Boris Kumm

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Boris Kumm (* August 20 . Jul / 1. September  1897 greg. In Pärnu , †  21st November 1958 in Tallinn ) was a communist Estonian politicians. He is considered to be one of the main culprits of the Stalinist terror in Estonia in the 1940s.

Life

After graduating from school in 1911, Boris Kumm managed to do various odd jobs. In 1919 he took part in the Estonian War of Independence against Soviet Russia . In 1923 Kumm joined the Communist Party of Estonia ( Estonian Eestimaa Kommunistlik Party ). In the same year he was elected as a member of the Estonian Parliament ( Riigikogu ).

On December 1, 1924, Kumm took part in the violent attempted communist coup of December 1, 1924 against the Estonian government, which however collapsed on the same day. Kumm was then arrested by the Estonian authorities and sentenced to 15 years of forced labor. Kumm was imprisoned until 1938 and was only released through an amnesty by the then Estonian President Konstantin Päts .

With the Soviet occupation of Estonia in the summer of 1940, Kumm became one of the country's leading politicians. From August 1940 to March 1941, as People's Commissar for Internal Affairs of the Estonian SSR, he was responsible for the local security organs. In 1941 Kumm was appointed People's Commissar for State Security of the Estonian SSR.

In the same year German troops occupied the Baltic States . Kumm had to flee to the Soviet Union. In Moscow he worked in the People's Commissariat for State Security of the USSR (NKVD). In 1944 Kumm returned with the reconquest of Estonia by the Red Army and was reinstated in his former post. In 1945 he was appointed major general. From 1946 he held the title of Minister for State Security. From 1941 to 1950, Kumm was also a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. From 1940 to 1951 he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia and from 1940 to 1950 a member of the Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia.

During the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Kumm was responsible for the Stalinist terrorist measures against the Estonian population as well as for the violent enforcement of the forced collectivization and political conformity. He acted ruthlessly against alleged opponents of the new Soviet rulers, anti-communists and members of the former Estonian ruling class. Kumm is considered to be the main organizer of the two large deportation campaigns against the Estonian population in June 1941 and March 1949. In the last wave of deportations alone, around 3% of the Estonian population were deported to the inner areas of the Soviet Union.

In 1950, Kumm was largely disempowered and lost control of the security apparatus. Until 1952 he was still first deputy minister for local government, before he largely withdrew from active politics. Six years later he died in Tallinn.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspx?logid=5&id=69A618F8-71CE-46F1-AA6F-737D7BB11DE5
  2. ↑ Eesti Elulood. Tallinn: Eesti Entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti Entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , p. 195
personal data
SURNAME Kumm, Boris
BRIEF DESCRIPTION communist Estonian politician
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Parnu
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 1958
Place of death Tallinn