Nikolai Gikalo
Nikolay Fyodorovich Gikalo was a Soviet revolutionary and statesman. He was born in Odessa into an assimilated Jewish family. From 1915 he served in the Russian Imperial Army, in 1917 he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He commanded the Red Army in the fight against the White Army in the Northern Caucasus. He was first secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan from April 1929 to June 11, 1929, first secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan from 1929 to August 1930, first secretary of the Communist Party of Byelorussia from January 18, 1932 to March 18, 1937. During the Great Purge, Gikalo was arrested, accused of plotting against the Soviet state, sentenced to death and executed on April 25, 1938. He was exonerated posthumously in 1955.
A city in Chechnya is named after him.
