Israel Pliner (russian: Израиль Израилевич Плинер, Izrail Izrailevich Pliner) (22 January 1896 – 14 November 1938) 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, ...

officer and high functionary of the Soviet secret police. Notable posts include deputy chief 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 State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...

from 1935 to 1937 and chief administrator of the Gulag from 16 August 1937 to 16 November 1938.

Early life

Pliner was born in the

Vilna Governorate The Vilna Governorate (1795–1915; also known as Lithuania-Vilnius Governorate from 1801 until 1840; russian: Виленская губерния, ''Vilenskaya guberniya'', lt, Vilniaus gubernija, pl, gubernia wileńska) or Government of V ...

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 ...

. His parents were Jewish.

Career

He joined the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

in 1919 and the Russian Communist Party (b) in 1922. Pilner was one of the main collaborators of

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 ...

, head of 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. ...

in the years 1936–1938, and collaborator of other organizers of 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 Secreta ...

. On August 16, 1937, he became the head of the board of the labor camps GULAG NKVD, five days after the beginning of the Polish Operation of the NKVD. According to NKVD documents, 139,835 Poles who were citizens 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 nationa ...

were convicted in 1937. Of this number, 111,091 Poles were directly killed, and 28,744 Poles were sent to

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

camps. In 1937, Pilner directed the deportation of 172,000 Korean citizens of the USSR from the Soviet Far East to the Central Asian Soviet Socialist Republics of

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

and

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

. He was arrested on charges of

counter-revolutionary A counter-revolutionary or an anti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists a revolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part. The adjective "counter-revolu ...

activities in 1938 and executed in 1939"Плинер Израиль Израилевич"
at hrono.ru, citing books: *Залесский К.А. Империя Сталина. Биографический энциклопедический словарь. Москва, Вече, 2000 *В. Абрамов. Евреи в КГБ. Палачи и жертвы. М., Яуза - Эксмо, 2005. at the NKVD's Kommunarka shooting ground.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pliner, Israel 1896 births 1939 deaths Russian Jews Jewish socialists NKVD officers Gulag governors Great Purge perpetrators Great Purge victims from Russia Jews executed by the Soviet Union People executed for treason against the Soviet Union Deaths by firearm in Russia Soviet rehabilitations