Vsevolod Merkulov
- Birth Date:
- 25.10.1895
- Death date:
- 23.12.1953
- Person's maiden name:
- Vsevolod Nikolayevich (Boris) Merkulov
- Extra names:
- Wsewolod Merkulow, Всеволод Меркулов, Vsevolods Merkulovs, Все́волод Никола́евич Мерку́лов, Wsewolod Nikolajewitsch Merkulow
- Categories:
- Communist, Communist Party worker, Criminal, General, KGB, WWII participant
- Cemetery:
- Katyn war cemetery
Vsevolod Nikolayevich (Boris) Merkulov (Всеволод Николаевич Меркулов in Russian) (27 November [O.S. 25 October] 1895, Zagatala, present-day Azerbaijan – 23 December 1953), was the head of NKGB from February to July 1941, and again from April 1943 to March 1946. He was a member of the so-called "Georgian mafia" of Lavrenti Beria, head of the NKVD.
In 1913, Merkulov graduated from the Tiflis Gymnasium with the gold medal and became a student at St. Petersburg University, Department of Physics and Mathematics. From 1921-1922, he worked as a detective at the Transportation Unit of the Cheka in Georgia. From 1925-1931, Merkulov held the posts of Head of Secret Operations Directorate and Deputy Head of GPU of Adzharistan.
Merkulov was People's Commissar of State Security of the USSR from 3 February 1941 until 20 July 1941, when the NKGB again fell under control of the NKVD as GUGB. From 1941-1943, Merkulov was Deputy People's Commissar of the NKVD. In 1943 the GUGB was again separated from the NKVD, and Merkulov became head of the NKGB from 20 July 1943 until 1946.
He briefly served as Minister of the MGB in 1946, but was soon replaced by his rival Viktor Abakumov. Merkulov later served as Minister of State Control, replacing Lev Mekhlis. He was arrested and executed by firing squad along with his patron Beria and five other associates on 23 December 1953. It is rumored that all six bodies were cremated and buried in an unknown location near Moscow.
Merkulov may be best known for a letter he wrote to his boss, Lavrenti Beria, on 2 October 1944 regarding the cooperation the Soviet Union had received from a top scientist in the United States' program to develop an atomic bomb.
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Source: wikipedia.org, memo.ru
No places
| Relation name | Relation type | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Григорий Майрановский | Coworker | |
| 2 |  | Lavrentiy Beriya | Coworker, Employer, Idea mate | |
| 3 |  | Viktor Abakumov | Coworker | |
| 4 |  | Ivan Serov | Coworker | |
| 5 |  | Alena Mazanik | Familiar | |
| 6 |  | Adolf Hitler | Familiar | |
| 7 |  | Joachim Von Ribbentrop | Familiar | |
| 8 | Сергей Еломанов | Employee | ||
| 9 |  | Mikhail Ryumin | Idea mate | |
| 10 |  | Лев Влодзимирский | Idea mate | |
| 11 |  | Pawieł Drozdiecki | Idea mate | |
| 12 |  | Vyacheslav Molotov | Idea mate | |
| 13 |  | Nikolai Vlasik | Opponent |
25.02.1921 | Krievijas Sarkanā armija okupē Gruziju
21.01.1940 | Czortków Uprising
The Czortków Uprising (Polish: Powstanie Czortkowskie) was a failed attempt at resisting Soviet state repressions by the young anti-Soviet Poles most of whom were prewar students from the local high school in the Soviet-occupied Polish town of Czortków (now Chortkiv, Ukraine). The insurgents attempted to storm the local Red Army barracks and a prison in order to release Polish soldiers incarcerated there. The attack occurred on the night of January 21–22, 1940. It was the first Polish uprising during World War II.
03.04.1940 | Start of Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre (Polish: zbrodnia katyńska, mord katyński, 'Katyń crime'; Russian: Катынский расстрел Katynskij ra'sstrel 'Katyn shooting'), was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all captive members of the Polish Officer Corps, dated 5 March 1940. This official document was approved and signed by the Soviet Politburo, including its leader, Joseph Stalin. The number of victims is estimated at about 22,000, with 21,768 being a lower limit.[1] The victims were murdered in the Katyn Forest in Russia, the Kalinin and Kharkiv prisons and elsewhere. Of the total killed, about 8,000 were officers taken prisoner during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, another 6,000 were police officers, and the rest were arrested Polish intelligentsia the Soviets deemed to be "intelligence agents, gendarmes, landowners, saboteurs, factory owners, lawyers, officials and priests".