Vasily Grigoryevich Yakovenko (March 15, 1889 – July 29, 1937) was the organizer of the partisan movement in Siberia during the Russian Civil War, a Soviet statesman, People's Commissar of Agriculture of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (1922–1923), People's Commissar of Social Security of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (1923–1926).
Biography
From a peasant family, at the age of 9, he was left an orphan. He worked as a laborer. In 1910, he was drafted into the army and served in the engineering units for 4 years. Since 1914, he participated in the First World War, the non–commissioned officer, according to his own recollections, was awarded the Saint George Cross three times, but this fact has no documentary evidence. In July 1917, he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks). Returning to Taseevo, at the end of the same year, he became chairman of the Taseevsky Volost District.[1][2]
After the Czechoslovak Revolt, which overthrew the Soviet regime in the region, he went underground. In December 1918, he led the uprising in Taseevo and organized a partisan struggle against the Kolchak Troops. He became one of the founders of the partisan army, which numbered up to 15 thousand people. Chairman of the Council of the North Kansk Partisan Front, led the fight against the Kolchak regime until the end of January 1920.[2]
From 1920 to 1922, he was chairman of the Kansk Revolutionary Committee and the county executive committee. At the beginning of 1922, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Krasnoyarsk Provincial Executive Committee, but was soon summoned to Moscow. On the recommendation of Ivan Teodorovich, who personally knew him, on January 9, 1922, he was appointed People's Commissar of Agriculture of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. He is listed as an ardent supporter of the New Economic Policy.[2][3]
Among the possible candidates for this post, let me name one figure who, in my opinion, has a lot of data for this. This is Vasily Grigoryevich Yakovenko, a Siberian, a peasant, an old–timer of the village of Taseevsky, the richest village in the Kansky District, the richest in Eastern Siberia. According to external data, this is a man in his 40s, a tall, powerful, hairy bearded man from a plow, in love with the "earth". ... In my opinion, he will be very appropriate in the post of peasant people's commissar. His discipline and devotion to Soviet power are beyond doubt.
— Letter from Ivan Teodorovich to Vladimir Lenin, December 12, 1921[4]
From 1923 to 1926, People's Commissar of Social Security of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. Delegate of the 12th–13th Congresses of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), in 1924–1925 – member of the Central Control Commission of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). He was a member of the All–Russian Central Executive Committee. Since 1928, he worked in the reception room of the chairman of the Central Executive Committee, Mikhail Kalinin, as chairman of the land and election commission. From 1932 to 1935 – in the State Planning Commission of the Soviet Union, he was a member of the presidium and chairman of the national bureau. Since 1935, he was first a member of the board of the Research Institute of New Bast Crops under the People's Commissariat for Agriculture of the Soviet Union in Moscow, and then the director of this institute.[1]
Arrested on February 9, 1937, sentenced on July 29, 1937, by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union to capital punishment and shot on the same day, buried in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery. Rehabilitated on June 30, 1956, by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union.[5]
Family
First wife – Maria Alexandrovna Mullova. The second wife, Raisa Abramovna Yakovenko, was repressed as the wife of an "enemy of the people", spent 19 years in camps and exile, then lived in Moscow.[6]
Awards
The Notes of a Partisan mentions the awarding of Vasily Grigorievich with three Saint George Crosses, however, there is no data on these awards in the consolidated lists of holders of the Saint George Cross.
^Vyacheslav Chernoivanov. A Century and a Half of Agrarian Problems. The Agricultural Department of Russia in Persons. 1837–2005. Moscow, State Research Technological Institute for the Repair and Operation of Tractors and Agricultural Machines, 2006
