Levon Isayevich Mirzoyan (; ) (14 November 1897 – 26 February 1939) was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Azerbaijan from 21 January 1926 to 5 August 1929 and the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the

Communist Party of Kazakhstan The Communist Party of Kazakhstan (, ) is a banned Marxist–Leninist political party in Kazakhstan. History Origin The Communist Party of Kazakhstan was founded 1936, when Kazakhstan was granted a Union Republic status within the Sovie ...

from 1933 to May 1938. He succeeded Filipp Goloshschyokin as leader during the Soviet-imposed

Kazakh Famine of 1930–1933 The Kazakh famine of 1930–1933, also known as the Asharshylyk, was a famine during which approximately 1.5 million people died in the Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic, then part of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic i ...

, also known as the Goloshchyokin Genocide, in which at least 1.3 million ethnic Kazakhs died, an estimated 38 to 42 percent of all Kazakhs: the highest percentage of any ethnic group killed by the

Soviet famine of 1930–1933 The Soviet famine of 1930–1933 was a famine in the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union, including Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukraine and different parts of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russia, including ...

. Historians have mixed evaluations of his term, both as a perpetrator of brutal policies against starving Kazakhs and the man who oversaw the nation's recovery.Cameron, Sarah (2018). ''The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan''. Cornell University Press. . p. 162.

Biography

Mirzoyan was born in the village of Ashan in

Shusha uezd The Shusha ''uezd'' was a county (''uezd'') of the Elizavetpol Governorate of the Russian Empire, and then of the Ganja Governorate of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic with its center in Shusha in 1840–1921. Geography The Shusha ''uezd'' was lo ...

of the

Elisabethpol Governorate The Elizavetpol Governorate, also known after 1918 as the Ganja Governorate, was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Yelisavetpol (present-day Ganja). The area of the governorate s ...

to an

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

peasant family. In 1917, he joined the

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP) or the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDP), was a socialist political party founded in 1898 in Minsk, Russian Empire. The ...

(RSDLP). In 1926–1929, he was the First Secretary of the

Communist Party of Azerbaijan The Azerbaijan Communist Party (; ) was the ruling political party in the Azerbaijan SSR, making it effectively a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It was formed on 20 February 1920, when the Muslim Social Democratic Party, ...

. In 1929–1933, he was the Secretary of the Perm Regional Committee, then the Second Secretary of the Ural Regional Committee of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union 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 ...

(CPSU). In 1933, he became the Secretary of the Kazakh Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party. In 1937, he became the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the

. He was a member of the CEC of the USSR. As Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, he was the successor of

Filipp Goloshchyokin Filipp Isayevich Goloshchyokin () (born Shaya Itsikovich Goloshchyokin) () ( – October 28, 1941) was a Jewish-Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, and party functionary. A member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party s ...

during the last year of the Soviet-imposed

, also known as the 'Goloshchyokin genocide' by some scholars. As a result of the famine, an estimated 1.3 million ethnic Kazakhs died, around 38 to 42 percent of the entire Kazakh population. Shortly after his arrival, Mirzoyan announced that those who fled or stole grain were 'enemies' of the Soviet Union, and that the republic would take 'severe measures' against them. However, as historian Sarah Cameron notes, this definition could be extended to every starving refugee in the country. With this campaign, Mirzoyan pushed for the use of brutal punishment such as shootings. Mirzoyan LI

Although Mirzoyan oversaw Kazakhstan's recovery from the famine, he was noted to be repressive particularly toward famine refugees and denied food aid to areas run by cadres who asked for more food for their regions using "teary telegrams". He also fired many of the cadres for asking for more food aid, and denied their regions further assistance in retaliation. In one instance under Mirzoyan's rule, a plenipotentiary shoved food aid documents into his pocket and had a wedding celebration instead of transferring them for a whole month while hundreds of Kazakhs starved. Historian Sarah Cameron describes it in an interview with

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Davis Center The Davis Center (formally the Davis Center at the Harlem Meer) is a seasonal ice skating rink and swimming pool at the southwest corner of the Harlem Meer in the northern part of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City. Completed in 2025, it ...

, " na strategy explicitly modeled upon a technique that was used against starving Ukrainians, several regions of Kazakhstan were blacklisted. That essentially entraps starving Kazakhs in zones of death where no food could be found." Mirzoyan's tenure benefited "ultimately, from good luck", as there was excellent weather alongside a large harvest in 1934 which marked the end of the famine. During the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

, Mirzoyan took the initiative in uncovering what he alleged were 'counter-revolutionary right wing and Trotskyist organisations' in Kazakhstan. On 27 July 1937, he sent a telegram to

Joseph 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 ...

naming the Chairman of the Kazakh Central Executive Committee (ie the titular President of Kazakhstan) Uzakbay Kulumbetov as a leader of the conspiracy, and seeking permission to have him arrested, on which Stalin wrote "no objections" Kulumbetov was arrested and shot. In 1938, Mirzoyan sent a telegram to Stalin and

Vyacheslav Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov (; – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet politician, diplomat, and revolutionary who was a leading figure in the government of the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1950s, as one of Joseph Stalin's closest allies. ...

, in which he expressed his disagreement with the decision to move the Koreans deported to Kazakhstan in 1936 from

Primorye Primorsky Krai, informally known as Primorye, is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, part of the Far Eastern Federal District in the Russian Far East. The city of Vladivostok on the southern coast of the krai is its administrative center, an ...

, in the southern part of the republic, to the north, where they could not engage in rice cultivation. He also expressed his doubts about the working methods of the

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 ...

(the Soviet secret service later known as the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

). In the summer of 1938, Mirzoyan was arrested and detained in Lefortovo Prison in Moscow. On 26 February 1939, he was executed. He was rehabilitated in 1958.

References

External links

* 1897 births 1939 deaths People from Shushi Province People from Elizavetpol Governorate Azerbaijani people of Armenian descent Soviet Armenians Armenian atheists 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) Members of the Central Committee of the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union members First convocation members of the Soviet of the Union First secretaries of the Azerbaijan Communist Party First secretaries of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan Signatories of the Treaty on the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Anti-Asian sentiment Ethnic persecution Persecution of Kazakhs Recipients of the Order of Lenin Great Purge victims from Armenia Members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union executed by the Soviet Union Soviet rehabilitations {{communist-party-stub