Malenkov, Georgii (1902–1988), Party figure. Joined the Party in 1920, became Stalin’s secretary (1928–1930). First secretary of the Moscow Regional Committee (1930–1934), head of the Personnel Department of the Orgburo in the Central Committee (1934–1939), one of five secretaries of the Central Committee (1939–1946; 1948–1953), head of the Directorate of Cadres of the Committee (1939–1946), member of the State Defense Committee (1941–1945). Member of the Politburo and deputy chair of the USSR Council of Ministers, Sovmin (1946–1955). Before Zhdanov’s death in 1948, was his rival within the Politburo; viewed as Stalin’s successor. After Stalin’s death, chair (1953–1955) and then deputy chair (1955–1957) of the Sovmin. In 1957, dismissed by Khrushchev and demoted to director of a hydroelectrical station in Siberia. In 1961, expelled from the Communist Party (Naumov and Sigachev, Lavrentii Beria, p. 462; Hahn, Weiner G., Postwar Soviet Politics: The Fall of Zhdanov and the Defeat of Moderation, 1946–53 [Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982], pp. 34–51; 104–113, 156–160; Ra’anan, Gavriel D., International Policy Formation in the USSR: Factional “Debates” During the Zhdanovshchina [Hamden, CT: Archon, 1983], pp. 12–24).
Meister, Georgii (1873–1943), plant breeder, director of the Saratov Agricultural Experimental Station and chair of the Genetics and Selection Department at Saratov Agricultural Institute (1923–1937). Member of the Agricultural Academy (VASKhNIL) (1935). In 1937, vice president and then acting president of the VASKhNIL. The main proponent of the agreement of geneticists and agronomists with Lysenko. Arrested in 1938 and later shot.
Men’shagin, Boris (1902–1984), lawyer and the longest Soviet political prisoner kept in solitary confinement. Born in the city of Smolensk into a lawyer’s family. In 1919, joined the Red Army. In 1929, refused to join the Bolshevik Party and resigned. Graduated and became a lawyer in Moscow (1931–1937). In 1937–1941, defended people arrested on political charges in Smolensk. After the conquest of Smolensk by Nazi troops in 1941, was appointed burgomaster. In April 1943, witnessed the discovery of a mass grave of Polish officers killed in 1940 by the NKVD near the village of Katyn. In late 1943, escaped with his family to Karlovy Vary (Chechoslovakia), where he was detained by mistake by the Americans for a few weeks. In search of his family, went back to the Soviets not knowing that his family had successfully escaped to the Americans. On May 28, 1945, was arrested by the Second SMERSH Directorate, transferred to Moscow and kept in Lubyanka Prison. Refused to testify at the Nuremberg Trial (1946) in favor of the Soviet version of the Katyn Massacre. On September 12, 1951, sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment. From November 30, 1951, in Vladimir Prison, where was kept under No. 29 until 1954. Spent 23 years in solitary confinement. Released on May 28, 1970, and assigned to live in remote state-supported nursing homes in northern Russia under constant KGB surveillance.
Menzhinsky, Vyacheslav (1874–1934), VCheKa/OGPU figure. Like Dzerzhinsky, was of Polish origin. Deputy commissar (1917–1919), then commissar of finances. Deputy head (1919), then head (1920–1922) of the VCheKa Special Department (OO), head of the GPU Secret-Operational Department (1922–1923), first deputy chairman (1923–1926), then chairman of the OGPU (1926–1934) (Gerson, Lennard D., The Secret Police in Lenin’s Russia (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1976), p. 315; Leggett, The CHEKA, pp. 264–275; Kokurin and Petrov, Lubyanka, p. 11).
Merkulov, Vsevolod (1895–1953) joined the Georgian CheKa/OGPU (1921–1932), then a Georgian Communist Party functionary (1934–1938). Deputy head (1938), then head (from December 17, 1938) of the NKVD Main State Security Directorate (GUGB); also head of the GUGB Third Department and first deputy NKVD commissar. NKGB commissar (February–July 1941), first deputy NKVD commissar again (July 1941–April 1943), and NKGB commissar/MGB minister (1943–May 1946), head of the Main Directorate of the Soviet Property Abroad (Germany) (1947–1950), minister of state control (1950–1953). Arrested on August 19, 1953, and tried together with Beria. Shot on December 23, 1953. Not rehabilitated (Petrov and Skorkin, Kto rukovodil NKVD, pp. 296–297).
Meshik, Pavel (1910–1953) joined the OGPU in 1932. Deputy head of a division within the OGPU/GUGB Economic Department (1933–1935), then in different departments. Head of the Investigation Division of the NKVD Economic Department (1939–1940), head of the NKVD Economic Directorate (1941–1943), deputy head of the SMERSH Main Directorate (1943–1945). In 1945, in Poland. Deputy head of the First Main Directorate under the Council of Commissars/Ministers (in charge of the Soviet atomic project) (1945–1953). Ukrainian MVD minister (March–June 1953). Arrested on June 30, 1953, tried together with Beria and Merkulov, condemned to death on December 23, 1953, and shot. Not rehabilitated (Petrov and Skorkin, Kto rukovodil NKVD, p. 297).
Michurin, Ivan (1855–1935), amateur agronomist and plant breeder. Attempted to prove the inheritance of acquired characteristics by developing varieties of fruit trees and berries. Honorary member of the Agricultural Academy (VASKhNIL) and of the Academy of Sciences (1935). Lysenko named his own pseudotheories the “Michurinist biology.”
Mikhoels (Vovsi), Solomon (1890–1948), Jewish actor, theater director, and teacher; director of the Moscow State Jewish Theater (1929–1948). Chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) (1942–1948). In 1943, together with the JAC Secretary Isaak Fefer, visited the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Great Britain, where they lectured about Nazi atrocities and the JAC activity. On January 13, 1948, killed together with an MGB agent, Gol-ubov-Potapov, on Stalin’s personal order in the city of Minsk (Belorussia). On the order of MGB Minister Abakumov, First Deputy MGB Minister Sergei Ogol’tsov, and Head of the Belorussian MGB Lavrentii Tsanava, the assassination was staged as a truck accident. The killing of Mikhoels triggered the official anti-Semitic campaign, which ended up as a case against the JAC members and later, as the Doctors’ Plot case.
Mikoyan, Anastas (1895–1978), Party and state figure. Joined the Bolsheviks in 1915. Commissar of inner and foreign trade (1926–1930), commissar of supply (1930–1934), commissar of food industry (1934–1938), and commissar/minister of foreign trade (1938–1949). Deputy chairman of the Council of Commisars/Ministers (1937–1955), member of the State Committee of Defense (1942–1945), minister of trade (1953), first deputy chair of the Council of Ministers (1955–1964), chairman of the Supreme Council (1964–1965), and member of the Presidium of the Supreme Council (1965–1974). A Politburo/Presidium member (1935–1966). Retired in 1974.
Mironov, Lev (1895–1938; pseudonym of Lev Kagan) joined the OGPU Economic Directorate in 1924. Head of this directorate (1931–1934), then head of the GUGB Economic Department (1934–1936), head of the Third (Counterintelligence) Department of the Main State Security Directorate (GUGB) (1936–1937). Arrested on June 14, 1937, and shot on August 29, 1938. Not rehabilitated (Petrov and Skorkin, Kto rukovodil NKVD, pp. 300–301).