Ivan Ilich Dolgikh (; 1904 – 1 October 1961) 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, ...

police officer, politician, and the head of the

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

system of labour camps from 1951 to 1954.

Career

Born to a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

peasant family, in

Livensky Uyezd Livensky (russian: Ливенский; masculine), Livenskaya (; feminine), or Livenskoye (; neuter) is the name of several rural localities in Russia: * Livenskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast, a settlement in Alexeyevsky Rural Okrug of Krasnoznamensky ...

Oryol Governorate Oryol Governorate (russian: Орловская губерния, ''Orlovskaya guberniya'') or the Government of Oryol, was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the early Russian SFSR, which existed from 1796 to 1 ...

, and educated at Moscow, Dolgikh joined the

All-Union Communist Party (b) The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),; abbreviated in Russian as or also known by #Name, various other names during its history, was the founding and ruling party of the Soviet Union. The CPSU was the One-party state, sole governing ...

in 1931, and was appointed a lieutenant in the

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. ...

Kharkiv Oblast Kharkiv Oblast ( uk, Харківська́ о́бласть, translit=Kharkivska oblast), also referred to as Kharkivshchyna ( uk, Ха́рківщина), is an oblast (province) of eastern Ukraine. The oblast borders Russia to the north, Luhans ...

in February 1936. According to former political prisoner

Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko Anton Vladimirovich Antonov-Ovseenko (russian: Анто́н Влади́мирович Анто́нов-Овсе́енко; 23 February 1920, Moscow, RSFSR – 9 July 2013, Moscow, Russia) was a Russian historian and writer. (Antonov-Ovseyenk ...

: Dolgikh was promoted to the rank of captain in November 1941, and appointed deputy head of the NKVD in

Khabarovsk Krai Khabarovsk Krai ( rus, Хабаровский край, r=Khabarovsky kray, p=xɐˈbarəfskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia. It is geographically located in the Russian Far East and is a part of the Far Eastern Federal District ...

. In 1945, he was appointed head of the NKVD in Khabarovsk Krai. He was head of Gulag in 1951-54. In May 1954, he led the commission which opened negotiations with prisoners at the

Kengir Kengir ( kk, Кеңгір, ''Keñgır'') is a village in central Kazakhstan. During the Soviet era, a prison labor camp of Steplag division of Gulag in Kazakhstan was set up adjacent to it. The camp, which was situated near the central-Kazakhstan c ...

labour camp, in Kazakhstan, who had revolted and taken control of the camp. Dolgikh conceded to some minor demands, including the transfer of prison guards who were particularly hated, whilst forbidding food or medicines to be shipped to the camp. The rebellion was violently suppressed (unarmed people including women were crushed by T-34 tanks caterpillars) in June 1954. In 1955-56, Dolgikh was an inspector at the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1956, shortly after

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

had denounced the crimes of the

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

era, in his

Secret speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...

to the

20th Congress of the CPSU The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during the period 14–25 February 1956. It is known especially for First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech", which denounced the personality cult and dictatorship ...

. Dolgikh was found guilty of 'flagrant violations of socialist law', sacked, stripped of his rank, and expelled from the Communist Party. Dolgikh died in 1961.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dolgikh, Ivan Illich 1904 births 1961 deaths People from Oryol Oblast People from Livensky Uyezd (Oryol Governorate) Expelled members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Third convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union People's commissars and ministers of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic Commissars 3rd Class of State Security Soviet lieutenant generals NKVD officers People of the KGB Gulag governors Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Kutafin Moscow State Law University alumni