Soviet Comrade Chief Executioner

[Chuck In Oregon]

This seems a modest enough group by any standards. Only when its documents tell us the story does this group become interesting. Fascinating, even.

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[Chuck In Oregon]

Here is militia officer Dundua?s 1948 attestation of promotion to Polkovnik, or U.S. full colonel equivalent. Note that they were still thriftily using the old NKGB form!

This top secret attestation was issued under the authority of the Okhrana MGB Administration of the Ordjonikidze Railway, by the Deputy Director of the Department of Crime Prevention.

It tells us that David Semenovich Dundua was a Georgian born in 1905, he served in the RKKA from 1927-1929 and entered the Cheka in 1930. It goes on to say that he was awarded a Red Star, a Badge of Honor, a Medal for Military Service (aka Combat Service), a Medal for the Defense of the Caucasus and a Medal for Victory over Germany. Those are the ones you see in the first picture.

The first endorsement, by Transport General-Major Samigin, states:

?Comrade Dundua D. C. is an old chekist of the transport organ of the NKVD/MGB. In his time working in that organ he gained significant experience as a secret agent and military investigator.

In the period of the Great Patriotic War he consistently advanced as an official. Politically mature. Morally stable.?

The next endorsement, by Transport General-Lieutenant Vadis, simply agrees to the promotion. Lukewarm, but likely simply a formality.

It is in the last paragraph on the back where things get more interesting. It is the actual awarding of the rank and assignment, done by Senior Inspector of the 5th Department UK MGB SSSR, Lt. Col. Maremyanov. He writes:

?Awarded the military rank of Colonel, appointed to the post of chief executive of the special department under the administrative command of the MGB GSSR (Georgian SSR).?

So, what was the special department? According to my friends in Georgia, it was the MGB department charged with rounding up and executing political and other criminals.

[Chuck In Oregon]

And how do we know that these are really his awards?

This last document is the 1951 receipt from the Georgian MGB for the medals and side-arms of Col. Dundua, turned in upon his death. It is signed both by A. K. Gukasov for the MGB and by E. P. Dundua, the colonel?s widow, who also signed that she received a copy.

The sidearms are identified as ?Nagan? revolver s/n VP 2476 and Parabellum pistol s/n 6532.

The awards are described as Red Star No. 721391, Badge of Honor No. 88532, Military Service No. 590039 and un-numbered medals for the Defense of the Caucasus and for Victory over Germany. These are the awards in the first picture.

So, why does this receipt exist? Why didn?t his family get to keep his modest group of awards? Again according to my friend in Georgia, it was because this existence of this department, as well as the name of its chief, was a state secret and no record of him was to be made available after his death.

I do not know the details of his early (age 46) death. It is not quite concurrent with Beria?s bigger purges, but Dundua was likely to have at least been known by Beria. This must have been both a physically and politically hazardous job that didn?t lend itself to a normal retirement.

This group languished in MGB/KGB files in Georgia until after independence when they became available by some means. Whether they were given back to the family or stolen when the KGB archives were ransacked or simply lifted by an unpaid employee somewhere along the line, I can?t say.

I hope you enjoy this interesting little group. As always, I welcome better translations and interpretations than my own. There you go, Rick.

Edited January 29, 2006 by Chuck In Oregon

[Guest Rick Research]

Actually, I think the Colonel died of a case of "accelerated lead poisoning."

A purge throughout the MGB began at the new year, 1951. First to go were Beria associates at the top, then in Georgia. PARTY loyalists suddenly turned up everywhere in top police/security positions.

The so-called "Mingrelian conspiracy" rolled into the "Jewish doctors conspiracy" and was chugging along working up to 1937 madness again when Stalin was allowed to die by his bodyguards in 1953.

[Chuck In Oregon]

Actually, I think the Colonel died of a case of "accelerated lead poisoning."

A purge throughout the MGB began at the new year, 1951. First to go were Beria associates at the top, then in Georgia. PARTY loyalists suddenly turned up everywhere in top police/security positions.

The so-called "Mingrelian conspiracy" rolled into the "Jewish doctors conspiracy" and was chugging along working up to 1937 madness again when Stalin was allowed to die by his bodyguards in 1953.

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I can certainly buy into that likelihood. I doubt we'll ever know, but it's more probable than, say, a traffic accident. I don't think that most of those guys' families got receipts for their personal effects, but to give one in this case might also intentionally further cloud the record. They were devious and deadly rascals.

[Guest Rick Research]

I went over to Steen Ammentorp's WW2 generals site and found this on Lieutenant General of State Security Aleksandr Anatolievich VADIS (1906-1968)--

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Sooooo.... "retired" in 1951 immediately after his "promotion".... hmmmm.

D.S. Samygin is listed as a wartime NKVD Major General without details posted... yet.

[Stogieman]

Interesting group and documents. unresearchable would be my guess given the "occupation".

Very nice Chuck

[Chuck In Oregon]

Nice piece of collateral research, RR. I certainly didn't think of doing that. So Vadis retired and Dundua died, both in 1951. Verrry interesting. I'll be interested in whether you find out some more about General Samygin.

Thank you, stogieman. I have picked up some unusual things in the last few years and this is one of the most interesting. At least, it is to me. I have a bunch of oddball NKVD (and other) documents. I'll have to start a thread with them one of these days.

Translation note: Where I wrote "chief executive" might be better read as, in this context, "chief law enforcement officer". It's not clear to me, but I think the context changes the meaning from simply "executive".

[Steen Ammentorp]

D.S. Samygin is listed as a wartime NKVD Major General without details posted... yet.

So far I have been unable to find much on this guy besides his full name Dmitrii Semenovich Samygin and that he was promoted to Major-General on the 9th July 1945.

Kind Regards

Steen Ammentorp

The Generals of World War II

[Guest Rick Research]

Oddly enough, I have here today for translating and cataloging a VERY nasty Georgian prisons police group--

MMM June 1951 and NOT for long service. I think THIS guy probably "entertained" your Colonel before they needed to wash his cell at Prison Number 1 out.

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Remember THIS guy, Chuck?

[Chuck In Oregon]

Is that from the NKVD group that came out of the village down near Armenia? If so, you may very well be correct.

If I recall correctly -- more and more of a challenge these days -- the main political prison, the one where they carried out the executions, was in Tbilisi. The main super-max for other criminals was in Rustavi. And, of course, there were many other prisons, including some that held German POWs long after the USSR said that the survivors had all been repatriated.

May I go off topic? Rustavi is interesting, in a macabre sort of way. It was built on Stalin's whim. What do you do with a big piece of land that has a small town on it but no a) iron, b) coal, c) industry, d) major transportation or shipping facilities, and e) no skilled workers? Why, you build a major steel center and damn the economics! Economics are for capitalists. You can still see the abandoned giant steel mills with their huge smokestacks, reminders of days gone by. Turns out that economics applied to communists, too, but who was going to tell Stalin that? Even a Ukrainian peasant-turned-General-Secretary knew that.

The most recent ex-warden of the Rustavi prison is now head of ... are you ready for this? The Georgian National Ballet Company. No, really. I'm not clever enough to make up things like that.

Chuck

[Stogieman]

Hi Chuck, yes, that's the one. Rick's translating/cataloguing. Did they ever make steel at that factory?? Or did they just build it and wonder?

[Chuck In Oregon]

Hi Chuck, yes, that's the one. Rick's translating/cataloguing. Did they ever make steel at that factory?? Or did they just build it and wonder?

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It wasn't just a factory, it was a steel center. Think Pittsburgh or Gary. Oh yes, they made a lot of steel there. It wouldn't do to disappoint the Man of Steel, don'cha know? However, it was hugely expensive and often of poor quality. Since steel is as much a commodity as anything else, the competition made them ... make lots more and store it! No kidding. It was a boondoggle of enormous proportions.

And oh, yeah, Rustavi didn't have any power, either. Still doesn't, for that matter.

Chuck

[Chuck In Oregon]

As slow on the uptake as ever, I just realized that General Vadis had the same job in 1941 for the 26th Army, then later on various fronts, that Dundua had for Georgia in 1948. That is, assuming that department and section are equivalent translations of the same word. I guess Dundua's timing wasn't quite as good. Special department, indeed.

Chuck

[Stogieman]

Interesting. The inefficiemcy of a centrally-dictated systenm can be astounding at times. Considering how many things the Soviets did well, there's just so much they did not. To quote Tom Clancy "Marxism-Leninism cannot dictate the weather"...