Yezhov’s short but bloodthirsty reign (in 1937, 936,750 Soviet citizens were arrested for committing “counterrevolutionary crimes” and 353,074 were shot; in 1938, 638,509 were arrested for political crimes and 328,618 were shot)92 ended on November 24, 1938, when Stalin signed a Politburo resolution dismissing him. On November 25, Beria was appointed commissar, and Merkulov, the first deputy commissar and head of the GUGB. Yezhov was accused of “political unreliability” and arrested on April 10, 1939. On February 4, 1940, after a one-day trial, Yezhov was condemned to death for “treason against the Motherland, wrecking, spying, preparation of terrorist acts, and organization of assassinations of persons he did not like.” Nothing was said, of course, about the fact that the terrorist acts and assassinations had been ordered by the Politburo and Stalin. Yezhov was shot in the basement of the Military Tribunal building on Nikol’sky Street in front of the Kremlin.93 In June 1998, the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court refused to rehabilitate Yezhov.94
THE LABORATORY OF DEATH: A SHORT HISTORY
September 1938 became a period of drastic changes in the NKVD structure, including the subordination of research laboratories. Beria and Merkulov brought from Georgia a team of Communist Party and local NKVD functionaries who became key persons in the NKVD/NKGB/MGB structure until Stalin’s death in 1953. Shpigelglass was replaced by Vladimir Dekanozov, a former deputy chairman of the Georgia Council of People’s Commissars with a reputation as “the hangman of Baku” because of the death sentences he had handed out in the Caucasus in the 1920s.95 Besides the Foreign Department (now named the GUGB NKVD Fifth Department), Dekanozov simultaneously headed the GUGB Third (Counterintelligence) Department and became deputy NKVD commissar.
The changes in the GUGB Twelfth Department (which included the predecessor of Mairanovsky’s lab) started even earlier. On June 9, 1938, the GUGB Twelfth Department was renamed the Second Special Department (Operational Equipment) and Mikhail Alekhin was appointed its acting head.96 However, on September 13, soon after Frinovsky’s dismissal, Alekhin was arrested. In a year he was condemned as a “German spy” and shot. Yevgenii Lapshin was appointed acting head of the Second Department and Arkady Osinkin, his deputy.97 The same month, Valentin Kravchenko, who later, in 1942, supervised Mairanovsky’s laboratory, joined this department as an engineer. That same September, Mairanovsky started his cooperation with the NKVD. Possibly, the poisons laboratory within “Yasha’s Group” was merged with the Second Department after Serabryansky’s arrest on October 11, 1938.
On February 20, 1939, this Second Special Department was divided in two, with the new Second Special Department headed by Lapshin (621 persons), and the Fourth Special Department headed by Mikhail Filimonov (61 persons).98 The toxicological laboratory, known as Laboratory No. 1 or “The Kamera” (the word kamera in Russian has a sinister meaning—a cell in a prison or a chamber for torture) and now headed by Mairanovsky, was included in Filimonov’s department (Table 2.1). There were two laboratories (called divisions, later departments), under the supervision of Mairanovsky and Sergei Muromtsev within Laboratory No. 1.99
| Date of Change | Commissariat/Ministry | Directorate and Head | Department and Head | Laboratory and Head | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Commissar | ||||
| Feb. 20, 1939 | NKVD | L. Beria, 1st Deputy V. Merkulov | - | 4th Special Dept. (Laboratories), M. Filimonov, 61 staff members | Laboratory No. 1, G. Mairanovsky |
| Feb. 26, 1941 | NKGB (NKVD was divided into NKVD and NKGB) | V. Merkulov, Deputy B. Kobulov | 1st Directorate | 8th Department, M. Filimonov | Laboratory No. 1, G. Mairanovsky |
| July 31, 1941 | NKVD (NKVD merged with NKGB) | L. Beria, 1st Deputy V. Merkulov | 4th Special Department, V. Kravchenko | 10th Division (Laboratories), M. Filimonov | Laboratory No. 1, G. Mairanovsky |
| Jan. 18, 1942 | NKVD (NKVD merged with NKGB) | L. Beria, 1st Deputy V. Merkulov | 4th Directorate, P. Sudolatov (Deputy N. Eitingon) | 4th Department, M. Filimonov | Laboratory No. 1, G. Mairanovsky |
| June 1, 1942 | NKVD (NKVD merged with NKGB) | L. Beria, 1st Deputy V. Merkulov | 4th Directorate, P. Sudolatov (Deputy N. Eitingon) | 5th Department, M. Filimonov | Laboratory No. 1, G. Mairanovsky |
| May 14, 1943 | NKGB (NKVD divided into NKVD and NKGB) | V. Merkulov, 1st Deputy B. Kobulov | 4th Directorate, P. Sudoplatov (Deputy N. Eitingon) | 5th Department, M. Filimonov | Laboratory No. 1, G. Mairanovsky |
| Aug. 20, 1946 | MGB | V. Abakumov, 1st Deputy S. Ogol’tsov | (4th Directorate dissolved) | Department of Operational Equipment (OOT), F. Zhelezov | Laboratory, G. Mairanovsky (Senior Engineer) |
| Mar. 14, 1953 | MVD | L. Beria, 1st Deputies S. Kruglov, B. Kobulov, I. Serov | - | 5th Special Dept. | Laboratory No. 12, V. Naumov |
| Mar. 18, 1954 | KGB | S. Kruglov, 1st Deputy K. Lunev | - | 5th Special Dept. | Laboratory No. 12, V. Naumov |
| July 2, 1959 | KGB | A. Shelepin | Directorate of Operational Equipment | - | Laboratory No. 12, V. Naumov (?) |
| 1978 | KGB | Yu. Andropov | Operational-Technical Directorate (OTU) | - | Central Investigation Institute for Special Technology |