Sariya Akhmedovna Lakoba (russian: Сария Ахмедовна Лакоба; born Sariya Akhmedovna Dzhikh-Ogly russian: Сария Ахмедовна Джих-оглы; 1904 – 16 May 1939), was a Soviet woman who was the spouse of

Nestor Lakoba Nestor Apollonovich Lakoba; ; ab, Нестор Аполлон-иԥа Лакоба; ( Georgian: ნესტორ აპოლონის ძე ლაკობა est'or Ap'olonis Dze Lak'oba 1 May 189328 December 1936) was an Abkhaz comm ...

, the leader of

Abkhazia Abkhazia, ka, აფხაზეთი, tr, , xmf, აბჟუა, abzhua, or ( or ), officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, recognised by most countries as part of Georgia, which vi ...

. She came from a wealthy Adjarian noble family. Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev, George Shriver, ''Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism'', Columbia University Press, New York, 1989, . p. 495-496 Her family was Muslim and very conservative and she wore a

veil A veil is an article of clothing or hanging cloth that is intended to cover some part of the head or face, or an object of some significance. Veiling has a long history in European, Asian, and African societies. The practice has been prominent ...

in her youth. Sariya and Nestor met in her parents' home when he was hiding from the British occupation forces. They fell in love and she ran away with him.Аббас-Оглы А. Ш
Не могу забыть.
– М. : АСТ, 2005. – 287 с. : фот.(Adilya Abbas-Ogly "I can not forget" published by

Sakharov Center The Sakharov Center (russian: Са́харовский центр) is a museum and cultural center in Moscow devoted to protection of human rights in Russia and preserving the legacy of the prominent physicist and Nobel Prize winning human rights a ...

in a series "Remembering GULAG") A very calm and silent woman, she loved reading and collecting books. Sariya never finished school, but was self-educated and well read, and knew several languages. During their married life, she and Nestor often visited

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

to attend official events. High-ranking members of the Party and the Government frequently visited their home in Abkhazia during vacations. She was friends with the second wife of

Joseph 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 Secreta ...

Nadezhda Alliluyeva Nadezhda Sergeyevna Alliluyeva (russian: link=no, Надежда Сергеевна Аллилуева; – 9 November 1932) was the second wife of Joseph Stalin. She was born in Baku to a friend of Stalin, a fellow revolutionary, and was ra ...

, who once gave her a

handgun A handgun is a short- barrelled gun, typically a firearm, that is designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun (i.e. rifle, shotgun or machine gun, etc.), which needs to be held by both hands and also braced ...

as a present. Stalin also liked her. Sariya was arrested soon after Nestor's death in 1939, and was imprisoned in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

. 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. ...

tortured her every evening and beat her severely in order to have her sign a statement against Lakoba and denounce him as an enemy of the

Soviet Union 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 national ...

. Her reply each time was, "I will not defame the memory of my husband", so their son Rauf, aged 14, was arrested, brought to the jail where his mother was held, threatened with death if she did not testify, and beaten in front of her. Sariya repeated refusals to confess angered the NKVD agents, and she finally died in her cell after a night of torture. Rauf was sent to a

labour camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...

, and was eventually shot in a Sukhumi prison on 28 July 1941.

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