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Memorandum by the Procuracy, the KGB, and the administrative department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party on the rehabilitation of specialists in the aviation industry

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By Procuracy, The Procuracy of the RSFSR KGB - Committee for State Security of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), Bolshevik Party, Bolshevik Center, Central Committee, RKP(b), Members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Executive Commission of the Bolshevik Party, Executive Committee of Bolsheviks, Provincial and Regional Party Committees of the RKP(b), Communist Party of the Soviet Union, CPSU, All-Union Communist Party, VKP(b), CC and CCC of the VKP(b), Central Control Commission of the VKP(b), Republic and Territorial (Regional) Control Commissions, Conference of the Russian Communist Party, Plenium of the Central Committee VKP(b) (Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party), RK VKP(b), Congress of the Communist Party, Central Committee of the VKP(b) (All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

The History of the Gulag: From Collectivization to the Great Terror

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Document 58

Memorandum by the Procuracy, the KGB, and the administrative department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party on the rehabilitation of specialists in the aviation industry 23 February 1955

GARF, f. R-8131, op. 32, d. 4002, ll. 32–34.

Top secret. To the Secretary of the CC CPSU, Com. Khrushchev.

In accordance with your instruction, we reviewed the investigative cases of A. N. Tupolev and other imprisoned prominent specialists in the aviation industry. […]

As a result, it has been established that:

Tupolev and other prominent workers of the aviation industry were arrested by the NKVD in 1937–38. The NKVD had no specific materials to indict the prisoners, and the investigation was based only on statements by the prisoners in which they accused each other.

For example, Tupolev stated that he had organized an anti-Soviet group among TsAGI [Central Institute for Aerodynamics and Hydrodynamics] workers, whose members supposedly engaged in sabotage in the early years of the Soviet regime and later set up a hostile organization that sabotaged the construction of almost all aircraft.

Soon after Tupolev's arrest, such leading workers of the TsAGI as Miasishchev, Petliakov, Nekrasov, and others, were also arrested. All of them confessed during interrogation that they supposedly were engaged in anti-Soviet activity.

Later, most specialists in the aviation industry recanted their confessions as being false and stated that they had been forced to take the blame by the forbidden methods of investigation.

In 1938 all of them, without being convicted, were sent to work in the Special Technical Bureau of the NKVD USSR, and their cases were sent to the archive without being reviewed by the court.

At the time of his ascension in the NKVD USSR, to create the impression that arrested specialists were being put to good use, Beria managed, by deception, to secure the approval of “instances” [that is, the Politburo or Stalin] for the sentencing in absentia of 307 aviation specialists to various prison terms. He insisted that “reviewing these cases in a usual manner is disadvantageous, because it will distract the specialists from work and will threaten the work plans of the Special Technical Bureau.”

In presenting these far-fetched and unsubstantiated arguments, Beria also claimed that the guilt of arrested specialists in committing state crimes had been proven and that bringing the accused to a court session

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would prove nothing, since they had been in close touch for a long time and would have already agreed on any future statements. In his letter Beria also asked for permission to create a special commission, composed of himself, the procurator of the USSR, and the chairman of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, which would determine, in absentia, the degree of punishment for each of the arrested specialists, in the form of imprisonment for five to fifteen years.

The KGB archive also has the protocols of sessions from the aforementioned commission during which the commission determined the punishment for all arrested specialists. In May 1940 the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court reviewed in absentia the cases of the arrested specialists and determined their punishment in accordance with the resolution of this commission.

Thus, all the arrested specialists were convicted. Later, in 1940–44, at the request of the NKVD, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR freed many of them and cancelled their convictions. […]

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Document Details

Document TitleMemorandum by the Procuracy, the KGB, and the administrative department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party on the rehabilitation of specialists in the aviation industry

AuthorProcuracy, The Procuracy of the RSFSR; KGB - Committee for State Security of the; Council of Ministers of the USSR; Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), Bolshevik Party, Bolshevik Center, Central Committee, RKP(b), Members of the Central Committee of the; Communist Party, Executive Commission of the Bolshevik; Party, Executive Committee of Bolsheviks, Provincial and Regional Party Committees of; the RKP(b), Communist Party of the Soviet Union,; CPSU, All-Union Communist Party, VKP(b), CC and CCC of the VKP(b), Central Control Commission of the; VKP(b), Republic and Territorial (Regional) Control; Commissions, Conference of the Russian Communist; Party, Plenium of the Central Committee VKP(b); (Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party), RK VKP(b), Congress of the Communist Party, Central Committee of the VKP(b) (All-Union; Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

RecipientKhrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich

RepositoryGARF

ID #f.R-8131, op.32, d.4002, ll.32-34

DescriptionN/A

Date1955 Feb 23

AOC VolumeThe History of the Gulag: From Collectivization to the Great Terror

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