Grigoriy Kirdetsov

Kirdetsov Gregoriy L'vovich Dvorzhetskiy (Russian: Кирдецов Григорий Львович (Дворжецкий); French: Kirdetzoff Grégoire Lvovitch Dvorzetsky; known in Italy as Kyrdetzow Grigorij L'vovič Dworetzky, 1880 – 1938) was a public official, journalist, the translator of Italian social and political literature. He collaborated in the Jewish Encyclopedia (Russian: Еврейской энциклопедии) until 1917. During the First World War he was a correspondent for the newspaper Stock Exchange Lists in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Gregoriy Kirdetzoff, Berlin 1924

In the fall of 1917, he evacuated his stepson, Count Constantin Pavlovich Borodin (20 October 1907, Saint Petersburg, Imperial Russia – 28 March 2007, Brussels, Belgium) from Saint Petersburg. In the spring of 1918, he left the Soviet territory. From July 1918, in the occupied Revel (modern Estonia's capital Tallinn), he occupied the position of the editor of the semi-official publication of North-Western Government, the newspaper Free Russia (Свободная Россия). In 1919–1920 together with Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin he was the editor of the newspaper Freedom of Russia (Свобода России), and in 1920–1921 the newspaper For the Freedom of Russia (За свободу России).

In 1919–1920 he simultaneously occupied a key role in the press, relating political divisions in press conferences held by the commander-in-chief of the North-Western White Army, the General Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich. In 1921 he emigrated, he joined the smenovekhovskomu (сменовеховскому) social and political movement. From 26 March 1922 until 1 October 1923 in Berlin, he edited the main printed organ of the smenovekhovskoy (сменовеховской) group, the daily newspaper Yesterday (Накануне). As of 1 October 1923, he was heading the press corps of the USSR embassy in Germany, he later obtained the post of the press-attaché of the Soviet embassy in Italy.

He joined the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, where he collaborated in the periodical International Life (Международная жизнь). He worked as editorial staff of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.

On 28 August 1936, he was arrested by the UNKVD (УНКВД) on the North-Caucasian border, in the city of Kislovodsk and special-escorted directly to Moscow to be interrogated by the military counter-intelligence of the Soviet Army (ГУГБ НКВД СССР). During a special conference of the NKVD, dated 28 March 1936, he was convicted for "active participation in the counter-revolutionary group and anti-Soviet agitation" (article 58-10: 58-11 УК РСФСР) and sent to the city of Turukhansk Krasnoyarsk Krai (Туруханск Красноярского края).

However, on 7 February 1938 Kirdetsov was again arrested by the UNKVD of Krasnoyarsk Krai and by the decision of a special conference with the NKVD he was sentenced to serve for 8 years in Norillag's Gulag labor camp, also known as Norilsk Corrective Labor Camp (Норильлаг, Норильстрой, Норильский ИТЛ) for "taking part in the anti-Soviet pravotrotskistskoy (правотроцкистской) organization". He died a few months later.

Kirdetsov was rehabilitated for the second conviction on 25 November 1957.

References

• Grigoriy Kirdetsov, peoples.ru (in Russian)