Nikolay Vladimirovich Tess (, ; 1921 – December 7, 2006) was one of the few functionaries in charge of

political repression Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereby ...

s in the former

Soviet Union 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 ...

who were convicted for this activity.

Biography

Tess joined the Latvian division 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 May 1945, having previously seen combat during both the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1949 he took part in the deportation program known as

Operation Priboi Operation Priboi ( – Operation "Tidal Wave") was the code name for the biggest Joseph Stalin, Stalin-era Population transfer in the Soviet Union, Soviet mass deportation from the Baltic states on 25–28 March 1949. Also known as the March depo ...

, which saw tens of thousands of people deported from the Baltic states to inhospitable areas of

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. Tess, by now an agent of the Ministry of State Security, signed documents for the deportation of 138 people. At least eleven of the people deported died in exile. Latvia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In 1998 Latvian authorities began investigating Tess' role in the deportations, and in March 2001 he was formally charged with

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

and

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...

. Tess did not consider himself guilty, claiming that he was acting in the capacity for only 2 months and he was mainly in charge of verifying the match of the lists prepared by local administration against the Ministry lists. '' The Baltic Times'' reported that Tess claimed the deportees were treated well in Russia, and quoted him as saying "They were allowed to buy cows and goats – that's some genocide". He was found guilty on December 16, 2003, and sentenced to 2 years of suspended imprisonment after a lengthy process delayed by ill health. The Russian government heavily criticised Latvia for the decision, and raised questions over the fairness of Tess' trial. Many human rights groups also raised concerns that Tess and other minor officials had been selectively prosecuted in order to appease growing

anti-Russian sentiment Anti-Russian sentiment or Russophobia is the dislike or fear of Russia, Russians, Russian people, or Culture of Russia, Russian culture. The opposite of Russophobia is Russophilia. Historically, Russophobia has included state-sponsored and gr ...

in the country. Tess appealed his conviction to the Latvian Supreme Court (unsuccessfully), and then the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

, arguing that his rights under the ECHR had been violated because genocide had not yet been criminalised in 1949. Tess died in a Riga hospital on December 7, 2006, at the age of 86. Following his death, his wife and brother continued his appeal in order to clear his name. In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights declared the application of Nikolay Tess inadmissible. Concerning the merits, the complaint was rejected due to non-exhaustion of domestic remedies – Tess had not contested the law the conviction was based on before the Constitutional Court.Press release 380 (2014)
European Court of Human Rights

References

External links

ECtHR decision
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tess, Nikolajs 1921 births 2006 deaths Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights European Court of Human Rights cases involving Latvia NKVD officers People convicted of genocide Political repression in the Soviet Union Politics of Latvia Russian people convicted of crimes against humanity Soviet military personnel of the Winter War Soviet military personnel of World War II

Biography

See also

References

External links