Terenty Dmitrievich Deribas (russian: Терентий Дмитриевич Дерибас; 28 March 1883 – 28 July 1938) was a Russian revolutionary, Chekist and later a 1st rank State Security Commissioner 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. ...

. Deribas was born in the village of Uspenskoe,

Kherson Governorate The Kherson Governorate (1802–1922; russian: Херсонская губерния, translit.: ''Khersonskaya guberniya''; uk, Херсонська губернія, translit=Khersonska huberniia), was an administrative territorial unit (als ...

in to a prosperous

Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

family. He joined the Bolshevik Party in 1904. In November 1918, Deribas joined the Cheka and 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 ...

, and was chief of the political department of several divisions. He took part in suppression of counter-revolutionary uprisings, including those of Kronstadt and Tambov. In 1929, Deribas was transferred as a representative of the

OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU; russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление) was the intelligence and state security service and secret police of the Soviet Union f ...

to the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

, where he led a massive repression. In 1931, he became a member of the board of the NKVD. 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 ...

, when the new head of the NKVD

Nikolai Yezhov Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov ( rus, Никола́й Ива́нович Ежо́в, p=nʲɪkɐˈɫaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪt͡ɕ (j)ɪˈʐof; 1 May 1895 – 4 February 1940) was a Soviet secret police official under Joseph Stalin who was head of the N ...

was systematically removing officers associated with his predecessor,

Genrikh Yagoda Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda ( rus, Ге́нрих Григо́рьевич Яго́да, Genrikh Grigor'yevich Yagoda, born Yenokh Gershevich Iyeguda; 7 November 1891 – 15 March 1938) was a Soviet secret police official who served as director ...

, the

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...

issued an order on 8 May 1937, recalling Deribas to Moscow, and appointing Vsevolod Balitsky as his replacement, but in June Balitsky was dismissed and Deribas was temporarily reinstated, until

Genrikh Lyushkov Genrikh Samoilovich Lyushkov (russian: link=no, Генрих Самойлович Люшков; 1900 – 19 August 1945) was an officer in the Soviet secret police and its highest-ranking defector. A high-ranking officer of the NKVD, he pla ...

arrived to replace him on 31 July 1937. Deribas was then under orders to report to Moscow, but delayed his departure, at the same time trying to avoid meeting Lyushkov, who sent a telegram to Yezhov complaining that Deribas's behaviour was "suspicious", and that he had been named as a member of a secret 'right Trotskyite' organisation. On 11 August, Yezhov forwarded the telegram to Stalin, who wrote a note saying "Deribas will have to be arrested", which was endorsed by Molotov and Voroshilov. Deribas was arrested the following day, (12 August 1937), and sentenced to death on 28 July 1938, and executed by shooting on the same day, at the firing range

Kommunarka Kommunarka is an urban-type settlement (posyolok) in Sosenskoye Settlement, Novomoskovsky Administrative Okrug, Moscow, Russia. The Kommunarka (Sokolnicheskaya line) station opened in 2019. History A mass burial site of the late 1930s, known as ...

. He was posthumously rehabilitated on 31 December 1957.

References

*''The information in this article is partially based on that in its Russian equivalent''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Deribas, Terenty 1883 births 1938 deaths Cheka officers People from Kirovohrad Oblast Old Bolsheviks Candidates of the Central Committee of the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Cheka Commissars 1st Class of State Security Executed Russian people Russian people executed by the Soviet Union Great Purge victims from Russia Soviet rehabilitations Ukrainian people of Spanish descent NKVD officers Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members