Iosif Vareikis

Ио́сиф Варе́йкис
First Secretary of the Far Eastern Regional Committee the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In office
15 January 1937 – 3 October 1937
Preceded by| Lavrenty Kartvelishvili
Succeeded by| Georgy Stasevich
First Secretary of the Stalingrad Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In office
20 March 1935 – 22 December 1936
Preceded by| Vladimir Ptukha
Succeeded by| Boris Semyonov
Personal details
Born| 18 October 1894
Ukmergė County, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire
Died| 28 July 1938(1938-07-28) (aged 43)
Kommunarka shooting ground, Moscow, RSFSR, Soviet Union

Buried

Kommunarka

Political party| Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) (1913–1918)
All-Union Communist Party (b) (1918–1937)
Awards|

Iosif Mikhailovich Vareikis (Russian: Ио́сиф (Юозас) Миха́йлович Варе́йкис; Lithuanian: Juozas Vareikis; 18 October 1894 – 28 July 1938) was a Soviet Lithuanian politician and Communist Party official.

## Contents

* 1 Biography
* 1.1 Early career
* 1.2 Soviet official
* 1.3 Great Purge and execution
* 2 References

## Biography[edit]

### Early career[edit]

Born in to a working-class family, he moved to Moscow and worked as a turner-toolmaker at factories. From 1911 he was involved in underground social democratic circles and eventually joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) in 1913.

In the summer of 1913, Vareikis and two other Bolsheviks founded a sports club in Podolsk with the aim of involving workers in revolutionary activities. With his participation, the football team of the Singer sewing machine plant was founded.[1]

In the beginning of the First World War, Vareikis published defeatist and revolutionary leaflets among workers as well leading and participating in many anti-government strikes.

After the February Revolution he was elected a member of the presidium of the Podolsk Soviet, Moscow province. After the October Revolution he became an organizer of Red Guard detachments and became a member of the Yekaterinoslav committee of the RSDLP(b).

From January 1918 he became the secretary of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog regional committee of the Russian Communist Party (b) in Kharkov and the people's commissar for social security of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic.

From June 1918 to August 1920, he worked as chairman of the Simbirsk provincial committee of the RCP (b) and was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council and the emergency commandant of Simbirsk during the defense of the city from units of the Czechoslovak corps.

In July 1918, together with Mikhail Tukhachevsky, he led the suppression of the uprising of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, and also made the arrest of the commander of the Eastern Front Mikhail Muravyov and his supporters.[1]

### Soviet official[edit]

From 1920 to 1921 he worked in Vitebsk as an authorized All-Russian Central Executive Committee and People's Commissar of Food, as well as the chairman of the Vitebsk provincial executive committee. From 1921 to 1923  he was deputy chairman of the Baku Council.

From April 25, 1923, to May 23, 1924, Vareikis was a candidate member of the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). From February 1924 he was the executive secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Turkestan and a member of the Central Asian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (B).[2]

From October 1924 to January 1926 he worked as the head of the press department of the Central Committee of the VKP (b) and editor of the magazines Molodaya Gvardiya and Krasnaya Press. From January 1926 to April 1928  he was secretary of the Saratov Provincial Committee of the All-Union Communist Party(b).

On July 13, 1930, he became a member of the Central Committee of the VKP(b).

From August 1928 to June 19, 1934, he worked as the first secretary of the regional party committee of the Central Black Earth Oblast. When an anti-communist uprising broke out in January 1929 in the Ostrogozhsky district of the Central Black Earth District, Vareikis personally directed its suppression. He also directed the policy of collectivism in the oblast.

From February 1930 to April 1931 alone, 19,238 people were convicted by the OGPU troikas, of whom 15, 233 were convicted for active "counterrevolutionary agitation and participation in counterrevolutionary organizations".[3]

With the division of the Central Black Earth District on June 19, 1934, into the Voronezh and Kursk regions, Vareikis headed the Voronezh regional party committee. From March 20, 1935 to December 22, 1936, he worked as the first secretary of the Stalingrad Regional Committee of the VKP (b).

### Great Purge and execution[edit]

From January to 1937 Vareikis became first secretary of the Far Eastern Committee of the VKP(b) and was actively involved in the great purge and the suppression of fellow party officials.[2] He was also involved in the deportation of the Korean population to Central Asia.

On September 8, Vareikis sent a written report on the Politburo, in which he spoke about the situation in the Far Eastern Territory and about his successes in exposing the enemies of the people. He reported that 500 spies were identified and shot among the railway workers alone.[4]

On October 3, 1937, Vareikis himself became a suspect and was removed from the post of first secretary of the Far Eastern Regional Committee of the VKP (b) and recalled him to Moscow. Vareikis was arrested at the entrance to Moscow as one of the active participants of the counterrevolutionary Rightist-Trotskyist organization in the Central Black Oblast.[1]

On October 21, 1937, the plenum of the Dalkraikom of the VKP (b) officially dismissed Vareikis from the post of first secretary.

On July 29, 1938, Iosif Vareikis was sentenced to death by the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union and was shot on the same day in the Kommunarka NKVD shooting ground.

On May 26, 1956, he was rehabilitated and reinstated in the party.

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b c Маргарита, Назаренко (2019-10-22). ""Дом на Дворцовой (К.Маркса), где он жил, не сохранился". Brandergofer: Иосиф Варейкис. «Все были с ним знакомы»". Улпресса - все новости Ульяновска (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-09-11.
2. ^ a b "Handbook of the history of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union 1898-1991. Vareikis, Iosif Mikhailovich".
3. ^ "Из истории деятельности ОГПУ Центрального Черноземья в 1930 году". ebookiriran.ru. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
4. ^ "Из письма И.М. Варейкиса И.В. Сталину. Альманах «Россия. XXI век». Архив Александра Н. Яковлева (27.06.1937). Дата обращения: 19 марта 2010. Архивировано 13 марта 2012 года". Archived from the original on 2016-12-14.

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