Gennady Kupriyanov

An ethnic Russian,[2] Kupriyanov was born into a poor peasant family in the village of Rylo, Soligalichsky District, Kostroma Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Soligalichsky District, Kostroma Oblast, Russian Federation) on November 21, 1905.[3] He worked as a carpenter from the age of fourteen and continued working as a carpenter until he was twenty.[4] He joined the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (better known as the Komsomol) in 1920.[5] He had three children with his first wife Vera Vasilievna; Victor (b. 1928), Rosa (b. 1929) and Galina (b. 1938). He attended the Sverdlov Communist University from 1932 to 1935.

Kupriyanov served in the Red Army from 1925 to 1927.[4][6] He also briefly served in the Soviet Army from 1939 to 1940 during the Winter War. With the outbreak of World War II, Kupriyanov joined the Military Council of the 7th Army on June 30, 1941.[7] He also became a member of the Military Council of the Karelian Front on August 23, 1941. He was awarded the rank of Division commander on October 1, 1942. Not to long after, Kupriyanov was awarded the rank of Major general.[8] After the liberation of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic in 1944, a few members of the command of the Karelian Front (including General Terenty Shytkov) proposed to deport the indigenous population of the Karelo-Finnish SSR to Siberia and the Kazakh SSR and liquidate the republic. However the mass deportation of the Karelo-Finnish did not happen. Some historians credit Kupriyanov for preventing the mass deportation.[9]

He joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1926,[10] but worked as a social science teacher at Solgalich Secondary School from 1927 to 1929. He became the Head of the Department of Public Education of the Solgalich District Executive Committee in 1929 and remained in the position until 1931. He served as the Head of the Department of Propaganda and Agitation of the Solgalich District Committee of the Communist Party from 1931 to 1932.[11] After returning from university in 1935, Kupriyanov served as the Head of the School Department of the Dzerzhinsky District Committee of the Communist Party. He served as the First Secretary of the Kuybyshevsky District Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1937 to 1938 in Leningrad.[6]

Kupriyanov was elected as the First Secretary of the Karelian Regional Committee of the Communist Party in June 1938 on the recommendation of Andrei Zhdanov to Stalin.[12] As a regional committee's First Secretary, Kupriyanov became part of the NKVD troika in September 1938.[13] During the Winter War, he ordered the construction of the 132 kilometer-long Petrozavodsk-Shuezersk railway; the railway was built in 46 days.[14] With the formation of the Karelo-Finnish SSR in 1940, he became the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic on April 2, 1940.[15] He was elected as a candidate member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) during the 18th Party Congress. Gennady Kupriyanov and his family were evacuated to Novosibirsk in August 1941 due to World War II.[16] He was removed from his post on January 25, 1950 due to the Leningrad Affair.

Kupriyanov soon became involved in the Leningrad Affair, he was accused of "failure to fulfill plans in industry and agriculture, patronage of workers who had compromised themselves, clampdown and lack of collegiality in work" by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish SSR.[17] He was removed from his post as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish SSR on January 25, 1950.

Kupriyanov died on February 28, 1979. He is buried at the Kazan cemetery in Pushkin, Russia.[21]

• Order of Lenin (twice)
• Order of the Red Banner
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour
• Order of the Patriotic War (first class)

• Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic
• Winter War