Vlodzimersky, Lev (1903–1953) joined the local OGPU branch in the town of Zheleznovodsk in 1928. In Moscow from 1937. Deputy and then head of the Investigation Department of the Main Economic Directorate within the NKVD (1939–1940), first deputy of the Third Department of the NKVD Main State Security Directorate (1940–1941), head of the NKGB Investigation Department (1941) and the NKVD Department for Investigation of Especially Important Cases (OVD) (1941–1943). In 1946–1947, in the city of Gorky, and from 1947 until March 1953, in Germany under Vsevolod Merkulov. Head of the OVD Department within the new MVD (March–June 1953). Arrested on July 17, 1953, tried and shot on December 23, 1953, along with Beria and others. Not rehabilitated (Petrov and Skorkin, Kto rukovodil NKVD, p. 132).
Volf, Moisei (1880–1933), economist. Head of the Agricultural Section of the State Planning Committee (Gosplan) (late 1920s–1933). Arrested in March of 1933 together with the other 34 agricultural specialists. Accused of trying “to create a condition of famine in the country.” Condemned to death and shot (Joravsky, The Lysenko Affair, p. 73).
Vovsi, Miron (or Meyer) (1897–1956), physician and Solomon Mikhoels’s cousin. In 1937, among those doctors who denounced Dr. Dmitrii Pletnev. During World War II, the Red Army’s chief physician. After World War II, professor at the Central Institute for Advanced Medicine. In 1952–1953, accused of playing the leading role in the Doctors’ Plot. In April 1953, released. Died of consequences of injuries obtained during brutal interrogations.
Vyshinsky, Andrei (1883–1954), prosecutor. A Menshevik from 1903, then a Bolshevik (1920). In 1918, joined the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Professor (the 1920s) and rector of Moscow University (1925–1931). The RSFSR (i.e., Russian Republic) prosecutor (1931–1935), then Soviet general prosecutor (1935–1949). Organizer of show trials of the 1930s. Academician (1939). Member of the Central Committee (1939–1954), foreign minister (1949–1953), Soviet ambassador to the United Nations (1953–1954).
Yagoda, Genrikh (or Yenokh) (1891–1938) joined the Social Democratic movement in 1904. From 1911 to 1912, arrested several times and in 1912 exiled to the city of Simbirsk in Siberia. Returned to Petrograd in 1913 and married a niece of Yakov Sverdlov, Ida Averbach. At the front (1914–1917). During the Bolshevik Revolution, a member of the Petrograd Bolshevik Military Organization. Joined the CheKa in 1919. NKVD commissar (1934–1936). Demoted to commissar of communication. Arrested on April 3, 1937, tried and condemned to death along with Bukharin and other defendants. Shot on March 15, 1938. Not rehabilitated (Petrov and Skorkin, Kto rukovodil NKVD, pp. 459–460).
Yakovlev, Yakov (1896–1938; pseudonym of Yakov Epstein), Party and state figure. Commissar of agriculture (1929–1934), head of the Agricultural Department of the Central Committee (1934–1937). Arrested on October 12, 1937 (together with Aleksandr Muralov). On July 29, 1938, condemned to death and shot. Rehabilitated in 1957 (Reznik, S., “Pravda i lozh’ o Vavilove i Lysenko” [The truth and lies about Vavilov and Lysenko], Voprosy Istorii Estestvoznaniya i Tekhniki 2 (1992): 62–78 (in Russian); Yeremina and Roginsky, Rasstrel’nye spiski, p. 465).
Yakovleva, Varvara (1884–1941?), Party figure. Joined the Bolshevik Party in 1904. In exile to Siberia in 1910 and 1913. Took part in the revolutions in Moscow in 1905 and 1917. In Moscow CheKa and a member of the VCheKa Presidium (1918), deputy chair, then chair of the Petrograd VCheKa (1918–1919), secretary of the Moscow Bureau of the Bolshevik Party (1920–1922). Thereafter, at different governmental and Party positions. Follower of Trotsky until 1926. In March 1938, a witness at the Bukharin show trial. Later arrested, tried, and died in a labor camp (Leggett, The CHEKA, p. 450; Conquest, The Great Terror, p. 134).
Yakushkin, Ivan (1885–1960), botanist. From 1932, head of the Plant Department at the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy. Member of the Agricultural Academy (1935). A secret informer of the NKVD/MGB. Was used as a head of the NKVD commission of experts that denounced Vavilov.
Yanshin, Aleksandr (1911–), geologist and geographer. Academician (1958). Vice president of the academy responsible for the Earth Sciences Division (1982–1988), director of the Institute of Lithosphere, president of Moscow Society of Naturalists, head of the Academy Scientific Council on the Problems of Biosphere (from 1982).
Yenukidze, Avel (1877–1937), Party and state figure, a personal friend of Stalin. Secretary of the Central Executive Committee and chair of the Politburo’s Commission on Assistance to the Work of the Academy of Sciences (1925–1929), a member of the Central Committee (1934–1935). Expelled from the Party in 1935 and demoted to a low-level job in the city of Kharkov. Arrested on February 11, 1937, sentenced to death on October 30, 1937, and shot the next day. Rehabilitated in 1959 (Tikhanova, Rasstrel’nye spiski, p. 150).
Yepishev, Aleksei (1908–1985), MGB and military figure. Deputy MGB minister for cadres (1951–1953), ambassador to Romania (1955–1960), then to Bulgaria (1960–1962), head of the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet army and navy (1962–1985) (Naumov and Sigachev, Lavrentii Beria, p. 442).
Zakovsky (Stubis), Leonid (or Genrikh) (1894–1938) joined the VCheKa in 1918, at different regional OGPU/NKVD branches. deputy NKVD commissar (January–April 1938). Arrested on April 30, 1938, tried and shot on August 29, 1938. Not rehabilitated (Petrov and Skorkin, Kto rukovodil NKVD, p. 199).
Zarubin, Vasilii (1894–1972) joined the VCheKa in 1921, sent to China. From the 1920s–1930s, in Germany, France, Denmark, and Switzerland. The NKVD/NKGB rezident in the United States under the alias “Zubilin” (1941–1944), played a key role in collecting information on the Manhattan Project. Recalled to Moscow to face a false accusation of working for the Germans. Deputy head of Foreign Intelligence (from 1944). In 1948, transferred to the reserve for health reasons (Voskresenskaya, Pod psevdonimom Irina, pp. 56–57, 259–266; Trubnikov, Ocherki, pp. 203–215; Haynes and Klehr, Venona, p. 394).
Zavenyagin, Avraamii (1901–1956), Party and state figure. Joined the Party in 1917. Director of a truck/car plant in the city of Dneprodzerzhinsk (1932–1933), of the Magnitogorsk Industrial Complex (1933–1937), deputy commissar of heavy industry (1937–1938), director of the Norilsk Industrial Complex and commandant of the labor camp for prisoners who built and worked at this plant (1938–1941), deputy Narkom/minister of the NKVD/MVD (1941–1951), deputy head of the First Main Directorate under the Council of Ministers, i.e., of the Soviet A-bomb project (1945–1953), deputy minister (1953–1955), and then minister of medium machine building, (i.e., of atomic energy) (1955–1956). Hero of Socialist Labor (1949, 1951) (Kokurin and Petrov, Lubyanka, p. 147).
Zbarsky, Boris (1885–1954), biochemist. Graduated from Geneva University and St. Petersburg University. Assisted in the organization of the Karpov Chemical Institute (1918) and the Bach Institute of Biochemistry (1920), acting director of both institutes until 1930. Joined the Communist Party in 1930. From 1933, chaired the Biochemistry Department of the Moscow First Medical Institute, and from 1939, head of the Laboratory on the Preservation of Lenin’s body. In 1937 was among those doctors who denounced Dr. Dmitri Pletnev. Arrested in February 1952 as an alleged member of the Doctors’ Plot. Released in December 1953. Died in October 1954 from a heart attack in the middle of a lecture.