Martin Ivanovich Latsis (russian: Мартын Иванович Лацис, lv, Mārtiņš Lācis, born Jānis Sudrabs, russian: Ян Фридрихович Судрабс, translit=Yan Fridrikhovich Sudrabs) (December 14, 1888 – February 11, 1938) was a Latvian

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 ...

revolutionary,

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, ...

politician, and senior state security officer of the

Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə), abbreviated ...

from

Courland Courland (; lv, Kurzeme; liv, Kurāmō; German and Scandinavian languages: ''Kurland''; la, Curonia/; russian: Курляндия; Estonian: ''Kuramaa''; lt, Kuršas; pl, Kurlandia) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia. ...

(now

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

Life

Born in the family of a Latvian farmworker, Latsis was a member of the

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 ...

from 1905 (an "

Old Bolshevik Old Bolshevik (russian: ста́рый большеви́к, ''stary bolshevik''), also called Old Bolshevik Guard or Old Party Guard, was an unofficial designation for a member of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Par ...

"),Adelman, Jonathan R. (editor);
''Terror and Communist Politics: The Role of the Secret Police in Communist States''

Westview Press Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Ki ...

, 1984; ; page 81 an active participant in the Russian Revolutions of 1905–1907 and 1917, a member of the

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 ...

, a member of the Collegium of the All-Russia Cheka (1918–1921) and Chairman of the

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 ...

(1919), and a member of

VTsIK The All-Russian Central Executive Committee ( rus, Всероссийский Центральный Исполнительный Комитет, Vserossiysky Centralny Ispolnitelny Komitet, VTsIK) was the highest legislative, administrative and r ...

. Between 1932 and 1937, Latsis was a director at the

Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics The Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (russian: Российский экономический университет имени Г. В. Плеханова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. It was founded in 1907 by ent ...

. Latsis was the author of the book ' ("Two Years of Struggle on the Internal Front", Moscow: Gos. izd-vo, 1920), in which he advocated unrestrained violence against class enemies. He boasted of the harsh repressive policies used by the

."Latsis Martin Ivanovich"
a biography at www.hrono.ru (in Russian) In 1918, while a deputy chief of the Cheka in Ukraine, he called for sentences to be determined not by guilt or innocence but by social class. He is quoted as explaining the

Red Terror The Red Terror (russian: Красный террор, krasnyj terror) in Soviet Russia was a campaign of political repression and executions carried out by the Bolsheviks, chiefly through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police. It started in lat ...

as follows: While praising Latsis' abilities, Lenin criticized his advocacy of indiscriminate class terror as "absurd" and risking "untold harm to communism": On November 29, 1937, during the so-called " Latvian Operation", Latsis was arrested, accused by a commission of

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. ...

and Prosecutor of the USSR of belonging to a "counter-revolutionary, nationalist organization" and executed in 1938 by shooting in the

Butovo firing range The Butovo Firing Range or Butovo Shooting Range (russian: Бутовский полигон) was an execution site of the Soviet secret police located near Drozhzhino in Leninsky District, Moscow Oblast from 1938 to 1953. Its use for mass exe ...

. In 1956, the Military Collegiate of the Supreme Court of USSR politically rehabilitated him.

References

Literature

* Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr; ''The Gulag Archipelago'', Harper & Row, 660 pp., . * Gordievsky, Oleg; Andrew, Christopher, ''KGB: The Inside Story'' (1990), Hodder & Stoughton. .

External links

Profile at hrono.ru
{{DEFAULTSORT:Latsis, Martin 1888 births 1938 deaths People from Cēsis Municipality People from Kreis Wenden Old Bolsheviks Cheka officers Cheka Republican Cheka (Ukraine) chairmen Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Latvian Operation of the NKVD Great Purge victims from Latvia Executed Latvian people Soviet rehabilitations Politicide perpetrators Soviet war crimes