Lazar Kaganovich¶
People's Commissar of Railways of the USSR (General Director of Railways) in 1944. Recipient of daily coded telegrams from the head of the Stalinska Railway, Mykola Zakorko, concerning the preparation and conduct of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars.
Overview¶
As People's Commissar of Railways of the USSR, Lazar Kaganovich coordinated the railway support for the special transports of the Investigative Committee (SK) of the NKVD during the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in May 1944. He was personally briefed on a daily basis by coded telegrams from the head of the Stalinska Railway Mykola Zakorko and his deputies on the progress of loading the echelons.
Key Details / Subtopics¶
- Position (1944): People's Commissar of Railways of the USSR, General Director of Railways.
- Role in the deportation: Recipient of operational reports on the accumulation of rolling stock and the loading of SK echelons (13–21 May 1944).
- Chain of command: The Stalinska Railway (Mykola Zakorko) reported directly to the commissar.
- Archival evidence: State Archive of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, F. R-2151, Inv. 12, File 18.
Sources and Links¶
- Deportation of the Crimean Tatars (source) — coded telegrams addressed to L. Kaganovich.
- Deportation of the Crimean Tatars (1944) — the event whose logistics he coordinated.
- Stalinska Railway — the agency that reported to the commissar.
- Deportation of the Peoples of Crimea (1944) — the June deportation of Bulgarians, Greeks, and Armenians, whose logistics the People's Commissariat of Railways coordinated.
- Crimean Impassability — in 1944 Kaganovich ordered the start of survey work for the Yevpatoria–Feodosiia railway (an unrealized project).