Semyon Grigoryevich Firin (Russian: Семён Григорьевич Фирин; June 30, 1898 – August 14, 1937) was a

Soviet 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 ...

officer in the intelligence services

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

and

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 ...

. Later in his career, he was a leader in different

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 ...

forced labor camps, named by Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn as one of "the main henchmen of Stalin and Yagoda, the main overseers of the Belomor, six hired killers" responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in the construction of the

White Sea–Baltic Canal The White Sea–Baltic Canal (), often abbreviated to White Sea Canal (), is a man-made ship canal in Russia opened on 2 August 1933. It connects the White Sea, in the Arctic Ocean, with Lake Onega, which is further connected to the Baltic Sea. U ...

. He was executed 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 ...

in 1937.

Early life

Firin was born to 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 ...

family. His original surname was Pupko. He worked at a factory in

Vitebsk Vitebsk or Vitsyebsk (, ; , ; ) is a city in northern Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Vitebsk Region and Vitebsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2025, it has 358,927 inhabitants, m ...

. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he was drafted into the army but deserted.

Revolutionary career

In 1917 he took part in revolutionary events in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

and

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. Drafted into the army, he deserted again after being sent to the front in the third special division. Engaged in political activities. In 1918 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, ...

. During the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, he led partisan sabotage units in

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

, then was transferred to the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Western Front, where his duties included the organization of partisan-sabotage detachments behind enemy lines.

Service within OGPU

For a number of years following the end of the Civil War he worked in the intelligence services of 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 ...

abroad (Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia), then transferred to work in the OGPU, where from 1930 he was deputy head of the Special Department. He became the deputy chief of the White Sea–Baltic Canal forced labor camp under the supervision of Matvei Berman in 1932. 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 ...

for his participation in the management of the construction of the canal in 1933.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Soviet and Russian author and Soviet dissidents, dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag pris ...

named Semyon Firin as one of the six supervisors responsible for 30,000 deaths during the construction of the canal in his book ''

The Gulag Archipelago ''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'' () is a three-volume nonfiction series written between 1958 and 1968 by Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet dissident. It was first published in 1973 by the Parisian ...

''. After the White Sea–Baltic Canal was finished, he became the leading NKVD official alongside

Sergey Zhuk Sergey Yakovlevich Zhuk (Russian: Сергей Яковлевич Жук; April 4, 1892 – March 1, 1957) was a Soviet hydraulic engineer, technician and state official. Hero of Socialist Labour (1952). Biography Early life Zhuk was born i ...

and Lazar Kogan in the ''Dmitlag'' forced labor camp based in

Dmitrov Dmitrov () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Dmitrovsky District, Moscow Oblast, Dmitrovsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located to the north of Moscow on the Yakhroma River and the Mosc ...

where the inmates were building the

Moscow Canal The Moscow Canal (), named the Moskva–Volga Canal until 1947, is a canal in Russia that connects the Moskva (river) with the Volga. It is located in Moscow itself and in the Moscow Oblast. The canal connects to the Moskva River in Tushino (an ...

. In August 1933, Firin was upset that there were too many frail workers who were not meeting production goals. He ordered the camp leaders to cut their food rations as a punishment which meant they only got weaker and thus were "unloaded". Firin was arrested for allegedly participating in an Operational-Chekist coup to prepare a "palace revolution" on 28 April 1937. He was executed by a firing squad on 14 August 1937.

Family

His wife, , was born to a Polish family in 1903 in Śmiłowice,

Włocławek County __NOTOC__ Włocławek County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reform ...

. She had participated in the November Revolution in Germany before graduating from high school in 1920. She became a member of the Bolsheviks in 1920, then went on to work for the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army as a political instructor, where she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. She was arrested on May 26, 1937, included in the execution list of August 20, 1937 and shot on August 22, 1937. She was rehabilitated posthumously on September 14, 1957.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Firin, Semyon 1898 births 1937 deaths Cheka officers NKVD officers People from Vilnius People from Vilna Governorate Russian Jews Jewish socialists Old Bolsheviks Great Purge victims from Russia Jews executed by the Soviet Union People executed for treason against the Soviet Union Deaths by firearm in Russia Soviet rehabilitations Gulag governors