Lazar Berenzon

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Izrailevich.
Lazar Berenzon
Native name
Лазарь Израилевич Берензон
Birth nameLazar Izrailevich Berenzon
Born12 August 1898[1]
Moscow, Russian Empire
Died1956 (aged 57–58)
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Buried
Donskoye Cemetery
Allegiance Soviet Union
Service/branchNKVD
Years of service1918–1946
RankMajor general
AwardsOrder of Lenin
Order of the Red Banner
Twice Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Twice Order of the Red Star
Medal "For Labour Valour"
Medal "For the Defence of Moscow"
Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
Honoured Worker of the Worker-Peasant Militia [ru]

Major-General Lazar Izrailevich Berenzon (Russian: Ла́зарь Изра́илевич Бе́рензон; 12 August 1898 – 1956) was a Soviet military commander of the Soviet security services, principally the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, or the NKVD. He served with the state's security organs for almost thirty years, rising to the rank of major general and overseeing the NKVD's financial affairs on major prison labour projects, including the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal and the Baikal–Amur Mainline. Between 1940 and 1941, he was deputy head of the entire Gulag system.[2]

Early life and Russian Civil War

Berenzon was born into a middle-class Jewish family in 1898. After graduating from junior high school, he studied at the Law Department of Moscow State University. He joined the Red Army in 1918 and served during the Russian Civil War until 1920 as a private and later platoon commander.[1]

NKVD career

From 25 April 1918, he worked as an accountant-clerk in the

Belbaltlag [ru] project, the system of labour camps assigned to construct the White Sea–Baltic Canal. Berenzon left this role in 1932 and was soon assigned, on 10 November 1932, to work on the financial management of another Stalinist building project, overseeing Bamlag, the system of prison and labour camps working on the construction of the Baikal–Amur Mainline. He returned to head the NKVD's Finance Department from 10 July 1934 to 9 February 1938.[3][4][5]

Berenzon was promoted to the rank of division officer on 15 May 1936, and from 9 February 1938 to 26 February 1941 was head of the NKVD's Central Finance and Planning Department. From 19 August 1940 to 1941 he was deputy head of the NKVD's entire prison camp system, known as the Gulag. From 26 February 1941 to April 1943 Berenzon once more served as the head of the Central Finance and Planning Department. On 22 February 1943 he was promoted to Major General of the Quartermaster Service, and from April 1943 to 14 March 1946 he was head of the NKVD's Central Finance Department.[3][4]

Berenzon was reduced to the reserves in 1946, and retired fully in 1948. He died in Moscow in 1956 and was buried in the Donskoye Cemetery. Over his career he had received the title of Honoured Worker of the Worker-Peasant Militia [ru] 27 February 1933; the Order of the Red Star on 4 August 1933; the Order of the Red Banner on 3 November 1944; the Order of Lenin on 20 February 1945; and the Order of the Red Banner of Labour on 23 February 1945.[5][6][7]

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lazar Berenzon.

References

  1. ^ a b "Берензон Лазарь Израилевич". Jewish Military Encyclopedia (in Russian). Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  2. doi:10.18411/lj-28-02-2018-14
    .
  3. ^
    ISSN 2409-868X
    .
  4. ^
    ISSN 2454-0730
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 5-7870-0032-3
    .
  6. ISBN 9785699137626
    .
  7. ISBN 9785457276970
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lazar_Berenzon&oldid=1215898181"