Vasiliy Vasilievich Ulrikh (; 13 July 1889 – 7 May 1951) was a senior judge of the

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 ...

during most of the regime of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

. Ulrikh served as the presiding judge at many of the major

show trials A show trial is a public trial in which the guilt or innocence of the defendant has already been determined. The purpose of holding a show trial is to present both accusation and verdict to the public, serving as an example and a warning to ...

of the

Great Purges 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 ...

in the

Early life

Vasili Ulrikh was born in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

, then a part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. His father was a Latvian revolutionary of German descent, and his mother was a Russian noblewoman. Because of their open involvement in revolutionary activity, the entire family was sentenced to a five-year period of internal exile 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 ...

, Siberia. In 1910, young Ulrikh returned to his native Riga and began to study at the Riga Polytechnical Institute. He joined the

Bolshevik 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, ...

faction of the

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP) or the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDP), was a socialist political party founded in 1898 in Minsk, Russian Empire. The ...

in the same year. He graduated in 1914, and with the beginning of

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 sent to the front as an officer. After the

Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

secured him entrance into the

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

. Ulrikh subsequently served on a number of military tribunals, and came to the attention of Stalin, who apparently liked the efficient way in which he carried out his duties and his terse, even laconic style of reporting these tribunals' actions.

Career

In 1926, Ulrikh became Chairman of the

Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union () was created in 1924 by the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union as a court for the higher military and political personnel of the Red Army and Fleet. In addition it was an immed ...

. It was in this capacity that he handed down the sentences of 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 ...

. Ulrikh sentenced

Zinoviev Zinoviev, Zinovyev, Zinovieff (), or Zinovieva (feminine; Зино́вьева), as a Russian surname, derives from the personal name Zinovi, from Greek '' Zenobios''. Notable people with the surname include: * Alexander Dmitrievich Zinoviev (18 ...

Kamenev Lev Borisovich Kamenev. ( Rozenfeld; – 25 August 1936) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A prominent Old Bolsheviks, Old Bolshevik, Kamenev was a leading figure in the early Soviet government and served as a Deputy Premier ...

Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (; rus, Николай Иванович Бухарин, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ bʊˈxarʲɪn; – 15 March 1938) was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and Marxist theorist. A prominent Bolshevik ...

Tukhachevsky Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Тухачевский, Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevskiy, p=tʊxɐˈtɕefskʲɪj; – 12 June 1937), nicknamed the Red Napoleon, was a Soviet general who was prominen ...

, Rodzaevsky,

Beloborodov Beloborodov (), or Beloborodova (Белобородова), is a Russian surname. Notable people with the surname include: ;People * Aleksandr Beloborodov (1891–1938), Bolshevik revolutionary and communist politician *Afanasy Beloborodov Afan ...

Yezhov Yezhov or Ezhov () is a Russian masculine surname derived from the word (), meaning ''hedgehog''; its feminine counterpart is Yezhova or Ezhova. It may refer to: *Denis Ezhov (born 1985), Russian ice hockey player *Elena Ezhova (born 1977), Ukrain ...

and many others. He attended the executions of many of these men, and occasionally performed executions himself. Ulrikh personally executed

Yan Karlovich Berzin Yan (Ian) Karlovich Berzin (; ; real name Pēteris Ķuzis; – 29 July 1938) was a Latvian and Soviet communist politician and military intelligence officer. Biography Ķuzis joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1905. Accordi ...

, former head of Red Army Intelligence Directorate, later called

GRU Gru is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Despicable Me'' film series. Gru or GRU may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Gru (rapper), Serbian rapper * Gru, an antagonist in '' The Kine Saga'' Organizations Georgia (c ...

. During

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 ...

, Ulrikh continued to hand down death sentences to people accused of

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...

and

defeatism Defeatism is the acceptance of defeat without struggle, often with negative connotations. It can be linked to pessimism in psychology, and may sometimes be used synonymously with fatalism or determinism. In politics, defeatism is used for one's p ...

. He was also the chief judge during the

Trial of the Sixteen The Trial of the Sixteen () was a staged trial of 16 leaders of the Polish Underground State held by the Soviet authorities in Moscow in 1945. All captives were kidnapped by the NKVD secret service and falsely accused of various forms of 'ille ...

leaders of the

Polish Secret State The Polish Underground State (, also known as the Polish Secret State) was a single political and military entity formed by the union of resistance organizations in occupied Poland that were loyal to the Government of the Republic of Poland ...

and

Home Army The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...

in 1945. After the conclusion of the war, Ulrikh presided over a number of the early trials of the

Zhdanovshchina The Zhdanov Doctrine (also called Zhdanovism or Zhdanovshchina; ) was a Soviet cultural doctrine developed by Central Committee secretary Andrei Zhdanov in 1946. The main principle of the Zhdanov Doctrine was often summarized by the phrase "The ...

. In 1948, a number of top judges, including Ulrikh, were removed from their positions for severe drawbacks in the judicial system, including corruption and what were classified as political errors.„Члены Верховного суда брали взятки“
("Members of the Superior Court Took Bribes") magazine «Коммерсантъ Власть», no. 31 (785), August 11, 2008 Ulrikh was subsequently reassigned to be the course director at the Military Law Academy. He died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

on May 7, 1951, and was buried in the

Novodevichy Cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery () is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. History The cemetery was designed by Ivan Mashkov and inaugurated ...

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 ...

Opinions

Anton Antonov-Ovseenko Anton Vladimirovich Antonov-Ovseenko (; 23 February 1920 – 9 July 2013) was a Russian historian and writer. (biography on the Sakharov Center website) Born on 23 February 1920, he was the son of the Bolshevik military leader Vladimir Anton ...

labeled him a "uniformed toad with watery eyes."

Otto Tief Otto Tief ( – 5 March 1976) was an Estonian politician, military commander, and a lawyer. Tief was the acting prime minister of the last government of Estonia

, the last acting prime minister of Estonia before Soviet occupation, described Ulrikh as "a youthful, round-faced and plump blond man in a general's uniform, with a gentle smile on his face."

Notes

Bibliography

, ''The Time of Stalin'' *

Robert Conquest George Robert Acworth Conquest (15 July 19173 August 2015) was a British and American historian, poet, novelist, and propagandist. He was briefly a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain but later wrote several books condemning commun ...

, '' The Great Terror: A Reassessment'' * Amy Knight, ''Who Killed Kirov: The Kremlin's Greatest Mystery'' *

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 ...

, ''

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 ...

'' * Arkady Vaksberg, ''Stalin's Prosecutor: The Life of Andrei Vyshinsky'' *

Dmitri Volkogonov Dmitri Antonovich Volkogonov (; 22 March 1928 – 6 December 1995) was a Soviet and Russian historian and colonel general who was head of the Soviet military's psychological warfare department. After research in secret Soviet archives (both be ...

, ''Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy'' *

Simon Sebag Montefiore Simon Jonathan Sebag Montefiore ( ; born 27 June 1965) is a British historian, television presenter and author of history books and novels, including '' Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar'' (2003), '' Jerusalem: The Biography'' (2011), '' The Rom ...

, ''Stalin, Court of the Red Tsar '' {{DEFAULTSORT:Ulrikh, Vasiliy 1889 births 1951 deaths Lawyers from Riga People from Riga county Russian people of Baltic German descent Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Old Bolsheviks Communist Party of the Soviet Union members First convocation members of the Soviet of Nationalities Cheka Soviet judges 20th-century Latvian judges Russian lawyers Assassination of Sergei Kirov Trial of the Sixteen (Great Purge) Great Purge perpetrators Riga Technical University alumni Russian military personnel of World War I Soviet people of World War II Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery