Fyodor Ivanovich Eichmans

The OGPU members Eduard Skaja (left) and Fjodor Eichmans (right), presumably on the island of Waigatsch (1930–1932)

Fyodor Iwanowitsch Eichmans ( Russian Фёдор (Теодорс) Иванович Эйхманс ; Latvian Teodors Eihmans ; * 1897 in Goldingen County , Kurland Governorate , today Latvia ; † September 3, 1938 in Butowo near Moscow) was a Soviet secret service employee .

biography

In 1916 he graduated from the Riga Polytechnic, evacuated to Russia, and joined the Latvian Riflemen . After being wounded, Eichmans ended his military service in 1917 and later became a member of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDLP). He joined the Cheka in Petrograd in 1918 . Through his technical and military education, he rose in the hierarchy of the Soviet secret police. Eichmans took part in Turkestan (today's states of Turkmenistan , Uzbekistan ) in the Russian Civil War and became an assistant to Gleb Boki (1879-1937). Since 1922 Eichmans received the post of head of the 2nd division of the Eastern Division of the GPU , whose main task was the fight against counter-revolutionary activities in Central Asia and the Middle East.

From November 13, 1925 to May 20, 1929 he replaced Alexander Nogtew as commandant of the " Solowezker Camp for Special Use " (SLON), which under his leadership was to become the prototype for all camps of the Gulag penal camp system that were later created . From April 25 to June 16, 1930 he was head of the ULag, a predecessor organization of the Gulag. A little later he led the Waigatsch expedition of the OGPU , which aimed to develop the zinc and lead deposits on the Arctic island of Waigatsch with the help of the forced labor of the Gulag prisoners. This activity occupied him until 1932. Then he returned to the headquarters of the OGPU . Eichmans was arrested on July 22, 1937 in the course of the Great Terror for alleged Trotskyist activity and shot in 1938. He was legally rehabilitated after Stalin's death on July 25, 1956.

Web links

• Biography (russian)

literature

• Volkhard Knigge , Irina Scherbakowa (Ed.) Gulag. Traces and evidence 1929–1956 . Wallstein, Göttingen, Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-8353-1050-6 .