Georgii Atarbekov

(pseudonym of G. A. Atarbekian). Born Dec. 2 (14), 1892, in Echmiadzin; died Mar. 22, 1925. Soviet state and Party figure. Communist Party member after 1908.

Atarbekov came from a lower middle class family. He studied at Moscow University in 1910–11. In 1917 he conducted Party work among soldiers in Aleksandropol’ (now Leninakan) and was a member of the Sukhumi underground Party committee. He served as deputy chairman of the North Caucasus Cheka in 1918, then chief of the special department of the Caspian-Caucasian front. In 1919 he was chairman of the Cheka in Astrakhan, then chief of the special department and chairman of a tribunal at the southern front. In 1920 he was chief of the special department of the Ninth Army, Cheka representative for the Kuban’-Black Sea Oblast, and Cheka representative in Baku. From 1921 he was chairman of the revolutionary committee of northern Armenia, people’s commissar of post and telegraph of Transcaucasia, deputy people’s commissar of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection, and member of the Presidium of the Transcaucasian Party Control Commission. He died in an airplane crash in Tbilisi.