Yan Gamarnik
OfficeFirst Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia
Term start4 December 1928
Term end3 January 1930
PredecessorVilgelm Knorinsh
SuccessorKonstantin Gey
Office 1First Secretary of the Kyiv Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Bolsheviks)
Term start 125 April 1921
Term end 1July 1923
Predecessor 1Post established
Successor 1Hryhoriy Hrynko
Office 2Head of the Political Directorate of the Red Workers' and Peasants' Army
President 2Kliment Voroshilov
Term start 21 October 1929
Term end 231 May 1937
Predecessor 2Andrei Bubnov
Successor 2Pyotr Smirnov
Office 3Full member of the 15th, 16th Orgburo
Term start 317 November 1929
Term end 310 February 1934
Birth date14 June O.S. 1894
Birth placeZhytomyr, Volhynian Governorate, Russian Empire
Death date31 May 1937 (aged 42)
Death placeMoscow, Soviet Union
Birth nameJakov Tzudikovich Gamarnik
PartyCPSU (1917–1937)
Alma materSt Petersburg Psychoneurological Institute
AllegianceSoviet Union
BranchArmy
Service years1919–1937
RankArmy Commissar of 1st rank
Unit58th Rifle Division
CommandsArmy Political Administration (1929–37)
AwardsOrder of the Red Banner (1928)
Order of Lenin (1933)
Native nameЯн Гамарник

Yan Gamarnik (Russian: Ян Гамарник; Ukrainian: Ян Гамарнік (Гамарник), Yan Hamarnik/Hamarnyk),[1] birth name Jakov Tzudikovich Gamarnik (Russian: Я́ков Цу́дикович Гама́рник)), sometimes known as Yakov Gamarnik (Russian: Я́ков Гама́рник; 14 June O.S. 1894 – 31 May 1937), was the Chief of the Political Department of the Red Army from 1930 to 1937, Deputy Commissar of Defense 1930—1934 and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia 1928–1930.

Biography

Gamarnik was born in Zhytomyr in a Jewish family as Jakov Tzudikovich Gamarnik. He attended the St Petersburg Psychoneurological Institute and the Law School of Kiev University. In 1917 he became a member and the secretary of the Kiev Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1921 to 1923 Gamarnik was a chairman of the Kiev city council. During his administration, Kiev was divided into five districts. He went through many Communist Party positions, both civil and military, e.g. a First Secretary of the Belarusian Communist Party of Belorussia from December 1928 to October 1929.[2]

He was instrumental in preparing the 10-year development plan for the Far-Eastern region of the USSR. He was a member of the Central Committee elected by the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). He attended the Plenum of 23 February 1937.[citation needed]

An idealist, Gamarnik was a staunch supporter of Marshal Tukhachevsky's drive to make USSR a military superpower. In 1937 Gamarnik was accused of participating in an anti-Soviet conspiracy after the Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization. The Politburo of the Soviet Communist Party ordered the decision "to remove Comrades Gamarnik and Aronshtam from their work in the People's Commissariat of Defense and to exclude them from the Military Council, as workers who were in close group ties with Yakir, who has now been expelled from the party for participation in a military-fascist conspiracy." The next day, on May 31, 1937, head of the Directorate for the Command Staff of the Red Army On May 30, 1937, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) made a decision: "To remove Comrades Gamarnik and Aronshtam from their work in the People's Commissariat of Defense and to exclude them from the Military Council, as workers who were in close group ties with Yakir, who has now been expelled from the party for participation in a military-fascist conspiracy."

On May 31, 1937, I.V. Smorodinov and A.S. Bulin of the People's Commissariat of Defense informed Gamarnik about the decisions of the Politburo, and told him that he was dismissed from the ranks of the Red Army. Immediately after their departure, Gamarnik shot himself on the eve of his inevitable arrest. Another explanation of his death is that Garmanik insisted on the innocence of General Mikhail Tukhachevsky's on separate charges "and was soon killed by Stalin's men."[3] Despite his death he was added to the list of conspirators in the case of the Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization and labelled "enemy of the people"..[citation needed] He was rehabilitated posthumously in 1955.[citation needed]

Family

Gamarnik's sister, Klaudia (born 1905) left school at 14, joined Komsomol in Kyiv in 1921, joined the communist party in 1927, and was working in the prosecutor's office in Moscow when she was expelled from the party on 13 June 1937, arrested on 13 August, and sentenced to eight years in labour camps.[4] Her husband, Andrei Bogomolov, (1902–38), a secretary of the Moscow party committee, was arrested on 17 August 1937, sentenced to death on 25 April 1938, and shot the same day.[5] They had two children, who were aged eight and two in 1937. In 1953, she appealed to have her criminal record removed, but the appeal was turned down on the grounds that she had consorted with 'enemies of the people', including her husband.[4]

Honours and awards

References

  1. ^ Енциклопедія українознавства. Словникова частина (ЕУ-II). Vol. 1. 1993. pp. 351–355.
  2. ^ Belarus
  3. ^ Krivitsky, Walter G. (2000). In Stalin's secret service. Enigma Books. ISBN 978-1-929631-03-2.
  4. ^ Bogomolova, Klaudia. "Заявление К.Б. Богомоловой-Гамарник Н.С. Хрущеву о реабилитации. 20 ноября 1954 г. (Application by K.B.Bogolomova-Gamarnik to N.S.Khrushchev for rehabilitation, 20 November 1954)". Реабилитация: как это было. Документы Президиума ЦК КПСС и другие материалы. Март 1953 — февраль 1956.. Международный фонд "демократия" (Moscow). Retrieved 21 January 2023.
  5. ^ "Богомолов Андрей Николаевич (1902)". Открытый список. Retrieved 21 January 2023.

Sources