Solomon Grigorevich Mogilevsky (russian: Соломо́н Григо́рьевич Могиле́вский; 1885 – March 22, 1925) headed the

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, ...

foreign intelligence service, the ''INO'' of the

GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobil ...

, from 1921 until May 1922. He was then sent to head the GPU in the

South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

region, where he was involved in the suppression of the 1924

August Uprising The August Uprising ( ka, აგვისტოს აჯანყება, tr) was an unsuccessful insurrection against Soviet rule in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic from late August to early September 1924. Aimed at restoring the in ...

in the

Georgian SSR The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (Georgian SSR; ka, საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა, tr; russian: Грузинская Советская Соц� ...

. He died in a plane crash near

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

(Tbilisi) in unclear circumstances.

Biography

Mogilevsky was born to

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

parents in

Pavlograd Pavlohrad (, ; , ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in central east Ukraine, located within the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. It serves as the administrative center of Pavlohrad Raion. Its population i ...

. In 1903 he joined the

RSDRP 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 ...

and was arrested in 1904. In 1906 he left

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

for

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

where he met

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

, who recommended him to be admitted into Bolshevik section of the party. At the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he returned to Russia and was a soldier on the front. Mogilevsky participated in the 1917

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

. During the Russian Civil War he was appointed to various positions in the

. Since May 1922 Mogilevsky headed the Caucausian GPU and was responsible for intelligence in Iran and Turkey. He participated in the quelling of the August Uprising in the Georgian SSR. Mogilevsky was decorated with the

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner (russian: Орден Красного Знамени, Orden Krasnogo Znameni) was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of th ...

in 1924 for his outstanding activities in the suppression of the uprising.

Death

Mogilevsky died in a plane crash in 1925 headed to a conference in

Sukhumi Sukhumi (russian: Суху́м(и), ) or Sokhumi ( ka, სოხუმი, ), also known by its Abkhaz name Aqwa ( ab, Аҟәа, ''Aqwa''), is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the capital and largest city of ...

. The plane, which also carried two other high-ranking Soviet security officials (

Georgi Atarbekov Georgiy Aleksandrovich Atarbekov (russian: Георгий Александрович Атарбеков; born Atarbekyan; March 2, 1891 – March 22, 1925) was an Armenian Bolshevik and Soviet security police official. Biography Atarbekov was bo ...

and

Aleksandr Myasnikyan Alexander Fyodori Miasnikian or Myasnikov; russian: Алекса́ндр Фёдорович Мяснико́в. Also spelled Myasnikyan. His patronymic is variously given as Asatur, Astvatsatur, Fyodor and Bogdan. (28 January February1886 – ...

), blew up in mid-air not far from Tiflis. The cause of the crash was never determined, despite the fact that three separate commissions later investigated the incident. There has always been a strong suspicion that the young

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

airman Ambako Sagaradze, who was piloting the plane, crashed deliberately, killing himself and his passengers. Another version linked

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 ...

and

Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ; – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik ...

with Mogilevsky's death. Some alleged Beria arranged the catastrophe on Stalin's behalf. Others suspected Beria had his own motives for doing so and wanted to get rid of Mogilevsky in order to secure a succession to his post.Knight, Amy W. (1993), ''Beria: Stalin's First Lieutenant'', p. 35.

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial su ...

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mogilevsky, Solomon 1885 births 1925 deaths Russian military personnel of World War I NKVD officers Jews from the Russian Empire Soviet Jews Jewish socialists Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the Soviet Union Old Bolsheviks