Vasiliy Ulrikh | |
|---|---|
 Vasiliy Ulrikh in 1924 as presiding judge, seated at the table, second from the right | |
| Chairman of theMilitary Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union | |
| In office 2 February 1926 – 25 August 1948 | |
| Preceded by | Valentin Trifonov |
| Succeeded by | Aleksandr Cheptsov |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Vasiliy Vasilievich Ulrikh (1889-07-13)13 July 1889 Riga,Governorate of Livonia,Russian Empire |
| Died | 7 May 1951(1951-05-07) (aged 61) Moscow,Russian SFSR,Soviet Union |
| Citizenship | Soviet |
| Political party | Communist Party of the Soviet Union |
Vasiliy Vasilievich Ulrikh (Russian:Васи́лий Васи́льевич У́льрих; 13 July 1889 – 7 May 1951) was a senior judge of theSoviet Union during most of the regime ofJoseph Stalin. Ulrikh served as the presiding judge at many of the majorshow trials of theGreat Purges in theSoviet Union.
Vasili Ulrikh was born inRiga,Latvia, then a part of theRussian Empire. His father was a Latvian revolutionary of German descent, and his mother was a Russian noblewoman. Because of their open involvement in revolutionary activity, the entire family was sentenced to a five-year period ofinternal exile inIrkutsk, Siberia.
In 1910, young Ulrikh returned to his native Riga and began to study at the Riga Polytechnical Institute. He joined theBolshevik faction of theRussian Social Democratic Labour Party in the same year.
He graduated in 1914, and with the beginning ofWorld War I he was sent to the front as an officer.
After theBolshevik Revolution,Leon Trotsky secured him entrance into theCheka. Ulrikh subsequently served on a number of military tribunals, and came to the attention of Stalin, who apparently liked the efficient way in which he carried out his duties and his terse, even laconic style of reporting these tribunals' actions.
In 1926, Ulrikh became Chairman of theMilitary Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. It was in this capacity that he handed down the sentences of theGreat Purge. Ulrikh sentencedZinoviev,Kamenev,Bukharin,Tukhachevsky,Rodzaevsky,Beloborodov,Yezhov and many others. He attended the executions of many of these men, and occasionally performed executions himself.[1] Ulrikh personally executedYan Karlovich Berzin, former head of Red Army Intelligence Directorate, later calledGRU.[2]
DuringWorld War II, Ulrikh continued to hand down death sentences to people accused ofsabotage anddefeatism. He was also the chief judge during theTrial of the Sixteen leaders of thePolish Secret State andHome Army in 1945.
After the conclusion of the war, Ulrikh presided over a number of the early trials of theZhdanovshchina.
In 1948, a number of top judges, including Ulrikh, were removed from their positions for severe drawbacks in the judicial system, including corruption and what were classified as political errors.[3] Ulrikh was subsequently reassigned to be the course director at theMilitary Law Academy. He died of aheart attack on May 7, 1951, and was buried in theNovodevichy Cemetery inMoscow.
Anton Antonov-Ovseenko labeled him a "uniformed toad with watery eyes."[4]Otto Tief, the last acting prime minister of Estonia before Soviet occupation, described Ulrikh as "a youthful, round-faced and plump blond man in a general's uniform, with a gentle smile on his face."[5]