Nikolai Kuzmin

Nikolai Nikolayevich Kuzmin
Born	November 29, 1883(1883-11-29)  ?, Russia
Died	February 8, 1938(1938-02-08) (aged 54)  ? Soviet Union
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Service/branch	Soviet Navy
Years of service	1917-1932
Rank	Commisar
Commands held	Baltic Fleet
Battles/wars	Russian Civil War
Awards	2 x Order of the Red Banner

Nikolai Nikolayevich Kuzmin (Russian: Николай Николаевич Кузьмин) (1883–1938) was a Soviet political and military leader. He was the political Commisar of the Baltic Fleet during the time of the Russian Civil War.

Kuzmin Graduated from St Petersburg University and joined the Bolshevik Movement in 1903. He participated in the 1905 revolution. In 1917 he was a member of the military organisation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. He was also editor of two newspapers Soldatskaya Pravda ( «Солдатская правда») and Derevenskaya Bednota («Деревенская беднота»).

During the Civil War Kuzmin served as a Political Commisar on the South Western Front (1918–1919) and the Petrograd area from 1920. In 1920 he was appointed Political commissar of the Baltic Fleet and took part in suppressing the Kronstadt Rebellion. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

In 1924 Kuzmin became chief assistant prosecutor in the Supreme Court of the USSR for military justice. He was critical of the abuse of power by the OOGPU and removed from his post. He was made Chief Political Officer of the Central Asian Military District in 1925 and in 1931-32 he was made Chief Political Officer of the Siberian Military District.

Kuzmin moved into civilian life in 1932 and became head of the Omsk branch of Sevmorput. He was arrested on 28 May 1937 as part of Stalin's Purges. Kuzmin refused to confess and pleaded not guilty at his trial. He was sentenced to death and shot on 8 February 1938. Kuzmin was posthumously rehabilitated in 1956.

Source

• This article is translated from Russian Wikipedia
• Залесский К. А. Империя Сталина. Биографический энциклопедический словарь. Москва, Вече, 2000

Persondata
Name	Kuzmin, Nikolai
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	29 November 1883
Place of birth	?, Russia
Date of death	8 February 1938
Place of death	? Soviet Union