Ivan Ivanovich Mezhlauk (russian: Иван Иванович Межлаук; lv, Jānis Mežlauks) (30 September 1891 – 25 April 1938) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

politician and statesman who was the first general secretary of the

Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR The Communist Party of Turkmenistan (russian: Коммунистическая партия Туркменистана; tk, Türkmenistanyň Kommunistik Partiýasy) was the ruling communist party of the Turkmen SSR, and a part of the Communis ...

as well as its first president. Ivan Mezhlauk was born in

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

), in the

Kharkov Governorate The Kharkov Governorate ( pre-reform Russian: , tr. ''Khárkovskaya gubérniya'', IPA: �xarʲkəfskəjə ɡʊˈbʲernʲɪjə ) was a governorate of the Russian Empire founded in 1835. It embraced the historical region of Sloboda Ukraine. Fro ...

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. ...

on 30 September 1891. He was of Latvian ethnicity. He joined the

Bolshevik Party " Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

in 1918 and served in 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, afte ...

during the

Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...

. He was president from 19 November 1924 until September 1925, when he was replaced with Khalmurad Sakhatmuradov. His term as general secretary lasted longer, until 1926. He was succeeded as general secretary by

Shaymardan Ibragimov Shaymardan Nurimanovich Ibragimov (1899–1957) served as the second first secretary of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR The Communist Party of Turkmenistan (russian: Коммунистическая партия Туркмениста� ...

. From 1930 to 1933, Mezhlauk worked in the Soviet economic planning apparatus, for a time as the secretary of the

Council of Labor and Defense The Council of Labor and Defense (Russian: Совет труда и обороны (СТО) Sovet Truda i Oborony, Latin acronym: STO), first established as the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense in November 1918, was an agency responsible fo ...

.R.W. Davies, "Ivan Ivanovich Mezhlauk," in Archie Brown (ed.), ''The Soviet Union: A Biographical Dictionary.'' New York: Macmillan, 1990; pp. 248-249. Mezhlauk was the older brother of the Soviet economic planner,

Valery Mezhlauk Valery Ivanovich Mezhlauk (russian: Вале́рий Ива́нович Межла́ук; lv, Valērijs Mežlauks) (1893–1938) was a government and party official in the Soviet Union during the decades of the 1920s and 1930s. He is best re ...

, the head of

Gosplan The State Planning Committee, commonly known as Gosplan ( rus, Госплан, , ɡosˈpɫan), was the agency responsible for central economic planning in the Soviet Union. Established in 1921 and remaining in existence until the dissolution of ...

from 1934 to 1937. Both brothers were arrested 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 Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...

of 1937-1938 and were among those who were executed. Ivan Mezhlauk was arrested on 3 December 1937, sentenced to death on 25 April 1938 and shot the same day.And he was succeded in 1985 by Saparmurat Niyazov.

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World Statesmen
1891 births 1938 deaths Politicians from Kharkiv People from Kharkov Governorate National University of Kharkiv alumni Bolsheviks Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Communist Party of Turkmenistan politicians Party leaders of the Soviet Union All-Russian Central Executive Committee members Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union members Latvian people executed by the Soviet Union Great Purge victims from Ukraine Soviet rehabilitations People from the Russian Empire of German descent Ukrainian people of Latvian descent Ukrainian people of German descent Soviet people of German descent {{Turkmenistan-politician-stub