Yakov Saulovich Agranov(real name - Yankel Shmaevich Sorenson; October 12, 1893, Chechersk, Mogilev province, now Gomel region - August 1, 1938, Kommunarka execution range) - employee of the Cheka - OGPU - NKVD, state security commissioner of the 1st rank (November 26, 1935), one of the organizers of mass repressions of the 1920s - 1930s.

Biography

In July 1934, after the creation of the NKVD of the USSR, G. Yagoda was appointed to the post of first deputy people's commissar of internal affairs of the USSR. In fact, he supervised the work of all operational departments of the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD of the USSR.

In December 1934, Agranov led the investigation into the murder of S. M. Kirov and was appointed temporary head of the NKVD Directorate of the Leningrad Region. Together with G. G. Yagoda and N. I. Ezhov, Agranov was one of the organizers of the trial of G. E. Zinoviev and L. B. Kamenev. Agranov prepared materials for the main political processes 1930s. At the same time, as historian O.V. Khlevnyuk notes, Agranov actually entered into a conspiracy against the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the NKVD Yagoda with Yezhov, since Yagoda gently sabotaged Stalin’s line of linking the murder of Kirov with the activities of former oppositionists. In 1936, Agranov reported at a meeting in the NKVD:

Yezhov called me to his dacha. It must be said that this meeting was of a conspiratorial nature. Yezhov conveyed Stalin’s instructions on the mistakes made by the investigation in the case of the Trotskyist center, and ordered measures to be taken to open the Trotskyist center, to reveal the clearly undisclosed terrorist gang and Trotsky’s personal role in this case. Yezhov posed the question in such a way that either he himself would convene an operational meeting, or I should intervene in this matter. Yezhov’s instructions were specific and provided the correct starting point for solving the case.

In December 1936 (actually in charge since December 1935) he was appointed head of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR. He took an active part in the preparation of the Second Moscow Trial, the investigation into the case of M. N. Ryutin and other members of the Ryutin opposition.

Yakov Saulovich Agranov was rehabilitated by a decision of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office dated January 22, 2013, but on August 27, 2013, the Supreme Court of Russia overturned this decision on rehabilitation.

His wife Valentina Aleksandrovna (before Kukhareva’s marriage), arrested at the same time as him, was sentenced to death on August 26, 1938 and executed on the same day. In 1957 she was completely rehabilitated.

Awards

Two Orders of the Red Banner (12/14/1927, 12/20/1932)
Badge “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU (XV)” (12/20/1932)

Memoirs of contemporaries

Under Dzerzhinsky, and under Stalin, the bloodiest investigator of the Cheka, Yakov Agranov, who was not connected with Russia, came from the Kingdom of Poland and became the executioner of the Russian intelligentsia. He killed many famous public figures and wonderful Russian scientists: Professor Tikhvinsky, Professor Volkov, Professor Lazarevsky, N.N. Shchepkin, Astrov brothers, K.K. Chernosvistov, N.A. Ogorodnikov and many others. He tortured Professor V.N. Tagantsev, who did not want to testify, by imprisoning him in a cork cell, and kept him there for 45 days, until, through torture and provocation, he obtained the necessary testimony. Agranov destroyed the flower of Russian science and the public, sending people to be shot for such faults as “convinced supporter of the democratic system” or “enemy of workers and peasants” (from the point of view of Agranov the killer). This same bloody nonentity is the actual killer of the wonderful Russian poet N.S. Gumilyov...

Yakov Agranov, wonderful person, a tough security officer. Previously, he worked in Lenin's Secretariat. Honest, calm, smart man. I really liked him. Then he was specially authorized to investigate, dealing with the case of the Industrial Party. It really was an investigator! He didn’t even raise his voice when talking, much less use torture. He was arrested and executed too.

Galina Serebryakova mentioned her meetings with investigator Agranov in her memoirs.

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Notes

Literature

Biographical encyclopedic dictionary. - M, Veche, 2000.
Great Russian Encyclopedia. T. 1. - M: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 2005. - P. 189.
// Petrov N.V., Skorkin K.V. / Memorial Association, etc.; Ed. N. G. Okhotin and A. B. Roginsky - M.: Links, 1999. - 504 p. - ISBN 5-7870-0032-3
Velidov A."Adventures of a terrorist. Odyssey of Yakov Blyumkin. - M.: Sovremennik, 1998.
Makarevich E. Yakov Agranov - a security officer who came to the intellectuals // Dialogue. - 2000. - No. 7. - P. 69-74.
Encyclopedia of Russian Secret Services / Compiled by A.I. Kolpakidi. - M.: AST, Astrel, Transitbook, 2004. - P. 420-421. - 800 s. - ISBN 5-17018975-3.

Analysis of achievement motivation in the process of professional and psychological personnel selection. Active revolutionary activity

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Excerpt characterizing Agranov, Yakov Saulovich

“Mister, let me ask you to leave the road,” he told him, “it’s not allowed here.”
The soldiers shook their heads disapprovingly, looking at Pierre. But when everyone was convinced that this man in a white hat not only did nothing wrong, but either sat quietly on the slope of the rampart, or with a timid smile, courteously avoiding the soldiers, walked along the battery under gunfire as calmly as along the boulevard, then little by little, the feeling of hostile bewilderment towards him began to turn into affectionate and playful sympathy, similar to that which soldiers have for their animals: dogs, roosters, goats and in general animals living with military teams. These soldiers immediately mentally accepted Pierre into their family, appropriated them and gave him a nickname. “Our master” they nicknamed him and laughed affectionately about him among themselves.
One cannonball exploded into the ground two steps away from Pierre. He, cleaning the soil sprinkled with the cannonball from his dress, looked around him with a smile.
- And why aren’t you afraid, master, really! - the red-faced, broad soldier turned to Pierre, baring his strong white teeth.
-Are you afraid? asked Pierre.
- How then? - answered the soldier. - After all, she will not have mercy. She will smack and her guts will be out. “You can’t help but be afraid,” he said, laughing.
Several soldiers with cheerful and affectionate faces stopped next to Pierre. It was as if they did not expect him to speak like everyone else, and this discovery delighted them.
- Our business is soldierly. But master, it’s so amazing. That's it master!
- To your places! - the young officer shouted at the soldiers gathered around Pierre. This young officer, apparently, was fulfilling his position for the first or second time and therefore treated both the soldiers and the commander with particular clarity and formality.
The rolling fire of cannons and rifles intensified throughout the entire field, especially to the left, where Bagration’s flashes were, but because of the smoke of the shots, it was impossible to see almost anything from the place where Pierre was. Moreover, observing the seemingly family (separated from all others) circle of people who were on the battery absorbed all of Pierre’s attention. His first unconscious joyful excitement, produced by the sight and sounds of the battlefield, was now replaced, especially after the sight of this lonely soldier lying in the meadow, by another feeling. Now sitting on the slope of the ditch, he observed the faces surrounding him.
By ten o'clock twenty people had already been carried away from the battery; two guns were broken, shells hit the battery more and more often, and long-range bullets flew in, buzzing and whistling. But the people who were at the battery did not seem to notice this; Cheerful talk and jokes were heard from all sides.
- Chinenka! - the soldier shouted at the approaching grenade flying with a whistle. - Not here! To the infantry! – another added with laughter, noticing that the grenade flew over and hit the covering ranks.
- What, friend? - another soldier laughed at the man who crouched under the flying cannonball.
Several soldiers gathered at the rampart, looking at what was happening ahead.
“And they took off the chain, you see, they went back,” they said, pointing across the shaft.
“Mind your job,” the old non-commissioned officer shouted at them. “We’ve gone back, so it’s time to go back.” - And the non-commissioned officer, taking one of the soldiers by the shoulder, pushed him with his knee. There was laughter.
- Roll towards the fifth gun! - they shouted from one side.
“At once, more amicably, in the burlatsky style,” the cheerful cries of those changing the gun were heard.
“Oh, I almost knocked off our master’s hat,” the red-faced joker laughed at Pierre, showing his teeth. “Eh, clumsy,” he added reproachfully to the cannonball that hit the wheel and the man’s leg.
- Come on, you foxes! - another laughed at the bending militiamen entering the battery behind the wounded man.
- Isn’t the porridge tasty? Ah, crows, they slaughtered! - they shouted at the militia, who hesitated in front of the soldier with a severed leg.
“Something else, kid,” they mimicked the men. – They don’t like passion.
Pierre noticed how after each cannonball that hit, after each loss, the general revival flared up more and more.
As if from an approaching thundercloud, more and more often, lighter and brighter, lightning of a hidden, flaring fire flashed on the faces of all these people (as if in rebuff to what was happening).
Pierre did not look forward to the battlefield and was not interested in knowing what was happening there: he was completely absorbed in the contemplation of this increasingly flaring fire, which in the same way (he felt) was flaring up in his soul.
At ten o'clock the infantry soldiers who were in front of the battery in the bushes and along the Kamenka River retreated. From the battery it was visible how they ran back past it, carrying the wounded on their guns. Some general and his retinue entered the mound and, after talking with the colonel, looked angrily at Pierre, went down again, ordering the infantry cover stationed behind the battery to lie down so as to be less exposed to shots. Following this, a drum and command shouts were heard in the ranks of the infantry, to the right of the battery, and from the battery it was visible how the ranks of the infantry moved forward.
Pierre looked through the shaft. One face in particular caught his eye. It was an officer who, with a pale young face, walked backwards, carrying a lowered sword, and looked around uneasily.
The rows of infantry soldiers disappeared into the smoke, and their prolonged screams and frequent gunfire could be heard. A few minutes later, crowds of wounded and stretchers passed from there. Shells began to hit the battery even more often. Several people lay uncleaned. The soldiers moved more busily and more animatedly around the guns. Nobody paid attention to Pierre anymore. Once or twice they shouted at him angrily for being on the road. The senior officer, with a frowning face, moved with large, fast steps from one gun to another. The young officer, flushed even more, commanded the soldiers even more diligently. The soldiers fired, turned, loaded, and did their job with tense panache. They bounced as they walked, as if on springs.
A thundercloud had moved in, and the fire that Pierre had been watching burned brightly in all their faces. He stood next to the senior officer. The young officer ran up to the elder officer, with his hand on his shako.
- I have the honor to report, Mr. Colonel, there are only eight charges, would you order to continue firing? – he asked.
- Buckshot! - Without answering, the senior officer shouted, looking through the rampart.
Suddenly something happened; The officer gasped and, curling up, sat down on the ground, like a shot bird in flight. Everything became strange, unclear and cloudy in Pierre’s eyes.
One after another, the cannonballs whistled and hit the parapet, the soldiers, and the cannons. Pierre, who had not heard these sounds before, now only heard these sounds alone. To the side of the battery, on the right, the soldiers were running, shouting “Hurray,” not forward, but backward, as it seemed to Pierre.
The cannonball hit the very edge of the shaft in front of which Pierre stood, sprinkled earth, and a black ball flashed in his eyes, and at the same instant it smacked into something. The militia who had entered the battery ran back.
- All with buckshot! - the officer shouted.
The non-commissioned officer ran up to the senior officer and in a frightened whisper (as a butler reports to his owner at dinner that there is no more wine required) said that there were no more charges.
- Robbers, what are they doing! - the officer shouted, turning to Pierre. The senior officer's face was red and sweaty, his frowning eyes sparkling. – Run to the reserves, bring the boxes! - he shouted, angrily looking around Pierre and turning to his soldier.
“I’ll go,” said Pierre. The officer, without answering him, walked in the other direction with long steps.
– Don’t shoot... Wait! - he shouted.
The soldier, who was ordered to go for the charges, collided with Pierre.
“Eh, master, there’s no place for you here,” he said and ran downstairs. Pierre ran after the soldier, going around the place where the young officer was sitting.
One, another, a third cannonball flew over him, hitting in front, from the sides, from behind. Pierre ran downstairs. "Where am I going?" - he suddenly remembered, already running up to the green boxes. He stopped, undecided whether to go back or forward. Suddenly a terrible shock threw him back to the ground. At the same instant, the brilliance of a large fire illuminated him, and at the same instant a deafening thunder, crackling and whistling sound rang in his ears.
Pierre, having woken up, was sitting on his backside, leaning his hands on the ground; the box he was near was not there; only green burnt boards and rags were lying on the scorched grass, and the horse, shaking its shaft with fragments, galloped away from him, and the other, like Pierre himself, lay on the ground and squealed shrilly, protractedly.

Pierre, unconscious from fear, jumped up and ran back to the battery, as the only refuge from all the horrors that surrounded him.
While Pierre was entering the trench, he noticed that no shots were heard at the battery, but some people were doing something there. Pierre did not have time to understand what kind of people they were. He saw the senior colonel lying with his back to him on the rampart, as if examining something below, and he saw one soldier he noticed, who, breaking forward from the people holding his hand, shouted: “Brothers!” – and saw something else strange.
But he had not yet had time to realize that the colonel had been killed, that the one shouting “brothers!” There was a prisoner who, in front of his eyes, was bayoneted in the back by another soldier. As soon as he ran into the trench, a thin, yellow, sweaty-faced man in a blue uniform, with a sword in his hand, ran at him, shouting something. Pierre, instinctively defending himself from the push, since they, without seeing, ran away from each other, put out his hands and grabbed this man (it was a French officer) with one hand by the shoulder, with the other by the proud. The officer, releasing his sword, grabbed Pierre by the collar.
For several seconds, they both looked with frightened eyes at faces alien to each other, and both were at a loss about what they had done and what they should do. “Am I taken prisoner or is he taken prisoner by me? - thought each of them. But, obviously, the French officer was more inclined to think that he was captured because strong hand Pierre, driven by involuntary fear, squeezed his throat tighter and tighter. The Frenchman wanted to say something, when suddenly a cannonball whistled low and terribly above their heads, and it seemed to Pierre that the French officer’s head had been torn off: he bent it so quickly.
Pierre also bowed his head and let go of his hands. Without thinking any more about who took whom prisoner, the Frenchman ran back to the battery, and Pierre went downhill, stumbling over the dead and wounded, who seemed to him to be catching his legs. But before he had time to go down, dense crowds of fleeing Russian soldiers appeared towards him, who, falling, stumbling and screaming, ran joyfully and violently towards the battery. (This was the attack that Ermolov attributed to himself, saying that only his courage and happiness could have accomplished this feat, and the attack in which he allegedly threw the St. George crosses that were in his pocket onto the mound.)
The French who occupied the battery ran. Our troops, shouting “Hurray,” drove the French so far beyond the battery that it was difficult to stop them.
Prisoners were taken from the battery, including a wounded French general, who was surrounded by officers. Crowds of wounded, familiar and unfamiliar to Pierre, Russians and French, with faces disfigured by suffering, walked, crawled and rushed from the battery on stretchers. Pierre entered the mound, where he spent more than an hour, and from the family circle that accepted him, he did not find anyone. There were many dead here, unknown to him. But he recognized some. The young officer sat, still curled up, at the edge of the shaft, in a pool of blood. The red-faced soldier was still twitching, but they did not remove him.
Pierre ran downstairs.
“No, now they will leave it, now they will be horrified by what they did!” - thought Pierre, aimlessly following the crowds of stretchers moving from the battlefield.
But the sun, obscured by smoke, still stood high, and in front, and especially to the left of Semyonovsky, something was boiling in the smoke, and the roar of shots, shooting and cannonade not only did not weaken, but intensified to the point of despair, like a man who, straining himself, screams with all his might.

The main action of the Battle of Borodino took place in the space of a thousand fathoms between Borodin and Bagration’s flushes. (Outside this space, on the one hand, the Russians made a demonstration by Uvarov's cavalry in mid-day; on the other hand, behind Utitsa, there was a clash between Poniatowski and Tuchkov; but these were two separate and weak actions in comparison with what happened in the middle of the battlefield. ) On the field between Borodin and the flushes, near the forest, in an area open and visible from both sides, the main action of the battle took place, in the most simple, ingenuous way.
The battle began with a cannonade from both sides from several hundred guns.

The Supreme Court of Russia canceled the rehabilitation of the former NKVD officer, one of the organizers Stalin's repressions Yakov Agranov. He was involved in the execution of the poet Nikolai Gumilyov. Contemporaries called him “the executioner of the Russian intelligentsia.”

They tried several times to restore the rights of a solid security officer, as Nikita Khrushchev later called Agranov. The very first - immediately after Stalin's death and the start of the campaign to rehabilitate victims of terror. The main military prosecutor's office then admitted that although Yakov Agranov was unfoundedly convicted on charges of anti-Soviet activity, nevertheless, while working in the NKVD, he regularly violated socialist legality. A second attempt in 2001 was also unsuccessful. And only at the beginning of this year the prosecutor’s office rehabilitated the man whom some contemporaries called “the executioner of the Russian intelligentsia.” This, in turn, outraged human rights activists. They recalled that Agranov was behind almost every major political trial from 1919 to 1937, including the trial of Zinoviev and Kamenev. Experts emphasize that he was one of the department’s best forgers. Which, however, did not save him either from arrest or execution in 1938.

Related materials

Agranov’s wife, who was shot in 1938, was completely rehabilitated more than half a century ago.

Yakov Saulovich Agranov (October 12, 1893, Chechersk town, Rogachev district, Gomel (Mogilev) province, Russian Empire- August 1, 1938, Moscow) - one of the heads of state security agencies Soviet Russia and the USSR.

Brief biography

Agranov Yakov Saulovich (real name Yankel-Shevel Shmaev, often repeated statements that real name- Sorenzon are not based on anything 1) (10/12/1893-8/1/1938). Commissar of State Security, 1st rank (1935). Party member since 1915. Born in Chechersk, Rogachev district, Mogilev province. in the family of a grocery store owner. In 1911 he graduated from a 4-grade city school. He worked as an accountant and a warehouse clerk at a forestry office. In 1912 he joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party, in 1914-1915. member of the Gomel Committee of the AKP. He was arrested and deported to the Yenisei province. In exile, I met some Bolshevik leaders, including I.V. Stalin and L.B. Kamenev.

He chose the pseudonym for himself, apparently in memory of the Bund activist Yankel-Moishe Agranov, who died on May 14, 1905 at the age of 17, when he, as part of the Gomel Jewish self-defense detachment, participated in revolutionary riots organized by the local Bund ferein and committee RSDLP.

Born into a wealthy family of a grocery store owner (later he claimed that he was the son of a worker - either a construction worker or a blacksmith - that is, he had a “proletarian origin”), he was the first-born in the family, besides him, Shmay and Tsipa later had two more sons - Abram and Mordechai - and daughter Sonya. In 1911 he graduated from a 4-grade city school in Rogachev (according to other sources - in Chechersk). He worked as an accountant and clerk in the warehouse of the timber office of Isaac Levin in Gomel. In 1912 he joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party and quickly made a party career; in 1914-1915 he was elected a member of the Gomel Provincial Committee of the Socialist Revolutionary Party.

In 1914 he was released from military service due to health reasons (suffered from epilepsy). For subversive work in the rear of the active army, on April 25, 1915, he was arrested and exiled to the Yenisei province in May 1915. In exile I met some Bolshevik leaders, incl. with I.V. Stalin and L.B. Kamenev. There, in 1915, he joined the RSDLP(b). Interestingly, there were rumors in Chechersk that before he perished in Siberia, young Agranov grabbed the cash register of Levin’s forestry office - something like 3,000 rubles.

After February Revolution Agranov - Secretary of the Polesie Regional Committee of the RSDLP(b), after October Revolution, in 1918 - secretary of the Small Council of People's Commissars, in 1919 - employee of the secretariat of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR.

Since May 1919, part-time specially authorized Cheka (this position, besides him, at that time was held only by V.R. Menzhinsky, K.I. Lander, A.Kh. Artuzov and V.D. Feldman). In 1920-1921 Deputy Head of Directorate 00 of the Cheka (traveled at the head of task forces to the Western Front and Kronstadt), from January 1921 - Head of the 16th Special Branch of the Cheka (counterintelligence in the army), from April 1921 - Special Representative for the most important matters under the head of the Special Administration of the Cheka -GPU, head of the Special Bureau for the Administrative Expulsion of Anti-Soviet Elements and Intelligentsia under the GPU. In 1923-1929. - deputy chief, from October 1929 - head of the Secret (from March 1931 Secret-Political) department of the OGPU. Since May 1930 - assistant to the head of the Secret Operational Directorate (SOU) of the OGPU. Was closely acquainted with famous writers and artists, including V.V. Mayakovsky.

After a conflict in the leadership of the OGPU (between S.A. Messing, E.G. Evdokimov, I.A. Vorontsov, Y.K. Olsky and L.N. Velsky, and G.G. Yagoda, supported by V.R. Menzhinsky) Agranov On July 31, 1931, he joined the OGPU Collegium, and in September he was appointed plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU for the Moscow region (according to Kaganovich’s letter to Stalin, Menzhinsky, together with Akulov and Balitsky, objected to the appointment of Agranov to this post, considering him indispensable in the SPO). Menzhinsky proposed the candidacy of V.N. Mantsev, whom Kaganovich, who, in his words, considered “Messing No. 2,” rejected, Agranov considered “the most suitable.” In 1931-1932 part-time - head of the special department of the Moscow Military District.

Since February 1933 - Deputy Chairman of the OGPU. In 1934-1937 - 1st deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, at the same time since December 1936, head of the GUGB NKVD. Member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (17th congress). Member of the USSR Central Executive Committee (7th convocation). In December 1934, after the murder of SM. Kirov and the removal of the head of the NKVD of the Leningrad region. F.D. Medveda acted as head of the NKVD LO for 4 days. Since April 1937, Agranov has been deputy. People's Commissar and Head of the 4th Department (SPO) of the GUGB NKVD. From May 1937 - Head of the Saratov Directorate of the NKVD.

Awarded 2 Orders of the Red Banner (1927, 1932), 2 badges “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU”.

From Saratov, Agranov wrote a letter to Stalin in which he proposed to arrest Krupskaya and Malenkov, then head. department of the leading party organs of the Central Committee. Malenkov (together with Politburo member A.A. Andreev) from Saratov, where Stalin sent him in the summer of 1937 to purge the local leadership, proposed arresting Agranov.

On July 20, 1937 he was arrested; executed by verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court (MCVS) of the USSR.

Service in the Cheka-GPU-NKVD

Since May 1919, Agranov has been appointed (possibly on Stalin’s recommendation) as a specially authorized Cheka, a similar position (and in fact a title, since job responsibilities were not defined), besides him, at that time they had only V.R. Menzhinsky, K.I. Lander, A.H. Artuzov and V.D. Feldman.

In 1920-1921, he was deputy head of the Directorate of Special Departments of the Cheka, traveling at the head of task forces to the Western Front and Kronstadt. From January 1, 1921 - head of the 16th special department of the Cheka (line of work - counterintelligence in the army), from April 28, 1921 - special representative for the most important matters under the head of the Special Institution of the Cheka-GPU, from January 2 (according to other sources - November 2) 1922 years until February 1, 1923 - head of the Special Bureau for the Administrative Expulsion of Anti-Soviet Elements and Intelligentsia at the GPU.

V.I. Lenin and F.E. Dzerzhinsky Agranov was entrusted with compiling lists of representatives of the old intelligentsia who were subject to deportation from the RSFSR in 1922 (among them N.A. Berdyaev, N.O. Lossky, M.A. Osorgin, etc.) - they called him, and, probably, not without reason, “a seller of tickets for the “philosophical” ship.”

Agranov personally supervised the work of the investigation in the case of the Tactical Center, in the case of the so-called. Tagantsev’s “combat organization” (he was directly responsible for the execution of 87 people involved in this case, including the poet N.S. Gumilyov, although in this particular case he tried to resist this, G.E. Zinoviev allegedly personally insisted on the execution ), on the case of the participants peasant uprising Antonov.

Agranov even personally concluded an agreement with Professor Tagantsev, the terms of which, of course, were not fulfilled by him:

I, citizen Vladimir Nikolaevich Tagantsev, plead guilty:
1) in active opposition to Soviet power,
2) in organizing an anti-Soviet group,
3) in organizations of members of the new government, in case of coups in Russia,
4) in the unification of the union “Renaissance of Russia” and “Young Russia”,
5) in accepting leadership and leadership in the P.B.O.

I, Tagantsev, consider myself deeply mistaken and now clearly see that the new economic policy Soviet republic leads Russia onto a new and healthy path, I regret that I misled many people, and, thanks to me, they must suffer a difficult fate.

I, Tagantsev, consciously begin to testify about our organization, without hiding anything, I will talk about our tasks, goals and views on the future and will not hide a single person involved in our group. I do all this to ease the fate of the participants in our process.

I, the authorized representative of the Cheka, Yakov Solomonovich Agranov, with the help of citizen Tagantsev, undertake to quickly complete the investigative case and, after completion, transfer it to a public court, where all the accused will be tried.

I, Agranov, undertake, in the event of Tagantsev’s fulfillment of the agreement, that capital punishment will not be applied to any of the accused, both Tagantsev himself and his assistants, even the detained couriers from Finland.

Head of the secret operational department of the Republic and authorized by the Cheka Agranov

I have read the contract and sign it

Then Agranov, in response to accusations of the immorality of such investigative methods, stated: “moral is what is useful in at the moment to the international proletariat (that is, the Bolsheviks)"

However, when in 1922 the chief inspector of military educational institutions of the RSFSR A.I. Verkhovsky testified to Agranov, who assured him on behalf of the board of the GPU and the Central Committee of the RCP (b) that these testimonies were necessary for the historical clarification of the role of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, and not for bringing its members to justice, but then used his testimony at the trial, the Supreme Tribunal nevertheless issued a private ruling against Agranov for “obvious incorrectness in the questioning of a witness.”

From May 24, 1923 to October 26, 1929, Agranov was deputy, then head of the Secret (from March 1931, Secret-Political) department of the OGPU. From May 24, 1930 - assistant chief, from March 14, 1931 - head of the Secret Operations Directorate (SOU) of the OGPU.

Having only a four-year primary education, sometimes introduced himself as a professor of psychology, specialized in working with representatives of the intelligentsia and old Bolsheviks, personally taught the course “History of the Cheka” for a long time in High school OGPU-NKVD.

He did not shy away from personally conducting interrogations (in particular, it was he who interrogated Patriarch Tikhon, Leo Tolstoy’s daughter Alexandra Lvovna and others), prepared such well-known trials of the 1920s - early 1930s as the trial of the right Socialist Revolutionaries, the trials of the Industrial Party and the Labor Peasant Party , for which many intellectuals were arrested.

Agranov was directly involved in the development and implementation of the famous Operation Trust, the liquidation of the structures " People's Union defense of the Motherland and Freedom” by the famous Socialist Revolutionary terrorist B. Savinkov. Actively participated in artistic life Moscow, communicated closely with members of RAPP and LEF, was family friends with Yu.K. Olesha, Briks, was in friendly relations with L.L. Averbakh, B.A. Pilnyak, O.E. Mandelstam, V.V. Mayakovsky and others. According to some art historians, it was Agranov who organized Mayakovsky’s “suicide”.

This is unlikely, but the poet actually shot himself with a pistol given to him by Agranov. Agranov was a regular at the “literary salons” of Lily Brik and Zinaida Reich, where he was known as “dear Yanechka”, was friends with Sergei Yesenin and Mikhail Bulgakov (it is believed that it was Agranov who served as the prototype for the image of Afranius in the novel “The Master and Margarita”, and Agranov, who was arrested in 1924, in the case of the “Order of Russian Fascists”, Yesenin’s friend, the poet Ivan Pribludny, was the prototype of Ivan Bezdomny), which did not prevent him on April 4, 1937, literally a few days before his “disgrace,” from authorizing the arrest of Sergei Yesenin’s son, Yuri (George) - as “an active participant in a fascist-terrorist group.”

As deputy head of the SPO, Agranov at the beginning of June 1925 attracted to cooperation with the OGPU Secretary General Russian Autonomous Freemasonry B.V. Astromov, who “surrendered” to the OGPU as a result of this cooperation the lodges of the Martinist Order, the “Christian Esoteric Order”, Masonic lodges governed by the Grand Lodge of Astrea. After which, the forces of the OGPU destroyed its Russian Autonomous Freemasonry; everything ended in the summer of 1926 with a trial in which seventeen Masons were convicted, including Astromov himself.

Apparently after this trial, Agranov said: “...we are obliged to oppose black and white, or more simply, White Guard magic with our red magic.”

At the same time, he, together with the famous security officers G. Bokiy and Y. Blumkin (then, in 1929, he personally supervised the execution of Blumkin and shot himself) developed and implemented a complex operation to organize, under the leadership of Roerich and Blumkin, an OGPU expedition to Tibet under the legend of searches Shambhala, the corresponding justification was prepared by Professor A.V. Barchenko, who in the special department of the OGPU under the leadership of Bokiy studied astrology, occult sciences, experiments in hypnosis, telepathy and other similar problems (at the same time he was in charge of the neuroenergetic laboratory of the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Medicine).

Agranov organized power and operational support for this operation. Later, in 1935-1936, he began preparing an unprecedented action, completed after his arrest - a tank raid of the NKVD special forces in Tibet and East Turkestan, in the wake of the Roerich-Blumkin expedition.

After a conflict in the leadership of the OGPU (between S.A. Messing, E.G. Evdokimov, I.A. Vorontsov, Y.K. Olsky and L.N. Velsky on the one hand, and G.G. Yagoda, supported by V. R. Menzhinsky - on the other) Agranov on July 31, 1931 became a member of the OGPU Collegium, from September 1 (to February 21, 1933) he was appointed plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU for the Moscow region (according to Kaganovich’s letter to Stalin, Menzhinsky, together with Akulov and Balitsky, objected to the appointment of Agranov to this post, considering him indispensable in the SPO). Menzhinsky proposed the candidacy of V.N. Mantsev, whom Kaganovich, who considered, in his words, “Messing No. 2,” rejected, and considered Agranov’s candidacy “the most suitable.”

At the same time, until June 11, 1932, Agranov was concurrently the head of a special department of the Moscow Military District. He enjoyed great trust and respect from G.G. Yagoda, was awarded two Orders of the Red Banner (decrees of December 14, 1927 and December 20, 1932 - on the 15th anniversary of the Cheka), two badges “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU”. Somewhere at this time (no later than 1929) he married Valentina Aleksandrovna Kukhareva, a Polish national, the widow of a Red commander who was executed for “espionage” for Poland, and soon they had a daughter.

Since February 21, 1933, Agranov has been the deputy chairman of the OGPU, in this post, on behalf of Stalin, he led the campaign to combat “pockets of homosexuality” in Soviet and party bodies:

"June 3, 1934
Deputy Chairman of the OGPU Agranov - to Stalin.
Soviet secret.
During the liquidation of hotbeds of homosexuals in Moscow, the OGPU identified D.T. Florinsky, the head of the protocol department of the NKID, as a homosexual.
...
Florinsky confirmed his belonging to homosexuals and named his homosexual relationships, which he had until recently with young people, most of whom were involved in homosexual relationships for the first time as Florinsky.
At the same time, Florinsky submitted an application to the OGPU Collegium, in which he reported that in 1918 he was a paid German spy, having been recruited by the secretary of the German embassy in Stockholm.”

Soon after this, Agranov prepared a memo for Yagoda addressed to Stalin that

“The activist pederasts, using the caste isolation of pederast circles for directly counter-revolutionary purposes, politically corrupted various social strata of youth, in particular working youth, and also tried to penetrate the army and navy.”

From July 10, 1934 to May 17, 1937, Agranov was the 1st Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Member of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (XVII Congress), member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (VII convocation).

After the murder of S.M. Kirov and the removal of the head of the NKVD LO F.D. Medveda arrived in Leningrad together with Stalin on December 2, 1934, for 4 days he acted as head of the NKVD, headed the investigation into this case, and was the initiator of mass arrests; According to some historians, it was he who was directly involved in organizing the murder itself. In 10 days, lists of more than 11 thousand people from Leningrad were drawn up to be expelled as “not inspiring political confidence,” then Agranov personally headed a Special Meeting that condemned the majority of those involved in the case.

At an operational meeting of the USSR NKVD operational staff on February 3, 1935, following the results of the investigation into the murder of Kirov, Agranov reported:

“Our tactics for crushing the enemy was to push all these scoundrels together and cause them to quarrel. And this task was difficult. It was necessary to quarrel between them because all these traitors were closely united by the ten-year struggle with our party. We were dealing with seasoned double-dealers, experienced fraudsters.

During the investigation, we managed to ensure that Zinoviev, Kamenev, Evdokimov, Safarov, Gorshenin and others really butted heads.”

From August 23, 1935, Agranov also organized the replacement of imperial eagles on the Kremlin towers with stars, carried out by the NKVD, for which he demanded 67.9 kg of gold “for the stars.” By November, four stars were installed on the Spasskaya, Nikolskaya, Borovitskaya and Trinity towers, but they turned out to be “sabotage”, and in 1937 they were replaced with the well-known ruby star-lamp. Only one of the “Agranov stars” (from the Spasskaya Tower), installed on the spire of the Northern River Station in Moscow, has survived to this day.

On November 26, 1935, after the introduction of special GB ranks (interestingly, he was the initiator of their introduction), Agranov was awarded the title of State Security Commissioner of the 1st rank.

Agranov was one of the main organizers of the political process in the case of G.E. Zinovieva, L.B. Kamenev, etc., he not only retained his position after N.I. joined the NKVD. Yezhov, but also united in one person from December 29, 1936 the posts of first deputy people's commissar and head of the GUGB NKVD. Under the personal supervision of Agranov, interrogations of Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin, Rykov, Tukhachevsky and others were carried out. It was under his leadership that materials were prepared for the main political processes of the 1930s in the USSR. For a long time, Agranov enjoyed Stalin’s exceptional trust; previously, in Zubalovo near Moscow, their dachas were located nearby and they often spent time together.

After the execution of Agranov, already at his trial, Yezhov said:

“I did not organize any conspiracy against the party and government, but on the contrary, I took everything in my power to uncover the conspiracy. In 1934, I began to conduct the case “On the Kirov Events.” I was not afraid to report to the Central Committee about Yagoda and other traitors to the Cheka. These enemies, who were in the Cheka, like Agranov and others, deceived us, citing the fact that this was the work of Latvian intelligence.

We did not believe these security officers and forced them to reveal to us the truth about the participation of the pro-Trotskyist organization in this matter. Being in Leningrad at the time of the investigation into the murder of S. M. Kirov, I saw how the security officers wanted to cover up this case. Upon arrival in Moscow, I wrote a detailed report on this issue addressed to Stalin, who immediately afterwards convened a meeting.

When checking party documents through the CPC and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, we identified a lot of enemies and spies of various stripes and intelligence services. We reported this to the Cheka, but for some reason no arrests were made there. Then I reported to Stalin, who summoned Yagoda and ordered him to immediately take care of these matters. Yagoda was very dissatisfied with this, but was forced to arrest the people on whom we provided materials.

One wonders why I would have repeatedly raised the question with Stalin about the poor work of the Cheka if I had been a participant in an anti-Soviet conspiracy.

Now they tell me that you did all this with a careerist goal, with the goal of getting into the organs of the Cheka yourself. I believe that this is an unfounded accusation, because when I began to reveal the poor work of the Cheka organs, I immediately moved on to exposing specific individuals.

I was the first to expose Sosnowski, a Polish spy. Yagoda and Menzhinsky raised a fuss about this and, instead of arresting him, sent him to work in the provinces. At the first opportunity I arrested Sosnovsky. I did not expose Mironov and others then, but Yagoda prevented me from doing so. This is how it was before I came to work for the Cheka.”

“From Sochi. 09.25.36. Kaganovich, Molotov. We consider it absolutely necessary and urgent to appoint Comrade. Yezhov to the post of People's Commissar for Internal Affairs. Yagoda was clearly not up to the task of exposing the Trotskyist-Zinoviev bloc. The OGPU was 4 years late in this matter. Agranov can be left as Yezhov’s deputy. Stalin, Zhdanov."

However, already at the end of 1936, Yezhov allegedly received valuable instructions from Stalin:

“Agranov is an insincere person, a provocateur. We also need to see how he conducted the investigation into the murder of Comrade Kirov, perhaps in such a way as to confuse the whole matter. Yagoda always relied on him.”

On April 15, 1937, Agranov (he still continued to be considered “Yagoda’s man,” although he spoke at the February-March plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with harsh criticism of the former leadership of the NKVD) was demoted to deputy people's commissar and head of the 4th department (SPO) of the GUGB NKVD. At the beginning of April, Yezhov informed Stalin that Agranov was receiving signals from “vigilant work comrades” about his sympathies for Trotsky, that he spent evenings in the company of Kamenev, Bukharin and Radek when they were under investigation. To this Stalin allegedly answered him:

“You are the People's Commissar, decide for yourself. Once a person gets dirty, he needs to be cleaned up.”

On May 17, 1937, Agranov was sent into “exile” by Yezhov, the head of the Saratov regional department of the NKVD.

Arrest, death and attempts at rehabilitation

From Saratov (he lived there at 22 Pushkinskaya), having actually been exiled and removed from business, Agranov wrote a letter to Stalin in which he proposed to arrest Krupskaya and Malenkov, at that time the head of the department of the leading party organs of the Central Committee. Malenkov (together with Politburo member A.A. Andreev) from Saratov, where Stalin sent him in the summer of 1937 to “cleanse” the local leadership, proposed arresting Agranov.

On July 19, Malenkov reported to Stalin from Saratov that the party leadership of the region had been replaced, the former first secretary of the regional committee, who had been removed from office, should be arrested, and the purge should continue:

“... 5) Familiarization with the investigation materials leads to the conclusion that in Saratov a serious right-wing Trotskyist espionage organization remains unexposed and not seized.

Agranov, apparently, did not strive for this.

At the same time, based on personal interrogations of NKVD officers and some of those arrested, carried out by Comrade Stromin and Comrade Malenkov, it was established that the investigation was headed along a clearly wrong path.

There are those arrested who have nothing to do with right-wing Trotskyist organizations, whose false testimony was dictated by investigators led by Agranov, and his closest assistant in this case is Zaritsky, a rather suspicious person who had to be arrested. The apparatus of the Saratov NKVD itself still remains uncleared of the enemies left behind by Pillar and Sosnovsky. Agranov did nothing in this regard. Based on this, we consider it appropriate to remove Agranov from his post and arrest him.”

After this, Agranov was expelled from the CPSU(b) with the wording “for systematic violations of socialist legality.”

On July 20, 1937, Agranov was arrested. After a lengthy investigation, he “pleaded” himself guilty of belonging to an anti-Soviet Trotskyist organization and on August 1, 1938, was shot by the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court (VKVS) of the USSR. A few days later (according to some sources - August 26), his wife Valentina Aleksandrovna Kukhareva-Agranova was convicted on charges of espionage and shot.

It is interesting that in addition to “belonging to an anti-Soviet Trotskyist organization,” Agranov was also charged with Article 58.11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, which provided for liability for

“active actions or active struggle against the working class and the revolutionary movement, shown in responsible or highly secret positions under the tsarist regime or in counter-revolutionary governments during the period civil war»

Thus, it is possible that during the investigation some facts surfaced about Agranov’s collaboration, for example, with the Tsarist secret police or military counterintelligence - it was not without reason that he so easily broke with the Socialist Revolutionary Party and then actively organized repressions against its former members.

In October 1955, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office, having considered the petition of the daughter of the executed man, refused to review the case of Agranov and his rehabilitation as guilty of organizing mass repressions:

"1. ...Agranov was convicted unjustifiably for belonging to an anti-Soviet organization.
2. The materials of the case and additional verification have fully proven Agranov’s guilt in the systematic violation of socialist legality during the period of his work in the NKVD.
3. In this regard, it is inappropriate to enter with a conclusion to the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR with a view to terminating the case against Agranov, regarding his membership in an anti-Soviet organization.”

His wife Valentina Kukhareva-Agranova was luckier: she was completely rehabilitated by the decision of the All-Russian Military Commission on October 24, 1957.

During the re-examination of Agranov's case during the period of mass rehabilitation of 1988-1991, the decision of the GVP from 1955 was upheld.

Telegram from Andreev and Malenkov to Stalin about Agranov

№ 207
A. A. Andreev, G. M. Malenkov - to I. V. Stalin
July 19, 1937
Comrade Stalin.
The Saratov Plenum was held. Comrade Malenkov, who is leaving for Moscow tomorrow, will bring the decision with him. Based on the discussion of the decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks at the plenum and familiarization with the situation on the ground, we inform you of the following:

1) New facts have been established regarding Krinitsky and Yakovlev - they carried out clearly sabotage measures through the regional committee agriculture, direct defense of exposed right-wingers and Trotskyists, and even the implementation of regional committee decisions that rehabilitate exposed enemies.

2) There are direct indications former second secretary of the Saratov regional party committee Lipendin, former editor of the regional newspaper Kaspersky and others about the participation of Krinitsky and Yakovlev in the Saratov right-wing Trotskyist organization, there is even direct testimony from Lipendin that Krinitsky and Yakovlev obliged him to create a terrorist group.

3) The speeches of Krinitsky and Yakovlev at the plenum of the regional committee were, by all accounts, false and prepared in advance.

4) At the end of the plenum, Krinitsky and Yakovlev were asked to immediately leave Moscow. We consider it advisable to arrest them upon arrival in Moscow.

5) Familiarization with the investigation materials leads to the conclusion that in Saratov a serious right-wing Trotskyist espionage organization still remains unexposed and unseized.

Agranov, apparently, did not strive for this.

There are those arrested who have nothing to do with right-wing Trotskyist organizations, whose false testimony was dictated by investigators under the leadership of Agranov, and his closest assistant in this case is Zaritsky, a rather suspicious person who had to be arrested. The apparatus of the Saratov NKVD itself still remains uncleaned from the enemies left by Pillar and Sosnovsky. Agranov did nothing in this regard.

Based on this, we consider it appropriate to remove Agranov from his post and arrest him.

We will take all measures on site to clear the area of undetected spies and pests.

The Saratov organization greeted the decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with great satisfaction.

We took care of cleaning issues. We go to the areas to get acquainted.

In the bodies of the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD
3 Memoirs of contemporaries
References

Introduction

Yakov Saulovich Agranov (real name - Yankel Shmaevich Sorenson, October 12, 1893 - August 1, 1938) - leader of the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD, State Security Commissioner of the 1st rank (November 26, 1935), one of the organizers of post-revolutionary mass repressions.

1. Biography

Born into the family of a Jewish shopkeeper in the town of Chechersk, Gomel province, he graduated from the 4th grade of a city school, in 1912 he joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party, worked as a clerk in Gomel at Levin's timber warehouse, and carried out revolutionary activities.

In 1935, Agranov led the investigation into the murder of S. Kirov and was appointed temporary (two weeks) head of the Leningrad NKVD Directorate, sabotaged the clarification of the true circumstances of the murder of Kirov, and organized the physical elimination of its participants and witnesses. Taking advantage of the current situation, Agranov and Yagoda organized repressions against more than 11 thousand people. Together with Genrikh Yagoda, Agranov was one of the organizers of the trial of G.E. Zinoviev and L.B. Kamenev. It was Agranov who prepared materials for the main political processes of the 1930s.

Since the summer of 1935 he lived in the Kremlin (Cavalry Corps, former apartment A.S. Enukidze), dacha in Zubalovo. In 1937, Moscow apartment on Markhlevsky Street, building 9 (the head of the NKVD).

With the arrival of N.I. Ezhov as head of the NKVD, Agranov initially received a promotion - he was appointed 1st Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. In 1936, he was awarded the title of 1st Rank State Security Commissioner. He took an active part in the preparation of the falsified trial of the “Parallel Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center”, the trial of Ryutin and other members of the Ryutin opposition.

In May 1937, Agranov was removed to the post of head of the NKVD department for Saratov region, and in July 1937 he was expelled from the party. Arrested on July 20, 1937. Executed on August 1, 1938 by the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR in Kommunarka. His wife Valentina Aleksandrovna (before Kukharev’s marriage) was also sentenced to death a little later, executed on August 26, 1938, and completely rehabilitated.

The petition for a review of the case and posthumous rehabilitation of Agranov was rejected by the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of the USSR in 1955, as involved in organizing mass repressions.

3. Memoirs of contemporaries

Under Dzerzhinsky, and under Stalin, the bloodiest investigator of the Cheka, Yakov Agranov, an epileptic with a woman’s face, not connected with Russia, a native of the Kingdom of Poland, who became the executioner of the Russian intelligentsia, was promoted to the highest security posts. He killed many famous public figures and remarkable Russian scientists:

Agranov Yakov Saulovich (real name Yankel-Shevel Shmaev, often
repeated statements that the real name is Sorenzon
than they are not based on).
Born October 12, 1893 - was shot August 1, 1938).
Commissar of State Security, 1st rank (1935). Party member since 1915
Born in the city of Chechersk, Rogachev district, Mogilev province. in the family
grocery store owner. In 1911 he graduated from the 4th grade city
school.
He worked as an accountant and a warehouse clerk at a forestry office.
In 1912 he joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party, in 1914-1915. member of Gomel
AKP committee. He was arrested and deported to the Yenisei province.
In exile I met some Bolshevik leaders, including
I.V. Stalin and L.B. Kamenev.

After the February Revolution, Agranov was secretary of the Polesie regional
Committee of the RSDLP (b), after the October Revolution, in 1918 - secretary
Small Council of People's Commissars, in 1919 - employee of the secretariat of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR.
Since May 1919, part-time specially authorized Cheka (this position,
besides him, at that time only V.R. was occupied. Menzhinsky, K.I. Lander,
A.Kh.Artuzov and V.D. Feldman).
In 1920-1921 Deputy Head of Directorate 00 of the Cheka (traveled at the head
operational groups on the Western Front and in Kronstadt), from January 1921 - chief
16th special department of the Cheka (counterintelligence in the army), from April 1921 -
special commissioner for the most important matters under the head of the Special Institution of the Cheka-GPU,
Head of the Special Bureau for the Administrative Expulsion of Anti-Soviet Persons
elements and intelligentsia under the GPU. In 1923-1929. - deputy boss,
from October 1929 - head of the Secret (from March 1931, Secret-Political)
department of the OGPU. From May 1930 - assistant to the head of the Secret Operations
management (SOU) of the OGPU. Was closely acquainted with famous writers and figures
art, including with V.V. Mayakovsky.
After a conflict in the leadership of the OGPU (between S.A. Messing, E.G. Evdokimov,
I.A.Vorontsov, Y.K.Olsky and L.N.Velsky, and G.G.Yagoda, supported
V.R. Menzhinsky) Agranov July 31, 1931 became a member of the OGPU Collegium,
in September he was appointed plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU for the Moscow region
(according to Kaganovich’s letter to Stalin, Menzhinsky, together with Akulov and
Balitsky, objected to the appointment of Agranov to this post, considering him
indispensable in open source software). Menzhinsky proposed the candidacy of V.N. Mantseva,
which Kaganovich, who, in his words, considered “Messing No. 2,” rejected, Agranova
- considered “the most suitable”. In 1931-1932 part-time chief
special department of the Moscow Military District.
Since February 1933 - Deputy Chairman of the OGPU. In 1934-1937 - 1st deputy People's Commissar
Internal Affairs of the USSR, at the same time since December 1936, head of the GUGB NKVD.
Member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (17th congress). Member of the USSR Central Executive Committee (7th convocation).
In December 1934, after the murder of SM. Kirov and the removal of the chief
UNKVD Leningrad region. F.D. The bear performed for 4 days
duties of the head of the NKVD LO.
Since April 1937, Agranov has been deputy. People's Commissar and Head of the 4th Department (SPO)
GUGB NKVD. From May 1937 - Head of the Saratov Directorate of the NKVD.
Awarded 2 Orders of the Red Banner (1927, 1932), 2 badges
"Honorary worker of the Cheka-GPU."
From Saratov, Agranov wrote a letter to Stalin in which he proposed
arrest Krupskaya and Malenkov, then head. management department
party organs of the Central Committee. Malenkov (together with Politburo member A.A. Andreev) from
Saratov, where in the summer of 1937 Stalin sent him to cleanse the local
leadership, proposed to arrest Agranov.
On July 20, 1937 he was arrested; executed by verdict of the Military Collegium
Supreme Court (VKVS) of the USSR.

Agranov Yakov Saulovich (real name Yankel-Shevel Shmaev, frequently repeated statements that the real name is Sorenzon are not based on anything 1) (10/12/1893-8/1/1938). Commissar of State Security, 1st rank (1935). Party member since 1915. Born in Chechersk, Rogachev district, Mogilev province. in the family of a grocery store owner. In 1911 he graduated from a 4-grade city school. He worked as an accountant and a warehouse clerk at a forestry office. In 1912 he joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party, in 1914-1915. member of the Gomel Committee of the AKP. He was arrested and deported to the Yenisei province. In exile, I met some Bolshevik leaders, including I.V. Stalin and L.B. Kamenev.

After the February Revolution, Agranov was secretary of the Polesie Regional Committee of the RSDLP (b), after the October Revolution, in 1918 - secretary of the Small Council of People's Commissars, in 1919 - employee of the secretariat of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR.

Since May 1919, part-time specially authorized Cheka (this position, besides him, at that time was held only by V.R. Menzhinsky, K.I. Lander, A.Kh. Artuzov and V.D. Feldman). In 1920-1921 Deputy Head of Directorate 00 of the Cheka (traveled at the head of task forces to the Western Front and Kronstadt), from January 1921 - Head of the 16th Special Branch of the Cheka (counterintelligence in the army), from April 1921 - Special Representative for the most important matters under the head of the Special Administration of the Cheka -GPU, head of the Special Bureau for the Administrative Expulsion of Anti-Soviet Elements and Intelligentsia under the GPU. In 1923-1929. - deputy chief, from October 1929 - head of the Secret (from March 1931 Secret-Political) department of the OGPU. From May 1930 - assistant to the head of the Secret Operations Directorate (SOU) of the OGPU. He was closely acquainted with famous writers and artists, including V.V. Mayakovsky.

Since February 1933 - Deputy Chairman of the OGPU. In 1934-1937 - 1st deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, at the same time since December 1936, head of the GUGB NKVD. Member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (17th congress). Member of the USSR Central Executive Committee (7th convocation).
In December 1934, after the murder of SM. Kirov and the removal of the head of the NKVD of the Leningrad region. F.D. Medveda acted as head of the NKVD LO for 4 days. Since April 1937, Agranov has been deputy. People's Commissar and Head of the 4th Department (SPO) of the GUGB NKVD. From May 1937 - Head of the Saratov Directorate of the NKVD.

Awarded 2 Orders of the Red Banner (1927, 1932), 2 badges “Honorary Worker of the Cheka-GPU”.

On July 20, 1937 he was arrested; executed by verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court (MCVS) of the USSR.

Notes:

1 See Skaryatin V. The mystery of the death of Vladimir Mayakovsky M., 1998 P. 144.

Book materials used: V. Abramov. Jews in the KGB. Executioners and victims. M., Yauza - Eksmo, 2005.

Leaders of the OGPU - delegates of the XVII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks:
Y.S.Agranov, G.G.Yagoda, unknown and S.F.Redens.
Moscow. 1934

Agranov Yakov Saulovich (real name and surname - Yankel Shmaevich Sorenson) (1893, Checherskaya town, Rogachev district, Gomel province - August 1, 1938), one of the heads of state security agencies, state security commissioner of the 1st rank (11/26/1935). Son of a tradesman. He received his education at a 4-grade city school. In 1912 he joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party, and in 1915 he joined the RCP(b). In 1914 he was released from military service for health reasons and worked as an accountant and clerk. In April 1915 arrested and in May 1915 exiled to the Yenisei province. In 1917, secretary of the Polesie regional committee of the RSDLP(b). From Feb. 1918 Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars. In May 1919 he was sent to work in the authorities Cheka and appointed special representative of the Special Department of the Cheka. Agranov was one of the most influential employees of the Cheka; his specialty was working with representatives of the intelligentsia and old Bolsheviks. In 1920-21 deputy. beginning management of the Special Departments of the Cheka, head. special separations. Led the investigation into the circumstances Kronstadt uprising (1921). Agranov personally supervised the work of the investigation in the Tactical Center case, in the Tagantsev case (he was directly responsible for the execution of 87 people involved in this case, including the poet N.S. Gumilyov ), in the case of participants in the Antonov peasant uprising. He personally supervised the interrogations. D. prepared such falsified trials of the 1920s - early 1930s as the trial of the right Socialist Revolutionaries, the trials of the Industrial Party and the Labor Peasant Party, in which many representatives of the intelligentsia were arrested. He was instructed V. I. Lenin And F.E. Dzerzhinsky compiling lists of representatives of the old intelligentsia who were subject to deportation from the RSFSR in 1922 (among them N.A. Berdyaev , BUT. Lossky, M.A. Osorgin, etc.), from 2.1 11922 to 1.2.1923 beginning. Special Bureau for the administrative expulsion of anti-Soviet elements of the intelligentsia. In Feb.-Oct. 1923 Special Commissioner for Important Affairs of the Secret Political Department of the Cheka. From 24.5.1923 deputy beginning, from 10/26/1929 beginning Secret Department OGPU USSR. From 24.5.1930 room. beginning, from 14.3-1931 beginning Secret political department of the OGPU. He actively participated in the artistic life of Moscow, communicated closely with members of RAPP and LEF, and was on friendly terms with L.L. Averbakh, B.A. Pilnyak , Bricks, O.E. Mandelstam , V.V. Mayakovsky and others. According to a number of researchers, it was Agranov who organized Mayakovsky’s “suicide”. From 1.9.1931 to 21.2-1933 plenipotentiary representative of the OGPU for the Moscow region and at the same time from 1.9.1931 to 11.6.1932 beginning. Special department of the Moscow Military District. Being your closest assistant G.G. Berries , Agranov used his connections in artistic circles to obtain informative information. From 21.2-1933 to 10.7.1934 deputy. prev OGPU . Enjoyed exceptional confidence I.V. Stalin . From 10.7.1934 to 17.5.1937 1st deputy. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, while all the operational departments united in the GUGB were under his jurisdiction, although Yagoda remained officially the head of the GUGB. Since 1934 member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. After the murder CM. Kirov 12/2/1934 arrived in Leningrad together with Stalin, appointed temporary commander. Leningrad Directorate of the NKVD and headed the investigation into the Kirov case, became the initiator in this regard of mass arrests of innocent people; According to a number of historians, it was he who was directly involved in organizing the murder itself. In 10 days, lists of those subject to deportation were compiled as “not inspiring political confidence” - more than 11 thousand people. One of the main organizers of the falsified political trial in the case of G.E. Zinovieva, L.B. Kamenev, etc. Agranov not only retained his position after being brought to the NKVD N.I. Yezhova , but also received a promotion, holding the post of chief from 12/29/1936 to 04/15/1937. GUGB. Kamenev's interrogations were conducted under Agranov's supervision. Zinovieva, N.I. Bukharin , A.I. Rykova , M.N. Tukhachevsky and others. It was he who prepared materials for the main political processes of the 1930s. However, Agranov still continued to be considered “Yagoda’s man,” and on April 15, 1937 he was transferred to the post of chief. 4th (secret-political) department GUGB NKVD USSR and deputy People's Commissar, and on May 17, 1937, Yezhov removed him from the central apparatus, appointing him as head. NKVD Directorate for the Saratov Region. At this post, Agranov was arrested on July 20, 1937. Pleaded guilty to belonging to an anti-Soviet Trotskyist organization and on August 1, 1938 sentenced to death. Shot. In 1955, the Main Military Prosecutor's Office refused to review the case of Agranov as involved in organizing mass repressions.