Idel Jakobson (12 August 1904 in

Jēkabpils Jēkabpils () is a state city in Jēkabpils Municipality in southeastern Latvia, located roughly halfway between the capital Riga and Daugavpils, and spanning the Daugava River. The name of the city literally translates into "Castle of Jacob". H ...

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 ...

– 12 September 1997 in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

) was an

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

officer. According to the materials of

Kaitsepolitsei The Estonian Internal Security Service (, officially , KAPO for short) is a central national security institution of Republic of Estonia. Its purposes are centered on enforcing constitutional order. The Estonian Internal Security Service has pr ...

, Jakobson took part in sentencing around 1,200 people to death and persecuting and torturing at least 1,800 people.Tundmatu sõjaroimar
/ref> Jakobson was at first a citizen of

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

, but moved to

in the 1930s. He participated in the activities of the Jewish cultural society ''

Licht 275px, Karlheinz Stockhausens grave with the score to LICHT . ''Licht'' (Light), subtitled "Die sieben Tage der Woche" (The Seven Days of the Week), is a cycle of seven operas composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen between 1977 and 2003. The compose ...

''. In 1931 he was arrested in

, being accused of subversive activities directed against the Republic of Estonia. In 1938, together with a number of other

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

s, he was granted

amnesty Amnesty () is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of people who are subject to trial but have not yet be ...

and deported to Latvia. He returned to Estonia after the June 1940 communist coup and became an investigator of the NKVD, since September 1940 leading the investigations' department of the NKVD of the

Estonian SSR The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, (abbreviated Estonian SSR, Soviet Estonia, or simply Estonia ) was an administrative subunit ( union republic) of the former Soviet Union (USSR), covering the occupied and annexed territory of Estonia ...

. Idel Jakobson was notorious for his sadistic methods (beatings, other methods of

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

) during

interrogation Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...

s. Jakobson fled Estonia in July, 1941, and worked as a chief investigator in

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 ...

and

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. His 'investigations' were carried out in the framework of the so-called '

Vyshinsky Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky (; ) ( – 22 November 1954) was a Soviet politician, jurist and diplomat. He is best known as a state prosecutor of Joseph Stalin's Moscow Trials and in the Nuremberg trials. He was the Soviet Foreign Minister ...

doctrine', in effect

presumption of guilt A presumption of guilt is any presumption within the criminal justice system that a person is guilty of a crime, for example a presumption that a suspect is guilty unless or until proven to be innocent. Such a presumption may legitimately arise ...

:Massimõrvadest hingerahuni
/ref> without a trial, he arranged a death sentence to 621 people. Most of his victims were ethnic

Estonians Estonians or Estonian people () are a Finnic ethnic group native to the Baltic Sea region in Northern Europe, primarily their nation state of Estonia. Estonians primarily speak the Estonian language, a language closely related to other Finni ...

, including well-known politicians like

Ado Birk Ado Birk (also known as ''Aadu Birk'', ''Aado Birk'' or ''Avdei Birk''; – 2 February 1942), was an Estonian politician who was the Estonian Prime Minister for the shortest time. Biography Ado Birk was born in Kulbisaare farmstead, Mõnn ...

and Jaan Hünerson. He returned to Estonia in 1944, working as the head of investigation department until 1950. He was expelled from

CPSU 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 1953 for having visited a private Jewish canteen and concealing that fact. His CPSU membership was restored in 1956. In 1990s, an investigation on I. Jakobson's activities during his NKVD 'career' was launched, but the case never reached the court, as Jakobson died.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jakobson, Idel 1904 births 1997 deaths Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Latvian communists Estonian communists NKVD officers People from Jēkabpils Latvian emigrants to Estonia People deported from Estonia Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic people Latvian Jews Soviet communists 20th-century Estonian Jews 20th-century Estonian people 21st-century Estonian Jews 20th-century Latvian Jews 21st-century Latvian Jews