Gennady Nikolayevich Kupriyanov (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: Генна́дий Никола́евич Куприя́нов; 21 November 1905 – 28 February 1979) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

politician who served as the First Secretary of the

Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic The Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish SSR (, ), initially known as the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of the Karelo-Finnish SSR, was the branch of the All-Union Communist Party/Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the Karelo-Finnish SSR (1940� ...

from 1940 to 1950.

Early life and education

An ethnic

, Kupriyanov was born into a poor peasant family in the village of Rylo, Soligalichsky Uyezd,

Kostroma Governorate Kostroma Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian SFSR, which existed from 1796 to 1929. Its administrative center was in the city of Kostroma. Administrative division Kostroma ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(present-day

Soligalichsky District Soligalichsky District () is an administrativeLaw #112-4-ZKO and municipalLaw #237-ZKO district (raion), one of the twenty-four in Kostroma Oblast, Russia. It is located in the northwest of the oblast. The area of the district is . Its administrat ...

Kostroma Oblast Kostroma Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Kostroma and its population as of the Russian Census (2021), 2021 Census i ...

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

) on November 21, 1905. He worked as a carpenter from the age of fourteen and continued working as a carpenter until he was twenty. He joined the

All-Union Leninist Young Communist League The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it w ...

(better known as the

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it w ...

) in 1920. He had three children with his first wife Vera Vasilievna; Victor (b. 1928), Rosa (b. 1929) and Galina (b. 1938). He attended the

Sverdlov Communist University The Sverdlov Communist University (Russian language, Russian: Коммунистический университет имени Я. М. Свердлова) was a school for Soviet activists in Moscow, founded in 1918 as the Central School for Sovi ...

from 1932 to 1935.

Political and military career

Kupriyanov served in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

from 1925 to 1927. He also briefly served in the

Soviet Army The Soviet Ground Forces () was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. It was preceded by the Red Army. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under th ...

from 1939 to 1940 during the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

. With the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Kupriyanov joined the Military Council of the 7th Army on June 30, 1941. He also became a member of the Military Council of the

Karelian Front The Karelian Front ) was a front (a formation of Army Group size) of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, and operated in Karelia. Wartime The Karelian Front was created in August 1941 when Northern Front was split into Karelian ...

on August 23, 1941. He was awarded the rank of Division commander on October 1, 1942. Not to long after, Kupriyanov was awarded the rank of Major general. After the liberation of the

Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (Karelo-Finnish SSR), also called Soviet Karelia or simply known as Karelia, was a republic of the Soviet Union. It existed from 31 March 1940 until it was made part of the Russian SFSR on 16 July 1956 ...

in 1944, a few members of the command of the

(including General Terenty Shytkov) proposed to deport the indigenous population of the

Karelo-Finnish SSR The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic (Karelo-Finnish SSR), also called Soviet Karelia or simply known as Karelia, was a republic of the Soviet Union. It existed from 31 March 1940 until it was made part of the Russian SFSR on 16 July 1956 ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

and the

Kazakh SSR The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Kazakhstan, the Kazakh SSR, KSSR, or simply Kazakhstan, was one of the transcontinental constituent republics of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1936 to 1991. Located in northern Centr ...

and liquidate the republic. However the mass deportation of the Karelo-Finnish did not happen. Some historians credit Kupriyanov for preventing the mass deportation. He joined the

All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

in 1926, but worked as a social science teacher at Solgalich Secondary School from 1927 to 1929. He became the Head of the Department of Public Education of the Solgalich District Executive Committee in 1929 and remained in the position until 1931. He served as the Head of the Department of Propaganda and Agitation of the Solgalich District Committee of the Communist Party from 1931 to 1932. After returning from university in 1935, Kupriyanov served as the Head of the School Department of the Dzerzhinsky District Committee of the Communist Party. He served as the First Secretary of the Kuybyshevsky District Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1937 to 1938 in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. Kupriyanov was elected as the First Secretary of the Karelian Regional Committee of the Communist Party in June 1938 on the recommendation of

Andrei Zhdanov Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov ( rus, Андрей Александрович Жданов, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪdʑ ˈʐdanəf, a=Ru-Андрей Жданов.ogg, links=yes; – 31 August 1948) was a Soviet politician. He was ...

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

. As a regional committee's First Secretary, Kupriyanov became part of the

NKVD troika NKVD troika or Special troika (), in Soviet history, were the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD which would later be the beginning of the KGB) made up of three officials who issued sentences to people after simplified, speedy inve ...

in September 1938. During the Winter War, he ordered the construction of the 132 kilometer-long

Petrozavodsk Petrozavodsk (, ; Karelian language, Karelian, Veps language, Vepsian and ) is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Onega for some . The population of the city is 280,890 as of 2022. ...

- Shuezersk railway; the railway was built in 46 days. With the formation of the

in 1940, he became the First Secretary of the

on April 2, 1940. He was elected as a candidate member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) during the 18th Party Congress. Gennady Kupriyanov and his family were evacuated to

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...

in August 1941 due to

. He was removed from his post on January 25, 1950, due to the

Leningrad Affair The Leningrad affair, or Leningrad case (, ''Leningradskoye delo''), was a series of criminal cases fabricated in the late 1940s–early 1950s by Joseph Stalin in order to accuse a number of prominent Leningrad based authority figures and membe ...

Leningrad Affair

Kupriyanov soon became involved in the

, he was accused of "failure to fulfill plans in industry and agriculture, patronage of workers who had compromised themselves, clampdown and lack of collegiality in work" by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish SSR. He was removed from his post as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish SSR on January 25, 1950.

Arrest and Imprisonment

On March 15, 1950, Kupriyanov was arrested and transferred to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. He was imprisoned in Lefortovo Prison two days later. In October 1950, the investigation regarding Kupriyanov was finished and he was sentenced to

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

. However, Kupriyanov's execution was postponed due to

's rejection of Malenkov's demand for execution. On January 17, 1952, the

Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union () was created in 1924 by the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union as a court for the higher military and political personnel of the Red Army and Fleet. In addition it was an immed ...

sentenced Kupriyanov to 25 years of

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

with confiscation of all property under

Article 58 Article 58 of the Russian SFSR Penal Code was put in force on 25 February 1927 to prosecute those suspected of counter-revolutionary activities. It was revised several times. In particular, its Article 58-1 was updated by the listed sub-articles ...

. He was soon sent to the

Intalag The Inta Corrective Labor Camp or Intalag (, also abbreviated Intinlag, Intlag, and Intastroy) was a forced labor camp of the Gulag, which existed between 1941 and 1948 near the town of Inta in the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Prison ...

, but his sentence was changed in July 1952 to imprisonment. On August 18, his sentence was changed to 10 years of imprisonment without confiscation of property. His wife, Vera Vasilievna was sentenced to imprisonment for "not informing the authorities about her husband's sabotage". Kupriyanov's eldest son and daughter were exiled to

Taraz Taraz ( ; also historically known as Talas) is a city and the administrative center of Jambyl Region in Kazakhstan, located on the Talas (river), Talas (Taraz) River in the south of the country near the border with Kyrgyzstan. It had a populatio ...

. After the

death of Joseph Stalin Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose shor ...

in the spring of 1953, Kupriyanov's family was allowed to return to

Rehabilitation

Kupriyanov was pardoned on January 18, 1956, by a decision of the

Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet () was the standing body of the highest body of state authority in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).The Presidium of the Soviet Union is, in short, the legislative branch of the great Soviet ...

. His criminal record was cleared as well. He was rehabilitated on July 31, 1957, which reinstated his Communist Party membership, his military rank of Major general, and his awards. He was also assigned a personal pension. He lived in Leningrad until his death in 1979.

Death

Kupriyanov died on February 28, 1979. He is buried at the Kazan cemetery in

Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is conside ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Awards

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

(twice) *

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner () was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of S ...

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

Order of the Patriotic War The Order of the Patriotic War () is a Soviet Union, Soviet military Order (decoration), decoration that was awarded to all soldiers in the Soviet armed forces, security troops, and to Partisan (military), partisans for heroic deeds in the Easte ...

(first class)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kupriyanov, Gennady 1905 births 1979 deaths People from Soligalichsky Uyezd Candidates of the Central Committee of the 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) First secretaries of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic First convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Second convocation members of the Soviet of the Union Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Leningrad affair Soviet major generals Soviet memoirists Soviet military personnel of the Winter War Soviet military personnel of World War II Soviet prisoners and detainees Soviet rehabilitations