Vadim Birstein - The Perversion of Knowledge

Beria, Lavrentii(1899–1953), the main organizer of the Soviet state security system. In 1915, joined an underground Marxist group in the city of Baku (Azerbaijan) and in 1921, the Azerbaijan CheKa. Chairman and then commissar of the Georgian GPU/NKVD (1926–1931), chairman of the Caucasian GPU (included three republics, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia) (1931), first secretary of the Georgian Republic and the Tbilisi City Committees (1931–1938). First deputy NKVD commissar (1938), then NKVD commissar (1938–1945), deputy chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars (Sovnarkom) (1941–1946), chairman of the State Committee No. 1 and deputy chair Council of Ministers (Sovmin) (1945–1953), MVD minister and deputy chair of the Sovmin (March 5, 1953–June 26, 1953). Arrested during the meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee. Tried in a closed secret meeting of the USSR Supreme Court, condemned to death, and shot immediately after the trial on December 23, 1953. Not rehabilitated.

Blokhin, Vasilii(1895–1955) joined the VCheKa in 1921. Head of a special group of the VCheKa/NKVD/MGB executioners: commandant of the OGPU (1926–1938); head of the Commandant Department of the NKVD Administrative-Economic Directorate (1938–1943), head of the Commandant Department of the NKGB Administrative-Economic Directorate (1943–1946), head of the Commandant Department of the MGB Management Directorate (1946–1952), commandant of the MGB (1952–1953). Provided Mairanovsky with prisoners for experiments. Discharged in 1953 “because of bad health.” In 1954 deprived of major general rank (1945) (Petrov and Skorkin, Kto rukovodil NKVD , p. 112).

Bondarenko, Aleksandr(1893–1941), Party and state figure. Member of the Agricultural Academy (VASKhNIL) (1931). Vice president (1931–1935), scientific secretary of the VASKhNIL (1935–1936), head of the Institute of Beet Planting of the VASKhNIL (1936–1937) and of a department at the Academy Institute of World Industry and World Politics. Arrested on February 8, 1941, sentenced to death (the Vavilov case), and shot on July 27, 1941. Rehabilitated in 1956.

Braunstein, Aleksandr(1902–1986), biochemist. Graduated from the Kharkov Medical Institute (1925). At the Bach Institute of Biochemistry (1930–1936). From 1936, head of the Section of Metabolism at the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine and later at the Institute of Biological Medical Chemistry of the Medical Academy, of a laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Biology (1959–1986). Member of the Medical Academy (1945) and of the USSR Academy (1964). Hero of Socialist Labor, Stalin Prize (1941) and Lenin Prize (1980).

Bukharin, Nikolai(1888–1938), one of the Bolshevik Party leaders and the main theorist. Joined the Party in 1906. A Central Committee member (from 1917), and a Politburo member (1924–1929). Head of the Communist International (Comintern) (1926–1929), chief editor of the Bolshevik daily Pravda (1918–1929) and of the daily Izvestia (1934–1937). Academician (1929). Director of the Academy Institute of the History of Natural Sciences and Technology (1932–1938), head of the Scientific-Research Section of the All-Union Council of People’s Industry (VSNKh) and then of the Commissariat of Heavy Industry (1934–1938). Arrested on February 27, 1937. On March 15, 1938, shot after a show trial. Rehabilitated.

Chayanov, Aleksandr(1888–1938), agrarian, economist, historian and writer. Member of the Collegium of the USSR Commissariat of Agriculture (1921–1923), director of the Institute of Agricultural Economy (1922–1928). Author of the theory of cooperative farming. Also published the utopian work Journey of My Brother Aleksei to the Land of the Peasant Utopia (1920) and some other novels. In Journe y, predicted that in 1984 Russia would be a free peasant country (he chose the date 1984 long before George Orwell, who published 1984 in 1948). Soviet officials considered the Journey to be a secret plan of an anti-Soviet organization. In 1930 arrested as a leader of the Labor Peasant Party, tried, and sentenced to exile (to Kazakhstan). Arrested for the second time in 1937 and on October 3, 1937, condemned to death. Shot in 1938. Rehabilitated in 1987.

Chernov, Ivan(1906–1991), head of the Secretariat of the Main SMERH Directorate (1943–1946), head of the MGB Secretariat (1946–1951). In 1951 arrested along with Abakumov and his men and in 1954 was condemned to 15 years’ imprisonment. Rehabilitated in 1992 (Naumov and Sigachev, Lavrentii Beria , p. 494; Stolyarov, Palachi i zhertvy , pp. 32–37, 141).

Chernov, Mikhail(1891–1938), Party and state figure. Commissar of agriculture (1934–1937). On November 7, 1937, arrested and tried in March 1938 as a German spy. His alleged mission was to infect horses destined for the Red Army. On March 13, 1938, at the Bukharin show trial, was sentenced to death and two days later was shot. Rehabilitated in 1988 (Bojtzov and Geissler, “8. Military biology,” p. 161; Yeremina and Roginsky, Rasstrel’nye spiski , p. 435).

Chetverikov, Sergei(1880–1959), one of the founders of population genetics. Worked at Nikolai Koltsov’s Institute of Experimental Biology. In 1929 exiled to the city of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) for five years. Worked as a mathematics teacher in a technical school in the town of Vladimir, then moved to the city of Gorky (Nizhnii Novgorod). Dean of the Biology Department at Gorky University, where he organized the Department of Genetics. Dismissed from his post in 1948 after the August 1948 session.

Clauberg, Carl(1898–1957), SS physician infamous for his experiments on female inmates of concentration camps. Born in Wupperhoff. During World War I, served in the infantry. Later studied medicine at the universities of Kiel, Hamburg, and Graz. Qualified as doctor in 1925. From 1937, professor of gynecology and obstetrics at the University of Koenigsberg. Joined the Nazi Party in 1933; SS Gruppenfuhrer. In 1942, Heinrich Himmler entrusted him with the implementation of an experimental sterilization program at Auschwitz. Injected acid liquids into the uterus of Jewish and Gipsy victims. Continued experiments in Ravensbruck. Sterilized approximately 700 women. Captured by the Soviets in 1945 and in 1948 sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment. Kept in Vladimir Prison. Like other German POWs, released in 1955. In November 1955, arrested in the city of Kiel. Died in prison shortly before the new trial.

Deborin, Abram(1881–1963), leading Marxist philosopher in the 1920s. Joined the Bolshevik Party in 1928. Chief editor of the Party magazine Pod znamenem marxisma [Under the Banner of Marxism] (1922–1930), deputy director of the Marx and Engels Institute in Moscow under the Central Committee (1926–1931). In 1930, became the main target of the discussion in philosophy initiated by Stalin, who named Deborin and his followers “the Menshevik idealists.” Continued to work at the academy, while his colleagues were arrested (Rokityansky, Ya. G., “Nesostoyavsheesya samoubiistvo” [The suicide that did not happen], V estnik Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk 63 (5) (1993): 458–461 (in Russian).

Dekanozov, Vladimir(1898–1953) joined the local CheKa in Azerbaijan in 1921. In the CheKa/OGPU of Azerbaijan and Georgia until 1932. From 1932–1938, in the Georgian government. Head of the Fifth (Foreign Intelligence) and Third (Counterintelligence) Departments of the NKVD Main State Security Directorate (GUGB) and deputy NKVD commissar (1938–1939). Deputy commissar/minister of foreign affairs (1939–1947), and Soviet ambassador to Germany (1940–1941). Deputy head of the Main Directorate of the Soviet Property Abroad (Germany) (1947–1949). During Beria’s short rule after Stalin’s death, headed the MVD in Georgia. Arrested on June 30, 1953. On December 23, 1953, condemned to death together with Beria and Merkulov and shot. Not rehabilitated (Petrov and Skorkin, Kto rukovodil NKVD , pp. 167–168).