Early life and career Alexander Nogtev was born in to a poor Russian working-class family in
Gorodets. His father Pyotr, who was of peasant origins, was involved in anti-tsarist activities and had contacts with the
Narodnaya Volya. After finishing school, Nogtev underwent seamanship training and was a seaman in the Russian merchant fleet. At the beginning of the
First World War he was drafted into the
Baltic Fleet. In 1917 Nogtev became an assistant captain on the
Volga steamer
Alexander Nevsky. After the
October Revolution, Nogtev joined the
Communist Party in 1918. In August 1918, Nogtev and a group were sent to
Kotlas to block the
Northern Dvina river to the movements of ships opposed to the
Bolsheviks. From September 1918 to May 1919 he was Chief Inspector for Ship Safety. In 1919 he became a commissar of a special unit in
Samara on the front against Admiral
Alexander Kolchak's troops and took part in battles against the
Ural Army. He later commanded the
4th Army Special Forces on the
Turkestan Front. On 4 May 1920, Nogtev was awarded the
Order of the Red Banner.
SLON commander From 1921 Nogtev was a member of the
Cheka secret police. On 3 October 1923, he became the first commander of the
Solovetsk Special Purpose Camp (SLON). According to the memoirs of former SLON prisoner
Boris Shiryaev, Nogtev greeted the newly arrived prisoners with the words: “I welcome you. As you know, there is no Soviet government here, only Solovetsk government. You can forget all the rights you previously had. We have our own laws here.” During Nogtev's tenure as camp commander of the SLON, the prisoners were abused and received harsh punishments, while the camp was otherwise unable to generate any significant products. Nogtev was also notorious for personally executing prisoners, mostly former tsarist officers but also priests and criminals. Historian
Hubertus Knabe has called Nogtev's methods "comparatively archaic", noting a prisoner's description of Nogtev riding his horse drunk up the 47 steps of the cathedral at three in the morning after having "inspected" the women’s barracks. Nogtev also seems to have resented the demands of the political prisoners relating to freedom of movement, curfews, and correspondence. Tensions culminated in guards opening fire on a group of political prisoners during an argument on 19 December 1923, killing six. News of the killings leaked abroad, and Communist leadership demanded an investigation, with
OGPU official
Gleb Bokii making an inspection the following year. Nogtev was succeeded by
Fedor Eichmans on 13 November 1925. Under Eichmans, the arbitrary abuse stopped. After Eichman's promotion to head of the 3rd Division of the OGPU's Special Service, Nogtev again became camp commandant from 20 May 1929, to 19 May 1930.
Later career and arrest After 19 May 1930, Nogtev retired at the age of 38 and left the OGPU. In the 1930s he was appointed head of the Glavels of Soviet People's Commissariat of Forestry. In the course of the
Great Purge, Nogtev was arrested by the
NKVD in 1937. On 4 May 1939, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court and sent to the
Norillag camp. Shortly after the end of the
Second World War, due to a change in the law, Nogtev's term of imprisonment was reduced to seven years, so that he was transferred to Moscow to submit his claims. However, he died there before the appeal proceedings were initiated. He was posthumously rehabilitated in November 1958. == In fiction ==