Don Twist of Fate of Professor I.A. Malinovsky

Abstract. The professorate of the University of Warsaw, evacuated in 1915 to Rostov-on-Don and renamed “Donskoy”, took part in public life on the Don during the revolution and civil war and worked in anti-Bolshevik authorities. Professor I.A. Malinovsky was among them. He was a specialist in ancient history and law and was fond of liberal ideas in his youth. With the establishment of Bolshevik power on the Don, the political struggle continued. As it was worsening, the Bolsheviks the Bolsheviks took prominent intellectuals hostage. The same story happened in the summer of 1920 with Professor Malinovsky. People’s Commissar of education A. Lunacharsky, on behalf of the authorities, checked prisons on the Don. He asked local chekist to send Malinovsky to Moscow at the disposal of the people’s Commissariat of education. Don chekists sent Malinovsky to Moscow, but at the disposal of the Cheka. The Moscow chekists did not allow Lunocharsky to take Malinovsky to the people’s Commissariat of education, but sent the Professor to camps for 15 years. The article deals with the mechanism of decision-making by the Cheka bodies that had the right to “extrajudicial execution”. Once in the camp, Professor Malinovsky was still involved in the work of the people’s Commissariat of education and even developed new Soviet laws. Soon he was released and became an academician of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

Keywords: Cheka, decision-making, professorship, counterrevolution, Don Region, hostages.