Ivan Fedorovich Nikishov (also Nikishev) (russian: Иван Фёдорович Никишов; 1894 – August 5, 1956) was a Soviet

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. ...

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

and director of

Dalstroy Dalstroy (russian: Дальстро́й, ), also known as Far North Construction Trust, was an organization set up in 1931 in order to manage road construction and the mining of gold in the Russian Far East, including the Magadan Region, Chukotka, ...

Biography

Nikishov was born in 1894 the son of a peasant in Varkino, in the

Saratov Governorate Saratov Governorate (russian: link=no, Саратовская губе́рния, ''Saratovskaya guberniya'', Government of Saratov), was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian Socialist Federative Sovi ...

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. ...

(now

Volgograd Oblast Volgograd Oblast (russian: Волгогра́дская о́бласть, ''Volgogradskaya oblast'') is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the Volga region of Southern Russia. Its administrative center is Volgograd. The populat ...

). He joined the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

in 1919. He entered a career in the

and became its head for

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

in 1937, where he directed the

purges In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...

. In 1938 and 1939 he was the head of the NKVD at Khabarovsk.Ukraine 33 list of Soviet Communists
/ref> In 1940 Nikishov was appointed director of the

organization. At Magadan he divorced his wife and married the commandant of the women's camp, Alexandra Gridassova (rus.). The couple established a life of luxury in the

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

n wilderness replete with servants, cooks, chauffeurs, and a cultural brigade for entertainment. Nikishov increased the gold production from the Kolyma mines. His difficulties in securing supplies for his operation were solved when the Lend-Lease program went into effect; he could divert cargo delivered to Magadan for services in the Gulag. Ships of the Dalstroy fleet were sent to the United States for overhaul and repair for their duty to transport prisoners to the Gulag. In 1944, Nikishov and NKVD general Goglidze were successful in presenting to the impressionable Henry A. Wallace, the American Vice President, a sanitized version of the Dalstroy enterprise. On 20 January 1944, he was awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labour for increasing the production of raw materials in Dalstroy.Указ Президиума Верховного Совета СССР «О присвоении звания Героя Социалистического Труда работникам Дальстроя НКВД» от 2о января 1944 года
// Ведомости Верховного Совета Союза Советских Социалистических Республик : газета. — 1944. — 3 февраля (№ 6 (266)). — С. 1 Investigations for abuse of state funds and debauchery were initiated and he retired in 1948. He died in his bath in 1956. Nikishov was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1939 to 1952.

Awards

Hero of Socialist Labor The Hero of Socialist Labour (russian: links=no, Герой Социалистического Труда, Geroy Sotsialisticheskogo Truda) was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It repre ...

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration ...

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour (russian: Орден Трудового Красного Знамени, translit=Orden Trudovogo Krasnogo Znameni) was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to th ...

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nikishov, Ivan Fedorovich 1894 births 1956 deaths People from Volgograd Oblast People from Tsaritsynsky Uyezd Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union candidate members Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Soviet lieutenant generals Commissars 3rd Class of State Security Gulag Russian military personnel of World War I Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of Kutuzov, 1st class