Matvei Davidovich Berman (Russian: Матвей Давыдович Берман; April 10, 1898 – March 7, 1939) was a Soviet security officer and head of the

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

Soviet prison camp system from 1932 to 1937.Khlevniuk, p. 346

Biography

Berman was born in Andiranovka, Chita, Transbaikal Oblast, the son of a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

brickyard owner. He joined the Russian army and entered the military school in

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

. He then became a cadet of the 25th Reserve infantry regiment. Berman joined the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

in June 1917. In 1918 he joined 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 ...

and was stationed in

Tomsk Tomsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, on the Tom (river), Tom River. Population: Founded in 1604, Tomsk is one of the oldest cities in Siberia. It has six univers ...

. By June he was working in a propaganda unit. In August 1918, Berman joined the

Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə, links=yes), ...

and was named chief of uyezd-level

in the city of

Glazov Glazov ( rus, Глазов, p=ˈɡlazəf; ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in the Udmurt Republic, Russia, located along the Trans-Siberian Railway, on the Cheptsa River. Population: History It was first mentioned in the 17t ...

. From 1923 to 1924, he was the People's Commissar for State Security in the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. He then led the OGPU in Central Asia. From February 1927 to October 1927 he was the chairman of the

OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate ( rus, Объединённое государственное политическое управление, p=ɐbjɪdʲɪˈnʲɵn(ː)əjə ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əjə pəlʲɪˈtʲitɕɪskəjə ʊprɐˈv ...

in the

Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (, ), also known as Soviet Uzbekistan, the Uzbek SSR, UzSSR, or simply Uzbekistan and rarely Uzbekia, was a Republics of the Soviet Union, union republic of the Soviet Union. It was governed by the Communist ...

. In November 1929 he helped develop the

system of camps and became deputy chief of the Gulag in 1930. From June 9, 1932 to August 17, 1937, he was head of the Gulag. He was awarded the

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 ...

on August 4, 1933, soon after the completion of the

White Sea – Baltic Canal White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wavelen ...

. By 1935, by his own count, Berman was in charge of over 740,000 prisoners working on 15 major projects in the Gulag.Who Directed the NKVD
(in Russian), (select "БЕРМАН МАТВЕЙ ДАВЫДОВИЧ") on the

Memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...

website, accessed June 15, 2010 Frenkel2

After the fall of

Genrikh Yagoda Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda (, born Yenokh Gershevich Iyeguda; 7 November 1891 – 15 March 1938) was a Soviet secret police official who served as director of the NKVD, the Soviet Union's security and intelligence agency, from 1934 to 1936. A ...

, Berman continued to rise in the hierarchy 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 ...

, where he held the offices of head construction of the Moscow–Volga Canal and deputy head of the NKVD in 1936–1937. In August 1937, Berman's fall began in the time of the

Great Terror 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 by Leonid Nikolaev ...

. On August 17, 1937, he lost his position as head of the Gulag and was appointed People's Commissar of Posts and Telecommunications (Russian: Наркомпочтель). On December 23, 1938, he was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, arrested the next day in the office of Georgi Malenkov, and sent to prison at Lubyanka. He was found guilty by the Military Collegiate of the

Supreme Court of the Soviet Union The Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, officially the Supreme Court of the USSR () was the highest court of the Soviet Union during its existence. It was established on November 23, 1923 and was dissolved on January 2, 1992. The Supreme Court of ...

of belonging to a "terrorist and sabotage organization" and shot on March 7, 1939, at Kommunarka. On October 17, 1957, Matvei Berman was legally rehabilitated.

Family

* Boris Davidovich Berman, brother of Matvei Berman, a leading

First Chief Directorate The First Main Directorate () of the Committee for State Security under the USSR council of ministers (PGU KGB) was the organization responsible for foreign operations and intelligence agency, intelligence activities by providing for the training a ...

officer. * Yuri Berman (1910–2001), second brother, worked for the OGPU/NKVD in Siberia from 1933. He was arrested on 19 July 1939, convicted of fabricating cases against innocent people, and sentenced to death. In 1941, his sentence was commuted to 10 years in prison. After his release, he worked as a middle school teacher.

Awards

*Honorary worker of the Cheka-GPU (V) (1924) *

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 ...

(1927) *Order of Red Banner of Labor Uzbek SSR (1927) *Honorary worker of the Cheka-GPU (XV) *

(1933) *

Order of the Red Star The Order of the Red Star () was a military decoration of the Soviet Union. It was established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 6 April 1930 but its statute was only defined in decree of the Presidium of the ...

(1937)

Sources

* *К.А. Залесский (KA Zalessky): Империя Сталина. Биографический энциклопедический словарь (Stalin's Empire, Biographical Encyclopedic Dictionary) veche Moskau-Verlag 2000, *Н. В. Петров, К. В. Скоркин (N.V. Petrov, K.V. Skorkin): Кто руководил НКВД, 1934–1941 – Справочник (Who Directed the NKVD, 1934–1941), Swenja-Verlag 1999,

Biography

Family

Awards

Sources

References

Further reading