Matvei S. Pogrebinsky (1892-1937) was a Russian revolutionary. In the 1930s he was responsible for setting up many orphanages and communes for delinquent children, and was the man who founded the Bolshevo Commune. He was the inspiration for the very popular Soviet film, ''Putevka v Zhizn'' ("Path to Life") in 1931 . He was the head 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 ...

in the Gorky Oblast (

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...

) and in 1937 committed suicide in order to avoid "participation in lawlessness, as his suicide letter reveals."(Medvedev, Roy Alexander. ''Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism''. 1989, Columbia University Press, Page 426) In 1954 the scholar Alexander Orlov explained Pogrebinsky's suicide in a similar fashion, "Squeezed between the relentless discipline of the party and pangs of conscience, Pogrebinsky saw in suicide the only way out". His suicide was similar to many officials during the Great Terror, as revolutionaries who could not deal with the terror of

Stalinism Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...

saw suicide as the only escape.

Notes

See also