Yefim Georgievich Yevdokimov (russian: Ефи́м Гео́ргиевич Евдоки́мов; – 2 February 1940) was a Soviet politician and member of the Cheka and OGPU. He was a key figure in the Red Terror, the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...

and '' dekulakization'' that saw millions of people executed and deported. Yevdokimov himself was arrested on 9 November 1938 and executed 2 February 1940. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956.

Biography

Yevdokimov was born in Kopal,

Semirechye Oblast The Semirechyenskaya Oblast (russian: Семиреченская область) was an oblast (province) of the Russian Empire. It corresponded approximately to most of present-day southeastern Kazakhstan and northeastern Kyrgyzstan. It was creat ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(now

Qapal Kapal ( kz, Қапал), formerly known as ''Kopal'' (russian: Копал), is a village in Aksu District in Almaty Region of south-eastern Kazakhstan. It is situated on the Kapal River. Until 1921, it was an uyezd center of the Semirechye Obl ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

). His father, Georgy Savvateyevich Yevdokimov, was a peasant from

Kursk Kursk ( rus, Курск, p=ˈkursk) is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German stru ...

who joined the

Semirechye Cossacks Semirechyenskoe (Ukrainian Steppe Frontier) Cossack Host (russian: Семиреченское казачье войско) was a Cossack host in Imperial Russia, located in the Semirechyenskaya Oblast (today comprising most of Kyrgyzstan as wel ...

. In Semirechye he married a young peasant, Anastasia Arkhipovna. After Yefim was born in 1891, the family moved to Chita. According to one source, he joined the

Polish Socialist Party The Polish Socialist Party ( pl, Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS) is a socialist political party in Poland. It was one of the most important parties in Poland from its inception in 1892 until its merger with the communist Polish Workers' ...

in 1907, but was an anarcho-syndicalist from 1911. Yevdokimov was in prison at the time of the

1917 revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of governm ...

, reputedly as a criminal rather than for political reasons, but was freed by the revolution, and joined the Cheka. In the late 1920s, he was chief of the OGPU in the North Caucasus region, based in

Rostov Rostov ( rus, Росто́в, p=rɐˈstof) is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population: While ...

. In this capacity he is reputed to have initiated the purge that culminated in the

Shakhty Trial The Shakhty Trial (russian: Ша́хтинское де́ло) was the first important Soviet show trial since the case of the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1922. Fifty-three engineers and managers from the North Caucasus town of Shakhty were ...

, in May 1928, the first Stalinist show trial, against the wishes of his superior,

Vyacheslav Menzhinsky Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky (russian: Вячесла́в Рудо́льфович Менжи́нский, pl, Wiesław Mężyński; 19 August 1874 – 10 May 1934) was a Polish-Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet statesman and Communis ...

. He was in charge of forcing the 55 defendants to confess and ensuring they would not withdraw their confessions in court. Barred from further promotion in the secret police, he switched to party work as First Secretary of the North Caucasus Regional Committee of the

CPSU "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

in January 1934. Early in the Great Purge, in January 1937, after a redrawing of regional boundaries, Yevdokimov was appointed First Secretary of the Azov-Black Sea Territorial Party Committee, after the incumbent was sacked for allowing former oppositionists to hold jobs in the region. The following month, he told a plenum of the Central Committee that "vile double-dealers" had "wormed their way" into responsible positions in the region, in order to pursue "counter-revolutionary aims." He also denounced the former head of the NKVD for allegedly preventing him from taking action against members of the opposition within the communist party, saying: "You, Yagoda, were once my boss: what help did I get from you?" After Yagoda's arrest,

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

proposed that Yevdokimov take over the task of forcing a confession out of Yagoda. Yevdokimov conducted a sweeping purge of the party and police apparatus in the Azov region. This included having friends of the writer Mikhail Sholokhov arrested. He also twice asked Stalin for permission to have Sholokhov arrested, but was refused. In February 1938, Sholokhov wrote to Stalin complaining that Yevdokimov was a "crafty, lame old fox" and either an enemy of the people or "a sorry old geezer." On 4 May 1938, he was transferred to Moscow as Deputy People's Commissar for Water Transport, under N.I.Yezhov, but was arrested on 9 November 1938, along with his wife, Maria, and teenage son, Yuri, after

Lavrenti Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ; – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik ...

had wrestled control of the secret police from Yezhov. He held out for five months before being forced to confess to having plotted to assassinate Stalin and others. On 16 January 1940, Yevdokimov, his wife, and 19-year-old son were all included with Yezhov, the writer

Isaac Babel Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel (russian: Исаак Эммануилович Бабель, p=ˈbabʲɪlʲ; – 27 January 1940) was a Russian writer, journalist, playwright, and literary translator. He is best known as the author of ''Red Cavalry'' ...

, on a list drawn up by Beria of 346 people who were to be executed. He was shot on 2 February 1940 at the

Kommunarka shooting ground The Kommunarka firing range (russian: Расстрельный полигон «Коммунарка»), former dacha of secret police chief Genrikh Yagoda, was used as a burial ground from 1937 to 1941. Executions may have been carried out th ...

. Yevdokimov was rehabilitated on 17 March 1956.

Family

Yevdokimov's wife, Marina, was arrested on the same day as her husband, accused of counter-revolutionary activity, tried on 26 January 1940, and shot the following day. Their son, Yuir, who was born in Kharkov in 1920, was arrested several months after his parents, on 12 April 1939, and tried an executed on the same day as his mother.

Honours and awards

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration ...

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner (russian: Орден Красного Знамени, Orden Krasnogo Znameni) was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of t ...

(1930) *

(1928) *

(1923) *

(1921) On 19 July 1935, the village of Medvezhensky (now

Krasnogvardeyskoye, Stavropol Krai Krasnogvardeyskoye (russian: Красногварде́йское) is a rural locality (a '' selo'') and the administrative center of Krasnogvardeysky District of Stavropol Krai, Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a t ...

) was renamed "Yevdokimovsky" in honor of Yevdokimov, the first secretary of the North Caucasus Krai. After Yevdokimov's arrest as an "

enemy of the people The term enemy of the people or enemy of the nation, is a designation for the political or class opponents of the subgroup in power within a larger group. The term implies that by opposing the ruling subgroup, the "enemies" in question are ac ...

" in 1938, the town was renamed "Molotov" in honor of

Vyacheslav Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov. ; (;. 9 March Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._25_February.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O. S. 25 February">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dat ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yevdokimov, Yefim Grigorievich 1891 births 1940 deaths Cheka officers People from Almaty Region People from Semirechye Oblast Old Bolsheviks Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union members First convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union executed by the Soviet Union Politicide perpetrators Great Purge victims from Kazakhstan Soviet rehabilitations

Biography

Family

Honours and awards

See also

References