Konstantin Veniaminovich Gey (; 1896 – February 25, 1939) was a Russian Communist Party functionary of Estonian origin, a participant in the

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

and

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. Gey was instrumental in securing Soviet control in the city of

Pskov Pskov ( rus, Псков, a=Ru-Псков.oga, p=psˈkof; see also Names of Pskov in different languages, names in other languages) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in northwestern Russia and the administrative center of Pskov O ...

and was a candidate member of the Bolshevik Central Committee from 1924 until 1934. He was arrested in 1938 and executed by shooting in 1939. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956.

Early years

Gey was born into the family of a German father and a Russian teacher in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

in 1896. His father Veniamin-Johann Gey came to Russia in the early 1870s, received a higher education, and was appointed to the post of superintendent of Pskov gymnasiums. Konstantin graduated from the Pskov gymnasium, together with his brother Georgy.

Revolutionary activities

There were five children in the family, all of whom later joined the RSDLP. Konstantin joined the

Bolshevik Party 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 1916. He was chair of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Pskov province in 1917–1918, and then chair of the provincial executive committee.

Soviet career

By 1925 he had become a member of Stalin's inner circle, the head of the organizational and distribution department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. From January 1930 to January 1932 he was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the

Communist Party of Byelorussia 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, ...

, then in 1932-1934 he was secretary of the Moscow Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Gey was demoted from the Central Committee in 1934. In 1934-1938 he was a member of the Soviet Control Commission, Commissioner for Uzbekistan and the Gorky Region. There is no evidence of direct participation in the Great Terror. By the summer of 1938, he had retired. He was arrested on October 2, 1938. On February 25, 1939, he was executed by shooting by sentence of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956. A street in

bears Gey's name.

References

External links

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Biography
1896 births 1939 deaths Politicians from Saint Petersburg People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Old Bolsheviks Candidates of the Central Committee of the 13th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Candidates of the Central Committee of the 14th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Candidates of the Central Committee of the 15th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Candidates of the Central Committee of the 16th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Heads of the Communist Party of Byelorussia Great Purge victims from Russia Deaths by firearm in Russia Executed politicians Soviet rehabilitations {{russia-politician-stub