Georgii Blagonravov

Born May 6 (18), 1896, in Egor’evsk, Moscow Province; died Feb. 9, 1938. Soviet statesman. Member of the Communist Party from March 1917. Born into the family of a servant.

In 1917, Blagonravov headed the Egor’evsk soviet and was a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee at the first convocation. As an ensign, he entered the military organizations of the Central Committee of the RSDLP (Bolshevik). He took an active part in the October armed uprising in Petrograd. On Oct. 23 (Nov. 5), 1917, the Petrograd provisional revolutionary committee appointed him commissar of the Peter and Paul Fortress, whose guns shelled the Winter Palace on Oct. 25 (Nov. 7), 1917, in accordance with the committee’s plans. Blagonravov helped the committee to uncover the mutinous plot of the junkers in Petrograd in 1917. In 1918 he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Armed Forces on the eastern front. From 1918 to 1932 he worked in the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (Cheka), the State Political Directorate (GPU), and the Unified State Political Directorate (OGPU). From 1932 to 1934 he was deputy to the people’s commissar of communication. After 1935, he headed the highway administration. At the 17th Party congress, he was chosen as candidate for membership in the Central Committee of the ACP (Bolshevik).