Mikhail Petrovich Amelin (; December 4, 1896 – September 8, 1937) was a Soviet political officer. He fought on the side of the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. In 1933, he received the

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 ...

. 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 ...

, he was arrested on June 19, 1937, and later executed. He was rehabilitated on April 18, 1956.Cherushev, Nikolai Semyonovich; Cherushev, Yury Nikolaevich (2012). Расстрелянная элита РККА (командармы 1-го и 2-го рангов, комкоры, комдивы и им равные): 1937—1941. Биографический словарь xecuted Elite of the Red Army (Komandarms of the 1st and 2nd ranks, Komkors, Komdivs, and equivalents) 1937–1941 Biographical Dictionary(in Russian). Moscow: Kuchkovo Pole. .

Biography

Amelin was born to a poor peasant family in

Solomino Solomino () is a rural locality (a selo) in Belgorodsky District, Belgorod Oblast Belgorod Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia. Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Ru ...

village,

Kursk Governorate Kursk Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, which existed from 1796 to 1928 with its capital in Kursk. Administrative divisions As of 1914, Kursk Governorate included 15 uyezds. * Belgorods ...

. At the age of 13, he went to his older brother in the

Donbas The Donbas (, ; ) or Donbass ( ) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. The majority of the Donbas is occupied by Russia as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian War. The word ''Donbas'' is a portmanteau formed fr ...

, where he worked as a carpenter and a lumberman at a mine. He served in the Russian Imperial Army from 1915 on. He was sent to the Ryazan 69th Infantry Regiment, where he graduated from the training team and, with the rank of non-commissioned officer, was enlisted in the regimental sapper team., fighting on the North-Western Front. Amelin led anti-war propaganda in the regiment, then fled because of the threat of arrest, He was arrested and sentenced to a penal company. He also fled from there, reaching the city of

Kyshtym Kyshtym () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located on the eastern slopes of the Southern Ural Mountains northwest of Chelyabinsk, near the town of Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Ozyorsk. Population ...

in the Urals. After the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

he returned to the army in May 1917 and was elected a company commander. During the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

he was the head of the sapper detachment. In November 1917 he 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, ...

("RSDLP(b)"). He joined the Red Army in early 1918, serving in the Kursk Revolutionary Regiment. In January 1919 he graduated from the three-month training course for military commissars. He was an emergency commissioner for the supply of troops of the Yekaterinoslav sector, deputy chairman of the Odessa military tribunal, authorized by the Revolutionary Military Council of the 3rd Ukrainian Army, commissar of the 30th rifle regiment, and head of the Bobrinsky combat sector. From July 1920, as part of a combined cadet division, he fought against the army of General

Wrangel Wrangel or Wrangell is a Germanic surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Wrangel family, or Wrangell, a Baltic German noble family, including a list of notable family members *Basil Wrangell (1906–1977), Italian film and television ...

, serving as a detachment commissar, a company political instructor, and a battalion commissar. He graduated from the Higher Military Pedagogical School in Moscow in 1923. From 1930 to 1934 he was a member of the Central Control Commission of the

Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine The Communist Party of Ukraine (, КПУ, ''KPU''; ) was the founding and ruling political party of the Ukrainian SSR operated as a republican branch (union republics) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).Pyrih, R. Communist Par ...

("CP(b)U"). In January 1931, he was appointed to the post of deputy chief, and in April 1934, to the post of head of the Political Directorate of the Ukrainian Military District. At the same time, from 1934 he was a member of the Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, from 1934 - a member of the Central Committee of the CP (b) of Ukraine, in January - June 1934 - a candidate member, from June 1934 - a member of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the CP (b) ) of Ukraine, and since May 1937 - a member of the Military Council of the Kyiv Military District. On June 19, 1937, he was arrested in connection with the testimony of Ilya Shelekhes, deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR. During the investigation, Amelin pleaded guilty and named 63 people as "participants in the conspiracy". On September 8, 1937, according to the verdict of the visiting session of the USSR All-Union Military Commission in Kyiv, he was sentenced to death; he was shot the next evening. The burial place is a special object of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR "Bykivnya". On April 18, 1956, he was posthumously rehabilitated by the VKVS of the USSR. Amelin's wife Stefania Boleslavovna (1904 -?) was sentenced by a special meeting of the NKVD of the USSR on November 2, 1937, to eight years in the camps. She was rehabilitated on February 17, 1956.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amelin, Mikhail 1896 births 1937 deaths People from Fatezhsky District People from Fatezhsky Uyezd Bolsheviks Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union) members Soviet Army officers Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Great Purge victims from Russia People executed by the Soviet Union Soviet rehabilitations