Mezhlauk, Valery Ivanovich

Born in Kharkov in the family of Ivan Martinovich Mezhlauk (Meshlauk), a Latvian teacher and a German mother, who owned two apartment buildings on the current Olminsky street. Father, in the rank of state adviser before the revolution, was the director of the Novokhopersky male gymnasium and taught Latin there ^[2] .

Education

Graduated from Kharkov University

1914 - Faculty of History and Philology

1917 - Faculty of Law (external)

Biography

In 1913 - 1916 - Lecturer, Master of Kharkov University.

Since October 1916 - the volunteer Russian Army.

Since March 1917, a member, then Chairman of the Agitation Commission of the Kharkov Council. In October 1917, a member of the Kharkov Military Revolutionary Committee and the headquarters for the fight against counter-revolution.

In February-April 1918, the People's Commissar of Finance of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Republic , a member of the Donetsk Regional Committee of the RCP (B.) . When the Red Army left the territory of the republic, he evacuated valuables from the State Bank of Ukraine (Kharkov) to Moscow.

In May-June 1918, deputy chairman of the liquidation commission of Soviet troops in southern Russia. At the end of 1918 he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Councils (RVS) of 5 and 10 armies. In January-June 1919, the People's Commissar and Deputy People's Commissar for Military Affairs of Ukraine, later a member of the RCA of various armies. Since January 1920, a member of the PBC of the 2nd Labor Railway Army in Voronezh.

Since 1920, the commissioner of various railways. In 1921 - 1922 - Deputy Chief Commissar of the People's Commissariat of Railways of the USSR ( F.E. Dzerzhinsky ), commissar of the Central Railway Administration. In 1922 - 1924 - member of the Board, managing affairs of the People's Commissariat of Railways of the RSFSR - USSR. In 1924 - 1928 - member of the Presidium, in 1928-1931 deputy chairman of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR. At the same time, from 1924 he was deputy chairman, and from 1926 to 1928 he was chairman of the Glavmetal of the Supreme Economic Council.

From November 1931, First Deputy Chairman, from April 25, 1934 to February 25, 1937, and from October 17 to December 1, 1937, Chairman of the USSR State Planning Commission and Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR , and in 1934 - 37, also Deputy Chairman of the Council of Labor and Defense .

One of the main theorists and organizers of the system of Soviet planning and distribution, the author of the book "On planned work and measures to improve it." Under his leadership, industrialization was carried out in the USSR. ^[3]

Party and public life

In 1907 he joined the RSDLP . In June 1917, adopted by the RSDLP (b) .

In 1917, a deputy of the Kharkov Council.

Since 1927 a candidate member, since 1934 a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. At the XV Congress of the CPSU (b) , the XVI Congress of the CPSU (b) , the XVII Congress of the CPSU (b) was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). Member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR 4-7 convocations.

He participated ^[4] in the development of plans for the I, II, and III five-year plans ^[5] , in the creation and development of the production base of the aviation and tank industry.

Executive editor of the newspaper “ For Industrialization ”.

According to N. S. Khrushchev :

“Mezhlauk, a major economist and organizer. He headed the Gosplan. I believe that of the chairmen of the State Planning Commission he was the best after Kuibyshev ” ^[6] .

On the positive role of V. I. Mezhlauk in the fate of the library of Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, see S. Shumikhin “The strange fate of the library of Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum” .

Arrest, Accusation, and Death

He was accused of contacts with the German government, participation since 1925 in the “right” group and in the leadership of the Latvian counter-revolutionary underground. Withdrawn from the membership of the Central Committee of the CPSU (B.) By a survey.

On December 1, 1937, he was arrested (together with his wife Sofia Petrovna). Sentenced to death . Shot. The wife was exiled to Kolyma, where she died (mentioned in the camp memoirs of Eugenia Ginzburg ).

His brother, Ivan Mezhlauk , was arrested the day after his arrest, was also sentenced to death and shot. ^[7] Two weeks after the brothers were arrested, a third brother, Valentin Ivanovich , who supervised the construction of a power plant in the Rostov Region, was also arrested ^[8] . In 1956, both brothers were rehabilitated.

Another brother, Martyn (1895-1918), was shot by the White Guards after the capture of Kazan .

Wife Sofya Petrovna Mezhlauk was also arrested in December 1937 and transported along with other female prisoners to Kolyma on the steamer Dzhurma , as noted in the book The Steep Route by Evgenia Ginzburg . ^[9]

Daughter Alla (1920-1936) died in an accident: she fell under a train at the Kraskovo station.

Rewards

• The order of Lenin
• Order of the Red Banner

• Caricatures of Mezhlauka
• Biography on XPOHOC
• Biography on the site "Handbook on the history of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union 1898-1965"
• Project "Military Literature"
• S. Shumikhin “The strange fate of the library of Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum” (Site “Archives of Russia”)
• Caricatures of Mezhlauka on party and government figures