Garegin Apresov

Garegin Abramovich Apresov (; 6 January 1890 – 11 September 1941) was a Soviet diplomat, intelligence officer, and Comintern figure known for tackling complex challenges at the intersection of diplomacy, intelligence, politics, and ideology. Before joining the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, he had extensive experience in political activities, including work in the government of Baku commissars, as well as active participation in the communist movement. As an expert on the East, he proved himself effective in operational work and propaganda. He worked in the USSR missions in Persia and China, holding posts including Consul General of the USSR in Urumqi and Chargé d'Affaires of the USSR in Qajar Iran. With personal access to Joseph Stalin, at the peak of his activities in Xinjiang (China), he had exceptional powers, effectively being the key representative of Soviet interests in the region. He was shot as part of Stalin's repressions.

Life

Early years

Garegin A. Apresov (Apresoff, Apresof) was born to an Armenian family in Qusar in what was then Baku Governorate in Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. His parents lived in Baku, but they had a dacha in Qusar. As a 6th grade student at the gymnasium, in 1908 he joined the revolutionary movement. He took part in Baku-wide strikes, publishing leaflets and a student magazine. At the end of 1908, the Baku gendarmerie conducted a search of the Apresovs' house, and G. A. Apresov was arrested. He spent several days under arrest.

He studied law at the Moscow University and graduated in 1914. In Moscow he also took part in student protests.

He spoke several foreign languages.

In 1915 he was called up for military service Апресов, Гарегин Абрамович. Энциклопедия фонда «Хайазг». and served as a soldier on the Caucasian Front in the city of Kars. He was later sent to the ensign school in Tiflis. After finishing school, he served on the Persian border in the 4th Cavalry Border Regiment, from where, for anti-war work among the soldiers, he was transferred under supervision to the detachment headquarters and appointed to the position of adjutant of the headquarters.

After the Revolution

Among the Baku commissars

From 1917 to 1918 Apresov was the President of the Lankaran Municipal Council near the border with Persia in the territory of modern Azerbaijan, where he was caught up in the February Revolution.

In March 1918 he was named a member of a government's directorate in Baku and later a member of the Directorate for Food in Baku. He provided assistance in organizing food supplies to Baku, which was experiencing a severe food crisis. In Baku Apresov interacted with Prokofy Dzhaparidze and Hamid Sultanov.

Volga region

From 1918 Apresov was the member of the Revolutionary Tribunal in Saratov, where, according to his autobiography, he moved due to illness.

Apresov joined the Communist Party in 1918.

From 1918 to 1919 he was the Leader of the Provincial Justice Department in Saratov. He was a member of a communist special forces unit and took part in suppressing uprisings against the Bolsheviks.

Caucassus

In 1920, he was involved in underground activity in the Caucasus. Before the Sovietization of Azerbaijan, he worked for the underground Regional Committee, carrying out special tasks for the latter, which mainly boiled down to organizing the financial and monetary operations of the Regional Committee.

From 1921 to 1921, Apresov served as Deputy People's Commissar for Justice of the Azerbaijan SSR and as a commander of a brigade of the Red Army, head of the border troops. Between 1921 and 1922 he was a member of the Collegiate of the People's Commissars for Justice in the Georgian SSR.

Work in Persia

From 1922 to 1923 he served as the Soviet Consul in Rasht, Persia, from 1924 to 1925 in Isfahan, Persia, and from 1923 to 1926 in Mashhad, Persia. He was also a representative of the Foreign Department of the Joint State Political Directorate (INO OGPU) and Soviet Interim Commissioner for Persia (1923–24). According to defector G.S. Agabekov, he was also a representative of Soviet military intelligence and the Comintern. G.S. Agabekov spoke about G.A. Apresov as follows:

Apresov, holding the position of Soviet consul and resident, was simultaneously a representative of the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Comintern and brought the work in Meshed to the proper level. A lawyer by training, very intelligent, well versed in the psychology of the East, fluent in Persian and the Turkic dialect, loving risk and adventure, he was created by nature to work in the OGPU in the East. In addition, he had some practice in his work. While being the Soviet consul in Rasht, he managed to steal the consul's archive through the mistress of the English consul in Rasht, thereby winning the full trust of this institution.

Apresov got to work, and by the middle of 1923, copies of all the secret correspondence of the British consulate in Meshed with the British envoy in Tehran and with the Indian general staff began to arrive from him.

...Despite Apresov’s successes, the OGPU was not satisfied with him, because he sent copies of his reports to the Military Intelligence Directorate and the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, and the OGPU likes to have a monopoly on information.

He was also described by British diplomats as an ardent communist and energetic propagandist. According to their testimony, the governor of Gilan Nayer es Sultan was completely "under the thumb" of Apresov and supported the communist program. Apresov actively worked with the Armenian diaspora in Persia and tried to influence the church policy of the local Armenian church.

G. A. Apresov was an employee of the Executive Committee of the Comintern.

In 1926 he was summoned to Moscow and removed from his post after an error in his political analysis of the uprising in Khorasan.

In 1927 Apresov was characterized by the plenipotentiary representative of the USSR in Persia, K.K. Yurenev, as an excellent intelligence officer, but also as an employee somewhat inclined to self-promotion and adventurism. Nevertheless, he was recommended by Yurenev for "serious work".

Work in USSR

Between September 1927 and July 1928, Apresov served as a member of the Military Collegiate of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, but resigned at his own request.

From 1927 to 1932 he was a People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (NKID) agent in Baku.

He was NKID's plenipotentiary before the Council of People's Commissars of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1929 and the Uzbek SSR and the Soviet Central Asia in 1930.

In a handwritten explanation of K.K. Yurenev’s 1927 character reference, which was added to it in the archives of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), his position or status is listed as “authorized representative in Turkestan for border issues”.

There is a mention of Apresov giving lectures on tactics in Central Asia at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East.

Work in China

In 1933, Apresov was named the Soviet General Consul with special powers and Representative of the INO OGPU in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China.

The 1930s were marked by a period of close cooperation between the USSR and the Sheng Shicai government in Xinjiang. Soviet representatives played a key role in the governance of the region. Three waves of Soviet agents (1931, 1935, and 1936), consisting mainly of Han Chinese living in the USSR, infiltrated the Xinjiang secret police, the People's Anti-Imperialist Association (created by the initiative of Apresov), the Border Affairs Department (which also dealt with intelligence), and other important institutions. This allowed the USSR to exercise significant influence over the governance of the province, and Sheng was often forced to appoint Soviet-trained agents to high positions. This activity was coordinated by G.A. Apresov. At a meeting in July 1935, Soviet representatives declared their intention to eliminate Sheng if necessary if he no longer met Soviet interests.

As Consul General, Apresov actively advocated for the accelerated development of Xinjiang's rich natural resources (especially oil). In the summer of 1935, while on vacation in the USSR, he discussed this topic with Stalin.

On September 4, 1935, Stalin wrote to Molotov and Kaganovich: “Shouldn’t we ensure that the USSR is represented in Xinjiang only by Apresov, and that our Chekists in Xinjiang refuse to manage and obey Apresov in everything?”. On September 10, 1935, Apresov became the Commissioner of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, whose tasks included ensuring that representatives of all departments including the NKVD and NKO pursue a single line; employees of other people's commissariats were prohibited from taking any actions that had or could have political significance for the USSR and the line being pursued in Xinjiang without the prior permission of the Commissioner of the Central Committee. Apresov was also given the authority to remove from office and send back to the USSR any Soviet workers in Xinjiang. On September 13, 1935, on the proposal of Molotov, Kaganovich, and Voroshilov, approved by Stalin, Apresov was awarded the Order of Lenin (without publication in print).

As a result of the new approvement, Apresov found himself under dual operational subordination - to the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). This state of affairs could not please the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs M.M. Litvinov, who was forced to repeatedly appeal to Stalin with requests to influence his subordinate, who was inclined to explicitly lead the local Chinese authorities. "Although Apresov is listed as a plenipotentiary representative," the People's Commissar wrote to Stalin in December 1936, "he is actually outside my influence, so instructions from me will not achieve their goal." Similarly, the USSR’s plenipotentiary representative in China, D. V. Bogomolov, repeatedly reported to Moscow that Apresov was not accepting his instructions.

Apresov wielded so much power in Xinjiang that he became generally known as "Tsar" Apresoff. Thus, the British Lieutenant Colonel R. Schomberg noted in this regard: "In a city like Urumqi, the central figure is the Soviet consul. What he does, what he says, what he thinks, where he is going - his every action is of great interest to everyone."

From 1935 to 1936 he was Chief of the Second Eastern Department of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union (NKID).

Apresov advocated for more active representation of the various ethnic groups of Xinjiang in local government bodies. According to some estimates, it was Apresov who could have contributed to the introduction of the concept of "Uyghur" as an ethnonym for the indigenous sedentary Turkic-speaking Muslims of southern and eastern Xinjiang, which was in line with the Soviet practice of nation-building.

There is a known story of Apresov’s involvement in the fate of Yu Xiusong, one of the first members of the Chinese Communist Party and Comintern figure. Yu Xiusong arrived in Xinjiang from the USSR in the summer of 1935 and headed the secretariat of the People's Anti-Imperialist Association. He had a romantic relationship with Sheng Shitong, the younger sister of Sheng Shicai. However, their relationship encountered resistance from Sheng’s family, especially her brother, who doubted the advisability of this union. Apresov played a key role in overcoming these obstacles — he personally intervened to convince Sheng Shicai to agree to the wedding. In 1936, a lavish ceremony took place, attended by high-ranking officials, including representatives of the Soviet side. Through Apresov, Stalin gave the newlyweds a box of clothes as a gift. However, in 1937, Yu Xiusong was arrested on charges of belonging to Trotskyists and sent to the USSR, where he was later executed. Sheng Shitong, left alone, devoted her life to finding the truth about her husband’s fate and restoring his good name. After many years of efforts, in 1996, already at an advanced age, she achieved his rehabilitation - The General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation officially restored the reputation of Yu Xiusong, recognizing his complete innocence.

Opinions of contemporaries

During Apresov's work in Persia, he was described by British diplomats as an energetic communist worker and ardent propagandist. Their reports also included the epithet "the notorious Armenian communist."

The defector G. S. Agabekov noted Apresov’s love of adventure and risk, as well as his value as an intelligence officer.

In 1927, the USSR Plenipotentiary Representative in Persia K. K. Yurenev described Apresov as follows:

A peculiar worker. A capable person, but a great advertiser, with a certain adventurism bias. Likes to pull the wool over people's eyes. Knows Persian well and knows people; an excellent intelligence officer; knows how to position himself. He can be put to serious work. The Central Control Commission once decided to fire him. Friction with the authorities and with Reza. Domineering. Needs to be closer to party organizations. Politically prepared.

There are reviews of Apresov from European travelers. For example, Swedish traveler Sven Hedin, who met Apresov in Urumqi, described him as an open, good-natured and cheerful person with a good sense of humor. Apresov significantly helped Hedin in obtaining permits from the Chinese authorities to organize his expedition. Hedin claimed that Apresov wielded more power in Xinjiang than Governor Shen Shicai. According to Hedin, Apresov saved the entire expedition, and possibly his own life. Hedin was also warmly received at the USSR Consulate General, and a large banquet was organized in honor of the meeting.

English traveler and diplomat Eric Teichman was also warmly received at the USSR Consulate General and even participated in the lavish 12-hour celebration of October Revolution Day, which ended with a screening of a Soviet film about Chapayev. Teichman noted the exceptional hospitality of Apresov and his staff. After Apresov was arrested by NKVD officers in 1937, he was, among others, accused of espionage with Teichman.The Central Archive of the FSB, archival criminal case No. R-23732 against Apresov Garegin Abramovich.

Arrest and death

In 1937, Chinese warlord Sheng Shicai launched his own purge to coincide with Stalin's Great Purge. He received assistance from the NKVD. Sheng and the Soviets alleged a massive Trotskyist conspiracy and a "Fascist Trotskyite plot" to destroy the Soviet Union. G. A. Apresov was among the 435 alleged conspirators; indeed, he allegedly led the conspiracy.

In March 1937 he was recalled from service in China and arrested. He was dismissed from the NKID on 13 July 1937.

At first he was held in Butyrka prison in Moscow, and his case was handled by NKVD investigator T. M. Dyakov. Apresov was accused of spying for Britain. Later, Dyakov himself was arrested as an enemy of the people and testified against the Deputy People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR L. N. Belsky, who, according to him, gave the order to obtain a confession from G. A. Apresov. Subsequently, both Dyakov and Belsky were shot.

On March 10, 1939, the first session of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR was held, where Apresov's case was heard. During the session, Apresov did not admit his guilt, stating that the confessions he had given earlier were fictitious and had been obtained by the investigator as a result of the use of cruel methods of physical pressure. He pointed out the absurdity of the accusation of connections with British intelligence in light of the fact that he had successfully fought against British influence in Xinjiang. Thus, Apresov stated the following: "in 1933-1934, at my insistence, 60 British agents were arrested in Xinjiang" and "under my leadership, a coup d'etat was carried out in the government in Xinjiang". The court decided to conduct an additional investigation, after which Apresov was transferred to the secret Sukhanovo special security prison for important political prisoners ("particularly dangerous enemies of the people") nearby Moscow, known for its extremely cruel treatment of them. In this prison, Apresov began to be tortured and tormented and again began to give confessions.

On July 9, 1940, the second session of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR was held to consider the Apresov case. At the session, Apresov again denied his guilt; he stated that he had previously incriminated himself as a result of the use of physical methods of influence, and accused head of NKVD Nikolay Yezhov's former first deputy Mikhail Frinovsky, of slander, with whom he had had a tense relationship since the time they both worked in Baku in 1930. By that time, Frinovsky had already been subjected to repression and was shot. Before that, he was also imprisoned in Sukhanovo prison. At the court session, G. A. Apresov also stated that as a result of the use of physical methods of influence in Sukhanovo Prison, his teeth were knocked out and he became deaf in one ear. Nevertheless, at this session he was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment on charges of anti-Soviet activities under Art. 58-10 RSFSR Penal Code. However, charges under Articles 58-8 and 58-11 were dropped against Apresov.

This sentence seemed relatively lenient by the standards of the era and given the gravity of the charges. In addition, the length of the investigation was long beyond the norm for the times of repression.

On the same day, July 9, 1940 Apresov wrote a letter to the chairman of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, in which he stated that "he was forced to incriminate himself under torture" and that "for health reasons he could not endure torture". In the letter, he also said that in his testimony he intentionally introduced fantasy foreign agents with unusual names, which in different languages, including Armenian, mean "Forced Untruth," "All Untruth," "Pure Untruth," "Big Untruth." He called for an assessment of this circumstance and an additional investigation.

In 1941, during the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, G. A. Apresov was in prison in the city of Oryol. From the very beginning of the war, the Oryol region was declared under martial law. All cases of crimes against defense, public order and state security were transferred to military tribunals, which received the right to consider cases after 24 hours from the moment the indictment was served. On 8 September 1941, on the basis of Decree No. GKO-634ss, without initiating a criminal case and conducting preliminary and trial proceedings, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by Vasiliy Ulrikh (members of the collegium D. Ya. Kandibin and Vasiliy Bukanov), sentenced Apresov and 161 prisoners of the Oryol Prison to death penalty under Art. 58-10 RSFSR Penal Code. He was shot on 11 September 1941 in the Medvedev Forest near Oryol, in an event known as the Medvedev Forest massacre. The execution was initiated by the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR L. P. Beria and sanctioned by the State Defense Committee of the USSR headed by I. V. Stalin. All those sentenced were accused of "conducting defeatist agitation and attempts to prepare escapes for the resumption of subversive work."

G. A. Apresov was rehabilitated in 1956.

Family

Wife - Lidiya Artemyevna Apresova

Brother - Sergei Abramovich Apresov (10.1.1895, Baku - 4.7.1938) - graduate of the Military Medical Academy, head of the hospital in Baku. He was arrested on March 3, 1938, and charged under Art. 21/64, 21/70, 73, 72 of the Criminal Code of the AzSSR by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. On July 4, 1938, he was sentenced to capital punishment and shot on the same day. S. A. Apresov was rehabilitated by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on April 14, 1956, for lack of corpus delicti.

Brother - Konstantin Abramovich Apresov

Brother - Tsovak Abramovich Apresov

Brother - Gurgen Abramovich Apresov

Brother - Grigory Abramovich Apresov

In literature

- Tatiana Ovanessoff's novel "Spy's apprentice: a novel inspired by true events in Persia".

- Alexander Gorokhov's novel "Employee of the Foreign Department of the NKVD".

References

Notes

Books

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Apresov, Garegin
1890 births
1941 deaths
People from Qusar District
People from Baku Governorate
Soviet Armenians
Armenian communists
Consuls for the Soviet Union in China
Moscow State University alumni
Great Purge victims from Armenia
People executed by the Soviet Union by firearm
Members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union executed by the Soviet Union