Background
Ignat’ev, Semen was born in 1903.
Ignat’ev, Semen was born in 1903.
Joined the Communist Party, 1926. Made his career during the 1930s. Took an active part in the purges.
First Secretary of the Party Cttees. in Buriat-Mongolia, 1938, Bashkiria, 1944-1947 and 1954-1957, and Tataria, 1957-1960. Replaced Abakumov as Minister of State Security (MGB), 1951-1953. Member of the Presidium of the party’s Central Committee, 1952-1953.
Secretary of the Central Committee, 1953. Relieved of his posts for ‘political blindness’ in connection with the Doctors Plot (the anti-Semitic arrest and trial of a group of doctors, most of them Jewish). During his famous anti-Stalin speech in 1956, Khrushchev said that Ignat’ev had acted on Stalin’s personal orders.
It was he who gave Stalin the figure of the total G ulag population (12 million according to Moskovskii Komsomolets, February 1988).