Vadim Birstein - The Perversion of Knowledge

Komarov, Vladimir I.(1916–1954) joined the NKVD in 1938. Investigator at the Special Department (1939–1942), secretary to Head of the Special Department Viktor Abakumov (from 1942). Deputy head of the MGB Department for Investigation of Especially Important Cases (1946–1951). Was involved in the investigation of all main cases of that period. Arrested in 1951 after the fall of Abakumov and tried together with Abakumov and his men. Shot on December 19, 1954. Not rehabilitated (Stolyarov, Palachi i zhertvy , pp. 26–27; Petrov, “Sudy protiv chlenov NKVD-MGB,” pp. 430–431).

Komarov, Vladimir L.(1869–1945), botanist. Graduated from St. Petersburg University (1894), then professor there (1898–1934). Corresponding member (1914), academician (1920). Vice president (1930–1936), president of the academy (1936–1945); also president of the All-Union Botanical Society (1940–1945) and honorary president of the Geographical Society (1940–1945). Deputy of the USSR Supreme Soviet (1938–1945). Stalin Prize (1941 and 1942), Hero of Socialist Labor (1943).

Kondratiev, Nikolai(1892–1938), economist. Assistant minster of food supply in the Provisional Government (1918). Director of the Market Institute within the USSR Commissariat of Finances (1920–1928). Arrested on June 19, 1930, and on January 26, 1932, sentenced to 8 years’ imprisonment as the alleged leader of the Labor Peasant Party (TKP). Imprisoned in the town of Suzdal. On September 17, 1938, resentenced to death on charges of organizing the TKP, directing its activity, and the counterrevolutionary activity in Suzdal Prison. Shot immediately after the trial. Rehabilitated in 1963.

Kovalev, Sergei(b. 1930), biophysicist and human rights activist. Graduated from Moscow State University (1954). At the Belozersky Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry of Moscow University. Joined the Initiative Group for Human Rights in Moscow (May 1969). An editor of the underground magazine Chronicle of Current Events (1971–1974). Expelled from the university. On December 28, 1974, arrested on the charge of alleged “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” (Article 70 of the Soviet Criminal Code). In December 1975 tried and convicted to 7 years’ imprisonment in a labor camp and 3 years of exile. Spent the term in Perm labor camps and Chistopol Prison. Later lived in the town of Kalinin (now Tver). In 1986 returned to Moscow and joined the Moscow Helsinki Group. In 1990, elected deputy of the Russian Federation Supreme Council (1990–1993) and then lower State Duma chamber of the Russian Parliament. Chaired the Committee on Human Rights of the Supreme Council (1990–1993) and Commission on Human Rights under the Russian president (1993–1996). His furious fight against human rights violations during the Chechen war (1994–1996) resulted in his dismissal. Beginning in 1990, cochairman of Memorial . In 2001, was still a member of the Duma, representing the liberal Union of the Rightists (SPS).

Kravchenko, Valentin(1906–1956) joined the NKVD in 1937. An engineer at the NKVD Second Special Department (1938–1939), head of the NKVD Special Technical Bureau (1939–1941), head of the NKVD/MVD Fourth Special Department (1941–1947; 1949–1953) (Petrov and Skorkin, Kto rukovodil NKVD , p. 249).

Kruglov, Sergei(1907–1977), Communist Party and MVD figure. In the Central Committee (1931–1934), then in 1938 joined the NKVD. Deputy NKVD commissar (1939–1941), at different positions in the army and NKVD (1941–1943), first deputy NKVD commissar (1943–1945), NKVD/MVD commissar/minister (1945–53), first deputy MVD minister (March–June 1953), MVD minister (1953–1956). In 1956, demoted to deputy minister of construction of hydroelectric stations. Deputy head of a regional industry office (1957–1958). Retired in 1958. In 1945, awarded with an honorary British knighthood (Petrov and Skorkin, Kto rukovodil NKVD , pp. 251–252).

Krupskaya, Nadezhda(1869–1939), Lenin’s wife, secretary, and coworker. The daughter of a tsarist official. Married Lenin in 1897 in order to accompany him to exile to Siberia. After Lenin’s death in 1924, held nonimportant Party positions. Silenced by Stalin during the purges of the 1930s. In 1938, did not defend Bukharin, who appealed to her during his show trial. Died in 1939, possibly from poisoning.

Krylenko, Nikolai(1885–1938), prosecutor and organizer of the Soviet court system. Joined the Bolshevik Party in 1904. The Bolshevik Party’s representative in the Duma (1913), and then in exile to Switzerland. Returned in 1917. A member of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee, supreme commander in chief and political commissar for military affairs. Russian chief prosecutor of the Supreme Tribunal (March 1918), chairman of the Economic Department of the VCheKa (1920). The principal prosecutor in the major trials of the 1920s. The Russian Federation commissar for justice (1931–1933), the USSR commissar for justice (1936–1938). Arrested on February 1, 1938, and tried and executed on July 29, 1938. Rehabilitated in 1955.

Krzhizhanovsky, Gleb(1872–1959), Party and Soviet science figure. A Party member from 1893, a Central Committee member (1924–1939). Head of the first energy committee, Goelro (State Energy Committee) (1920–1925), and then Glavenergo (1930–1932), of the State Planning Committee, Gosplan (1925–1930), deputy commissar of education (1932–1936). Academician (1929), director of the Academy Institute of Energy (1930–1959), vice president of the academy (1929–1939).

Ksenofontov, Ivan(1884–1926), Party and VCheKa figure. Joined the Party in 1903. One of the founder-members of the VCheKa Collegium, deputy chairman of the VCheKa (1919–1921), chairman of the VCheKa and other tribunals. Head of Stalin’s Private Secretariat (1921–1926) (Leggett, The CHEKA , p. 452).

Kuibyshev, Valerian(1883–1935), Party figure. President of the Party Control Commission (1923–1935), Politburo member (1926–1935), vice chairman of the USSR Council of Commissars, chairman of the Committee for Help to Scientists (1931–1935).

Kurchatov, Igor(1903–1960), physicist and science administrator. Graduated from Simferopol Crimean University (1923). Head of the Nuclear Physics Laboratory at the Academy Physical-Technical Institute (from 1927). From 1943, scientific director of the Soviet atomic project. Academician (1943). From 1946, head of Laboratory No. 2 (later the Academy Institute of Atomic Energy [IAE]). The Laboratory/IAE produced the first Soviet atomic bomb in 1949, and in 1953, a thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb. In 1948, joined the Communist Party. Hero of Socialist Labor (1949, 1951, and 1954).

Landau, Lev(1908–1968), physicist. Graduated from Leningrad University (1927). Until 1932, at Leningrad Physical-Technical Institute, then at Kharkov Physical-Technical Institute. From 1937, head of the theoretical group at the Institute of Physical Problems. In 1938–1939, imprisoned. Released after the personal intervention of Pyotr Kapitsa. Academician (1946), Hero of Socialist Labor (1954), Nobel Prize for physics (1962) (Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb , p. 450).

Lapshin, Yevgenii(1900–1956) joined the NKVD in 1937. Acting head of the NKVD Second Special Department (September–March 1939), head of the new NKVD Second Special Department (Department of Operational Equipment) (1939–1941). For the next 5 months, head of the NKGB Fourth Department. From July 31, 1941, until April 12, 1943, head of the NKVD Second Special Department (July 1941–1943), head of NKGB/MGB Department “B” (Operational Equipment) (1943–1946). From October 1946, head of the city of Tula MGB regional branch. Later transferred back to Moscow (Petrov and Skorkin, Kto rukovodil NKVD , p. 265).