Hayk Alexandri Hovsepyan or Gayk Alexandrovich Osepyan (Ovsepyan) ( hy, Հայկ Ալեքսանդրի Հովսեփյան; ; 19 January or 19 June 1891 - 10 September 1937) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

military leader and politician of

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

origin. He was also a deputy chief of the General Political Department of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

. He was executed in 1937 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 ...

Biography

Hayk Hovsepyan was born in 1891 to an

family in the village of Bashkadyklar (Başgedikler) in the

Kars Oblast The Kars Oblast was a province (''oblast'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire between 1878 and 1917. Its capital was the city of Kars, presently in Turkey. The ''oblast'' bordered the Ottoman Empire to the west, the Batum Oblast ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. He was active in a number of political parties, including 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 ...

, which he joined in 1913. He graduated from the Moscow Lazarev seminary in 1911, as well as the Medical Faculty of

Moscow University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

. During the

First World War 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 served on the Caucasian front. In 1917 he went to

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

and participated in the founding of the Communist Party of Armenia, also serving as the editor of its newspaper ''Karmir Orer'' ("Red Days"). In mid-1918 he went to Moscow at worked at the

People's Commissariat for Nationalities The People's Commissariat of Nationalities of the RSFSR (, ''Narodny komissariat po delam natsional'nostey RSFSR''), abbreviated NKNats () or Narkomnats (), an organisation functioning from 1917 to 1924 in the early Soviet period of Russian and Sov ...

and edited the journal ''Kommunist''. In 1921 he returned to Armenia and became secretary of the

Alexandropol Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

city committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik). In 1922, he became the head of the political section of the Armenian Infantry Division of the Caucasian Army. From 1925 to 1927, he was the deputy head of the political directorate of the Caucasian Army. In 1927, he was elected First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia. In 1928, he was appointed deputy head of the Volga Military District and first deputy head of its political directorate. From 1929 to 1937, he served in the Political Directorate of the Red Army, first as department head, then deputy, then first deputy of the directorate. At the same time, he served as secretary of the party committee of the central directorate of the

People's Commissariat for Defence The Ministry of Defense (Minoboron; russian: Министерство обороны СССР) was a government ministry in the Soviet Union. The first Minister of Defense was Nikolai Bulganin, starting 1953. The Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) was the ...

for six years, and also edited the journal ''Kommunist RKKA''. He was also a member of the Central Executive Committee of the

Transcaucasian SFSR , conventional_long_name = Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic , common_name = Transcaucasian SFSR , p1 = Armenian Soviet Socialist RepublicArmenian SSR , flag_p1 = Flag of SSRA ...

. In 1937, he was arrested and sentenced to death by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union; he was shot on the same day that he received the sentence. He was later rehabilitated.

Awards

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner (russian: Орден Красного Знамени, Orden Krasnogo Znameni) was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of th ...

(1928)

References

Sources

* Краткая Армянская энциклопедия» в 4 томах, т. З, стр. 414, Ереван, 1999 г. * Кто есть кто: армяне», Биографическая энциклопедия в 2 томах, т. 1, стр. 686, Ереван, 2005 г. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ovsepyan, Hayk 1891 births 1937 deaths People from Kars Oblast Armenian Communist Party politicians Armenian people of World War I Old Bolsheviks People of the Russian Civil War Great Purge victims from Armenia Soviet Armenians Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union executed by the Soviet Union