Yan Petrovich Gaylit (, ; May 25, 1894 – August 1, 1938) was a Soviet

Komkor () is the syllabic abbreviation for corps commander (; ). It was a Military ranks of the Soviet Union, military rank in the Red Army and Red Army Air Force of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the period from 1935 to 1940. It was als ...

of Latvian ethnicity. He fought in the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

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 ...

before going over to 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, ...

in the subsequent

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 was a recipient of 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 ...

, as a part of the so-called " Latvian Operation", Gaylit was arrested by 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 ...

on August 15, 1937, and executed the following year. He was rehabilitated in 1956.

Biography

Working as a farm laborer in his youth, he became a land surveyor after attending the

Wolmar Valmiera () is the second largest city of the historical Vidzeme region, Latvia, with a total area of . As of 2002, Valmiera had a population of 27,323, and in 2020, it was at 24,879. It is a state city, and is the seat of the Valmiera Munici ...

City School. In 1915 he was drafted into the army, rising from the rank of private to second lieutenant after graduating from the school of warrant officers. He fought in the 1st World War as a member of the 10th Little Russian Grenadier Regiment, second lieutenant. In 1918 he joined the RCP(b), joining 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 ...

in March 1918, In May 1918 he was promoted to commander of the 1st Latvian combat detachment, then in June 1918 became commander of the Penza Group of Forces on the Eastern Front, and in July 1918 served as head of the Penza division. Since In November 1918, he was made chief of staff of the 2nd Infantry Brigade, after which in January 1919, he became commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade of the 26th Infantry Division. He held the. rank of head of the 26th Infantry Division from March 26, 1919 to April 16, 1919 and from November 25, 1919 to October 26, 1921. He was awarded the

in 1920. After the war he pursued higher education. He became the commander of the 10th Rifle Corps in Siberia, then assistant to the commander of the West Siberian Military District. In 1928 he became assistant to the commander of the North Caucasus Military District, and from 1930 deputy chief of the Main Directorate of the Red Army Headquarters. During 1933-1937 he was commander of the troops of the Siberian Military District. Beginning in 1936 he was a member of the Military Council under the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. In May 1937, he was transferred to the post of commander of the Ural Military District. On August 15, 1937 he was arrested. On August 1, 1938, he was sentenced to death by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR for espionage and participation in a counter-revolutionary organization. Shot on the same day. On November 28, 1956 he was rehabilitated.

Family

His wife, Cleopatra Nikiforovna Gailit (b. 1896), a journalist, was arrested at the end of August 1937 and sentenced in December 1938 to five years in the camps as a member of the family of a traitor to the Motherland. She died in the camp. The children, son Georgy (born 1922) and daughter Valentina (born 1926), were sent to orphanages.

Sources

Латышские стрелки

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaylit, Yan 1894 births 1938 deaths People from Valmiera People from Valmiera county Soviet komkors Imperial Russian Army officers Russian military personnel of World War I Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Great Purge victims from Latvia People executed by the Soviet Union by firearm Soviet rehabilitations