Vasiliy Nikolayevich Mantsev (; 5 March 1889 – 19 August 1938) was a Russian revolutionary and high-ranking official of the

Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə, links=yes), ...

Early career

Mantsev was born in Moscow into a large family of

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists ( Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

. His father was an office worker. He studied law at

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

, but did not graduate. He was active in the

1905 Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...

, joining the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

faction of the

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP) or the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDP), was a socialist political party founded in 1898 in Minsk, Russian Empire. The ...

in 1906. After several arrests he was sent into internal exile, but in 1911 he escaped from

Vladimir Vladimir (, , pre-1918 orthography: ) is a masculine given name of Slavic origin, widespread throughout all Slavic nations in different forms and spellings. The earliest record of a person with the name is Vladimir of Bulgaria (). Etymology ...

to France, and was a pupil at the school for revolutionaries that

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

had set up in

Longjumeau Longjumeau () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne department, France. It is located south from the Kilometre Zero, center of Paris. Inhabitants of Longjumeau are known as ''Longjumellois'' () in French. History Longjumeau Party Sch ...

. He returned to Moscow illegally in 1913, and was again arrested and exiled to

Vologda Oblast Vologda Oblast (, ; ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is Vologda. The oblast has a population of 1,202,444 (Russian Census (2010), 2010 Census). The largest city is Cherepovets, t ...

. In 1916, he was called up for the Imperial Army.

Career from 1917

At the time of the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

, Mantsev's infantry regiment was based in

Rostov Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

, in

Yaroslavl Yaroslavl (; , ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. ...

province where he was elected to the Rostov Soviet. During 1917 he returned to Moscow, where he played a prominent role in the Bolshevik seizure of power as a member of the regional bureau of the

Moscow Soviet The Moscow City Council () in short Mossoviet (), an abbreviation of Moscow Soviet (), was established following the February Revolution . Initially it was a parallel, shadow city administration of Moscow, Russia run by left-wing parties. Follow ...

. He was also member, and briefly secretary of the Moscow bureau of the Bolshevik party, which became the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) or RCP(b). During the controversy over the

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Soviet Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria), by which Russia withdrew from World War I. The treaty, whi ...

, Mantsev supported the Left Communists, led by

Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (; rus, Николай Иванович Бухарин, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ bʊˈxarʲɪn; – 15 March 1938) was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and Marxist theorist. A prominent Bolshevik ...

who opposed the treaty and advocated continuing the war with Germany. He joined the Cheka September in 1918, where he headed the investigations department. He was also vice-chairman of the Moscow Cheka. In 1920, he was transferred to

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

which was then the capital of Ukraine as Chairman of the Ukraine Cheka. In 1921, Mantsev received instructions from Lenin to deal with the Popular Socialist economist

Alexey Peshekhonov Alexey Vasilyevich Peshekhonov (; February 2, 1867 ld Style and New Style dates, O.S. January 21– April 3, 1933) was a Russian economist, publicist, and statistician. He was a member of the Russian Russian Provisional Government, provisional ...

who was working for the

People's Commissariat for Agriculture People's, branded as ''People's ViennaLine'' until May 2018, and legally ''Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH'', is an Austro-Swiss airline headquartered in Vienna, Austria. It operates scheduled and charter passenger flights mainly from its base at St. ...

. Mantsev's instructions were to spy on Peshekhonov, to list and spy on his associates, ensure that Peshekhonov resigned from the Ukrainian Central Committee and that he return to Moscow. From March 1922, Mantsev was People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. From 1923 to 1924 he was a member of the Central Control Commission of the RCP (b). From August 1923, a member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of the Workers 'and Peasants' Inspection of the USSR. Since October 1923, a member of the board of the GPU (

OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate ( rus, Объединённое государственное политическое управление, p=ɐbjɪdʲɪˈnʲɵn(ː)əjə ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əjə pəlʲɪˈtʲitɕɪskəjə ʊprɐˈv ...

). From 1924 to 1936 he was the head of the Economic Planning Department of the Supreme Economic Council, the Deputy People's Commissar of Finance of the USSR. In 1936–37, he was deputy chairman of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR.

Arrest and death

Mantsev was arrested during the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

on 22 October 1937. On 7 March 1938 he was called as a witness at the third and largest of the Moscow trials, and made to testify that in 1918 Bukharin and the Left Communists had plotted to overthrow the soviet government and kill Lenin,

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

and

Yakov Sverdlov Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov ( – 16 March 1919) was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. A key Bolshevik organizer of the October Revolution of 1917, Sverdlov served as chairman of the Secretariat of the Russian Communist Party from ...

- an accusation that the communist authorities acknowledged to have been false, after Stalin's death. Mantsev was sentenced to death on 28 July, and executed on 19 August 1938. He was rehabilitated in 1956.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mantsev, Vasiliy 1889 births 1939 deaths Military personnel from Moscow Members of the Central Committee of the 13th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Members of the Central Committee of the 15th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Members of the Central Committee of the 16th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Republican Cheka (Ukraine) chairmen Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Bolsheviks Cheka officers Soviet interior ministers of Ukraine Soviet rehabilitations