Category: 
Sharaski, Sites of Imprisonment

Military Collegium of the Supreme Court / OGPU Economic Administration

Address: 23 Nikolskaya Street (previously 25 Oktyabrya Street), Moscow

Military Collegium of the Supreme Court. Photo: Memorial Society Photo Archive.

Military Collegium of the Supreme Court. Photo: Memorial Society Photo Archive.

Military Collegium of the Supreme Court

The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR was located in this building. It was managed by Vasily Ulrikh during the Great Terror. According to its reports, from 1934 to 1955 the Military Collegium sentenced 47,549 people. Between October 1936-November 1938, it sentenced 31,456 people to death (including 7,408 people in Moscow) and 6,857 to prison.

Between 1936-1938, the Military Collegium worked as a court of first instance. It sentenced more than 30,000 people to death, according to the so-called Stalin's lists. According to legend, death sentences were also carried out in this house.

OGPU Economic Administration

Previously, from 1931 to 1934, the OGPU Economic Administration was located there. Until 1936, it was responsible for coordinating the work of imprisoned specialists in sharaski (experimental design bureaus).

Presumably, one of the sharashki was located at 23 Nikolskaya Street. Arrested aviation specialists, including both airplane builders and engine constructors, worked there on engine designs for fighter planes.

The aviation diesel engine KODZHU (“Koba Dzhugashvili”), as well as other engines for cars, tanks, and ships, were also designed and tested in sharashki. These specialists were unable to achieve the same success that they had with the airplane I-5, and experts were later released in 1933.