In 1920-1940, under the conditions of the totalitarianism of the Central Committee and the complete absence of democracy, mass repressions were being carried out in the USSR. Millions of people fell victim to these repressions.
The Bolsheviks used any means to, first of all, physically destroy those who were objectionable to them. To accomplish this, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, the prosecutor’s office, the court, extrajudicial instances (troika), spy networks, various committees, and commissions were involved.
The political and moral-psychological state in the country was tough. Denunciations and arrests were carried out on a massive scale. Fear and suspicion reigned everywhere. People woke up each day and hurried to find out who had been arrested that night.
According to the USSR State Security Committee (KGB), in 1930-1953, judicial and extrajudicial bodies of the USSR issued various fictitious charges, sentences, and decisions in respect of 3 million 778 thousand 234 people, of which 786 thousand 98 people were sentenced to death.
During this period, one of the humanoid monsters, one Khachik Astvatsaturov, aka Khachik Mugdusi, mutilated the fate of thousands of people. From July 1934 to September 1937, he held the position of People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Armenian SSR.
Who was this humanoid beast and how did he gain the trust of Stalin and Beria and achieve high positions? Let’s present the biography of this Armenian “talaat” with the available fragmentary information.
Khachik Khlgati Mugdusi was born into a tailor’s family in 1893 in the city of Nakhichevan of the Yerevan governorate. In 1910, he entered a parish school in his hometown. After four years of education, he entered the city school.
In 1915, avoiding military service, Mugdusi left for Rostov where he would study accounting and work for more than a year at the Astoria Hotel. In February 1916, he was hired by a local notary office where he would work for one year as a typewriter.
In May 1917, Mugdusi was drafted into the Russian army where he would serve until the October Revolution. For five months, hungry and without money, he wandered the streets of Rostov. Then, Mugdusi moved to Pyatigorsk in the North Caucasus where he would avoid conscription for seven months due to illness. A civil war was being waged in Russia at that time.
For some time, Mugdusi would alternate between the White Army and the Red Army. When the Reds captured Pyatigorsk, he joined the 11th Red Army where he took up the position of assistant chief of the office of the military emergency commission.
However, failures in Mugdusi’s life resumed quite soon. The Reds retreated from Pyatigorsk, while Mugdusi remained in the city with his relatives. Subsequently, he invented a legend telling that he was not aware of the Russian army’s retreat since it was “chaotic” and thus didn’t leave the city, which allowed him to miraculously escape death.
In 1919-1920, the unemployed Mugdusi ended up in Georgievsk. During these years, he presented himself as an Armenian refugee and made use of the services of several local organizations. He then obtained a Persian passport.
All this would not save Mugdusi from conscription. In the White Army, he fought against the Bolsheviks but fled to the North Caucasus once he got the chance. He tried to hide there but was arrested by the whites and was to face a military tribunal. But thanks to his relatives, Mugdusi escaped execution and jail.
After some time, Mugdusi began to render secret services to the Bolsheviks – or rather, he would tell on both those working with the whites and absolutely innocent people. Mugdusi wanted to achieve a good relationship both with his old and new “masters”, find a job, and, most importantly, rise by trampling possible rivals standing on his way. The Reds would eventually appreciate his services and appoint him the deputy head of the tanneries of Georgievsk.
In the summer of 1920 when the alliance between Russia and Kemal threatened to destroy the Armenian republic, the Bolsheviks sent Mugdusi to Yerevan. In September, he was already in Armenia, and when the Armenian-Turkish war began, he started working as a typewriter in the 10th cavalry regiment in Kanaker.
After the Sovietization of Armenia, Mugdusi smoothly moved from the position of clerk to the Etchmiadzin Cheka. There, he would show his bestial instinct, recording the “enemies of the people”, as well as robbing and torturing them. The whole area under Mugdusi’s authority shuddered from his atrocities.
During the February Uprising of 1921, Mugdusi was arrested by the Armenian Salvation Committee of the Fatherland and imprisoned. However, the monster again escaped death as the Armenian authorities decided not to repeat the atrocities of the Bolsheviks.
On April 2, 1921, the Reds returned to Yerevan. Released from prison, Mugdusi introduced himself as an ideological fighter despite the fact that during his stay in prison, he had snitched on many Bolsheviks. In the future, it was these Bolsheviks whom he had to quickly eliminate to prevent possible issues.
This time, the Soviet authorities seconded their kindred offspring to Etchmiadzin. Shortly, Mugdusi reached the position of chief of the Cheka.
In 1923, Mugdusi left for Moscow for six months, underwent retraining, and returned to Armenia to multiply human suffering. He created a whole new terrible system of denunciation, provocation, and conspiracy.
In 1929, Mugdusi moved to Tiflis where he was appointed the director of the counterintelligence department (the foreign department of the plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU in the Caucasus).
Two years later, Mugdusi again appeared in Armenia and from July 1934 to September 1937 held the position of People’s Commissar for Internal Affairs. It is known that only between August 11 and September 18, 1937, 304 people were shot in Armenia.
In September of the same year, Mugdusi was arrested by the order of Stalin, declared an enemy of the people, and executed. With this step, the “father of peoples” wanted to show that he had not been aware of the illegal actions of Mugdusi.
In the following years, repressions continued in Armenia, and new “Mugdusis” were appointed to high positions, especially in the law enforcement.
Posted by: Arshaluis Zurabyan
