Jānis Kalnbērziņš

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Jānis Kalnbērziņš ( Russian Ян Эдуа́рдович Калнбе́рзинь (Калнберзиньш), Jan Eduardowitsch Kalnbersin (Kalnbersinsch) * September 17, 1893 in Katlakalns , Russian Empire , † February 4, 1986 was a Latvian communist in Riga . From 1940 to 1959 he was First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Latvian Communist Party .

biography

Jānis Kalnbērziņš was born in the Katlakalns municipality south of Riga . Since 1917 a member of the Bolshevik Party, he was used in the Russian Civil War in fighting in Latvia and later southern Russia as part of the Red Latvian Riflemen . In the Soviet Union he made a career in the party and was represented in the Communist International in 1935 .

Several times he was sent to the Republic of Latvia as an underground agent for the LKP, which was banned there . His wife was arrested in 1937 during the Latvian operation of the NKVD and the children were sent to orphanages. Kalnbērziņš probably survived because he did not obey an order to return to the Soviet Union while abroad and was sentenced to a lengthy prison term in Riga in 1939.

After the occupation of Latvia in 1940, Kalnbērziņš was released from prison and made General Secretary of the Central Committee of the LKP. In this capacity he was one of the main people responsible for the Stalinist mass repression, deportations and shootings of his compatriots. In the German-Soviet war Kalnbērziņš was active as a political commissar on the Northwest Front of the Red Army . In 1944 he was able to return to his party post and was in fact the most powerful man in the territory of the Latvian SSR . In 1959 he was assigned the post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR, which he held until his retirement in 1970. The deportation to this less important post was tantamount to a sideline in the course of the purges of so-called national Bolsheviks. In the following times, key positions in the party and administration were largely filled with ethnic Russians, and immigration increased.

Web links

literature

  • Romuald J. Misiunas, Rein Taagepera: The Baltic States: Years of Dependence, 1940-80 , ISBN 978-052-0046-252 .
  • Jānis Kalnbērziņš: Atmiņas Liesma, Rīga 1983.
  • Janis Liepiņš: Es sadarbojos ar KGB un CIP dubultaģentu Imantu Lešinski Riga 2003, ISBN 9984-9685-0-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Latvian Commission of Historians: 'OKUPĀCIJAS REŽĪMI BALTIJAS VALSTĪS 1940 - 1991', Riga 2009, ISBN 978-9984-824-15-4 , page 28 (The wife was killed or shot while in custody, Kalnbērziņš's post-Stalinist efforts anonymously in an orphanage Finding children interned at Voronezh is said to have been in vain, see also Liepiņš page 148)
  2. ↑ Janis Liepiņš: It sadarbojos ar KGB un CIP dubultaģentu Imantu Lesinski page 148
personal data
SURNAME Kalnbērziņš, Jānis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Калнбе́рзинь, Ян Эдуа́рдович; Kalnbersin, Jan Eduardowitsch
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Latvian communist politician
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Katlakalns
DATE OF DEATH 4th February 1986
Place of death Riga