, case 689, sheet 88).

Familiar Stranger

In the same issue of the newspaper, a photograph was published, which is reproduced again, and for the following reason.

Some readers naturally questioned who was the unknown person in the picture? After digging through the archives, I found out: it was Nestor Lakoba, Stalin and Beria’s close friend and associate, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Abkhaz ASSR.

It turned out that Sergey Kremlev (Brezkun), the author of the 800-page book “Beria. The Best Manager of the 20th Century,” published in Moscow in the summer of 2008 in the “Stalinist Renaissance” series, knew that Nestor Lakoba was featured in the group photo.

In the annotation to the book, it was said, in particular: “Only the great Manager Beria could become a worthy successor to Stalin and give rights and freedom in Russia not to the nomenclature but to the people! Read about these great people, about the great epoch of Stalin and Beria in Sergey Kremlev’s cult book.”

Without trying to accuse the author of turning the history of our country upside down, exalting Stalin and Beria to the heavens, I provide an excerpt from Chapter 29 – “The Saga of the ‘Murder’ of Khandzhyan”:

Agasi Khandzhyan was a politically, so to speak, tattered personality… If the reader remembers, I characterized Lominadze, who was entangled in life, in the same way (V.V. Lominadze, in 1930 the first secretary of the Transcaucasian Committee of the CPSU(b), committed suicide in January 1935. – G.M.). Well, they were people of roughly the same age, but most importantly – of the same feelings.

Here I am looking at a certain collective portrait “in the interior”… February 6, 1935, the test run of a Moscow Metro train… On the seats, from left to right: Khandzhyan, Khrushchev, Beria, and standing, leaning on a nickel-plated stand, Nestor Lakoba. Only Khandzhyan is looking at the lens. A face, I would say, worn, a “duck-like” nose, a listless chin. He slightly resembles either a carpet clown or a petty clerk. A bit similar to Mikoyan, but his facial features are not as sharp, but softened, melted.

Sergey Kremlev, clearly confusing Lakoba with Khandzhyan, also concocted a myth about the “suicide” of the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Armenia Agasi Khandzhyan on July 9, 1936, cynically noting that he “resembles either a carpet clown or a petty clerk.” Copying this characterization from another face, Kremlev shamelessly develops the negative image he has conjured over 13 pages. God forbid if this thick book is marred by pearls of this kind.

by Hamlet Mirzoyan

Translated by Vigen Avetisyan