Boris Ignatyvich Gudz (; 1902 – 27 December 2006) was a veteran of the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War, an

OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU; russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление) was the intelligence and state security service and secret police of the Soviet Union f ...

security agent, and at the time of his death the last surviving Chekist of the first generation.

Biography

Gudz was born at Ufa in the Russian Empire, where his parents moved following a revolutionary movement in Ukraine. He joined the Bolshevik Party in his early teens after his father was arrested for revolutionary activity. He participated in the October Revolution and later fought in the Red Army against the White Army during the Russian Civil War. In 1923, Gudz began his career in the State Political Directorate (OGPU) as a junior member of the staff involved in operation Trust. Later, he was appointed head of the OGPU intelligence and counterintelligence department in East Siberia, and then in 1933 in Japan. In 1937, after his sister was arrested during the Great Purge, he was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party and dismissed from the Red Army, but was soon restored to the Party and the Army. Gudz died on 27 December 2006, aged 104 years. His funeral ceremony took place in Moscow. When he died, he was the oldest surviving veteran of both the October Revolution and subsequent Civil War. The Russian writer and Gulag survivor Varlam Shalamov was his brother-in-law.

Photos

* 1936: http://shalamov.ru/gallery/57/3.html * 1955-56: http://shalamov.ru/media/images/gallery/579.jpg * Boris Gudz as a centenarian, records file in hand: Файл:Борис Игнатьевич Гудзь.jpg

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gudz, Boris 1902 births 2006 deaths Politicians from Ufa Old Bolsheviks NKVD Russian communists Military personnel from Ufa Russian centenarians Men centenarians People of the Russian Revolution Institute of Red Professors alumni