Yan Gamarnik

Yan Gamarnik (birth name Jakov Tzudikovich Gamarnik (Russian: Я́ков Цу́дикович Гама́рник), sometimes known as Yakov Gamarnik (Russian: Я́ков Гама́рник) (June 14 [O.S. June 2] 1894 — May 31, 1937) was a Soviet military absolute commander of the Red Army from 1930 to 1937 and Supreme Commissar of Belarus; he was a politician of Jewish ethnicity.

Gamarnik was born in Zhytomyr in a Jewish family as Jakov Tzudikovich Gamarnik. He attended the St Petersburg Psychoneurological Institute and the Law School of Kiev University. In 1917 he became a member and the secretary of the Kiev committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1921 to 1923 Gamarnik was a chairman of the Kiev city council (see Mayor of Kiev). During his administration Kiev was divided into five districts. He went through many Communist Party positions, both civil and military, e.g. a First Secretary of the Belarusian Communist Party of Belorussia from December 1928 to October 1929.

He was instrumental in preparing the 10-year development plan for the Far-Eastern region of the USSR. He was a member of the Central Committee elected by the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). He attended the Plenum of February 23, 1937.

An idealist, Gamarnik was a staunch supporter of Marshal Tukhachevsky's drive to make USSR a military superpower. In 1937 Gamarnik was accused of participating in an anti-Soviet conspiracy after the Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization; however, shortly before the trial he had actually been called upon by the Soviet government to be one of the judges for the accused. He insisted on Tukhachevsky's innocence and later committed suicide before he could be punished for his actions. Only after this was he added to the list of conspirators. He was rehabilitated posthumously by the CC CPSU and Nikita Khrushchev in 1955.

• Order of Lenin (22 February 1933)
• Order of the Red Banner (20 February 1928)
• The town Suchan was named Gamarnik in his honour (1932-1937)

• Robert Conquest, The Great Terror: A Reassessment, Oxford University Press, May 1990, hardcover, ISBN 0-19-505580-2 pp 201–202;
• Several versions of Gamarnik biography
• Gamarnik in the Fleet, with photo
• Trotsky about Gamarnik and others
• Profile at Handbook on history of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union 1898 – 1991