Filip Demyanovich Medved (Russian: Филипп Демьянович Медве́дь; 1890 – 27 November 1937) was a Belarusian revolutionary and official of the
Soviet state securities, the
Cheka
The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə), abbreviated ...
,
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 ...
and
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
.
Biography
Born in to a
Belarusian
Belarusian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to Belarus
* Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent
* A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus
* Belarusian language
* Belarusian culture
* Belarusian cuisine
* Byelor ...
working-class family. He was active in the workers' movement in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
from a young age and was expelled from his school.
Medved worked as a constructor technician and was a member of an underground
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
circle. In 1907 he joined
Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania
The Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania ( pl, Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego i Litwy, SDKPiL), , LKLSD), originally the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP), was a Marxist political party founded in 1893 and ...
and the
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
faction of the
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist pol ...
. He was arrested four times for his revolutionary activity and served in prison for two years. During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
he was drafted and briefly served in the
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...
.
After the
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
from November 1917 to May 1918, he was one of the organizers of the
Sokolniki District
Sokolniki District (russian: райо́н Соко́льники) is a administrative divisions of Moscow, district of the Eastern Administrative Okrug of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Moscow located in the north-east corner of the ...
militia, he consecutively held the posts of a member of the Sokolniki District
Military Revolutionary Committee
The Military Revolutionary Committee (russian: Военно-революционный комитет, ) was the name for military organs created by the Bolsheviks under the soviets in preparation for the October Revolution (October 1917 – Marc ...
, the head of the 1st Moscow Revolutionary Detachment, and was the military commissar of the Sokolniki District.
Among the founders of the
Cheka
The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə), abbreviated ...
, he was a member of the Control Board of the Cheka and worked directly under the leadership of
Feliks Dzerzhinsky. He was chairman of Tula and then from August to May 1919 he served as the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka. In 1919 he was transferred to the front was the head of the special department of the Cheka on the
Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to:
Military frontiers
*Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany
*Western Front (Russian Empire), a majo ...
. From October to December 1919, he was the head of the Department of Forced Labor of the NKVD of the RSFSR. Then he was transferred to the Western Front again.
A member of the Cheka Collegium, he was deputy chairman of the Moscow Cheka, and head of the Moscow Provincial Political Department.
In the years 1934-35 he was plenipotentiary representative of the
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 ...
under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR for the Western Territory and then the Chairman of the OGPU under Council of People's Commissars of the
Byelarussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
From 1926 to 1929 he was the plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU at the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR for the
Far-Eastern Krai. From 1930 to 1934, he was head of the OGPU of the
Leningrad Military District
The Leningrad Military District was a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2010 it was merged with the Moscow Military District, the Northern Fleet and the Baltic Fleet to form the new Western Military District.
Hi ...
, simultaneously from 1930 to 1932 the head of the special department of the OGPU of the Leningrad Military District as well as a member of the OGPU Collegium under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.
Medved was head of the NKVD Directorate of Leningrad from July to December 1934. He oversaw arrests and expulsions from Leningrad of supporters of the
Party Oppositionists and led repressions against "representatives of the exploiting classes" and "class alien elements." He was a close friend and associate of the first secretary of the
Leningrad Party Region,
Sergei Kirov
Sergei Mironovich Kirov (né Kostrikov; 27 March 1886 – 1 December 1934) was a Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary whose assassination led to the first Great Purge.
Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and membe ...
, and enjoyed his support throughout his service as head of the Leningrad NKVD.
Arrest and execution
After the murder of Sergei Kirov he was removed from his office, was summoned to Moscow and arrested. On 9 January 1935 he was expelled from the
VKP (b), and on 23 January 1935 the
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR
The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union (Russian: Военная коллегия Верховного суда СССР, ''Voennaya kollegiya Verkhovnogo suda SSSR'') was created in 1924 by the Supreme Court of the Sovie ...
sentenced him to 3 years in prison for "criminally negligent attitude to their duties to protect the state security".
In late 1935 he was pardoned and was released. From 1935 to May 1937 he was the head of the Southern Mining and Industrial Directorate of the Main Directorate for the Construction of the
Dalstroy
Dalstroy (russian: Дальстро́й, ), also known as Far North Construction Trust, was an organization set up in 1931 in order to manage road construction and the mining of gold in the Russian Far East, including the Magadan Region, Chukotka ...
of the NKVD of the USSR.
During the
Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...
he was once again arrested in September 1937 and was sentenced to death for his participation in the anti Soviet "Polish military organization.". On 27 November 1937 he was shot along with the former People's Commissar of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR
Vsevold Balitsky.
On 17 December 1957 Filipp Medved was posthumously rehabilitated by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medved, Filipp
1890 births
1937 deaths
People from Pruzhansky Uyezd
Belarusian revolutionaries
Old Bolsheviks
Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania politicians
Cheka officers
NKVD officers
Great Purge victims from Belarus
Soviet rehabilitations
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner