Ivan Korennik (17 June 1900-30 September 1938) was a political commissar of the Soviet Union who fought in World War I and the Russian Civil War.
Biography[]
Ivan Korennik was born on 17 June 1900 in St. Petersburg in the Russian Empire to a family of cossack peasants. His family name means "wheeler" in Russian, coming from his family's line of work. Korennik volunteered for the Imperial Russian Army in 1917 during World War I, but he later deserted to join the Red Army in the Russian Revolution. Korennik was a believer in socialism, and he was a supporter of Vladimir Lenin in his rise to power. Korennik became a soldier in the Red Army's front-line Soviet 1st Army during its struggle in the Baltics and Poland, and saw action against Nikolai Yudenich's Estonian forces and Jozsef Pilsudski's Polish forces during the Russian Civil War.
In 1933, as a reward for his services to the Soviet Union and his support of Josef Stalin, Korennik was made a political commissar, one of the leaders of Soviet communism. Korennik oversaw many factories in his renamed hometown of Leningrad, and executed workers who slept in after hours and workers who demanded raises. His loyal attitude spared him from the first round of purges in 1937 during Stalin's Great Purge, but he was arrested in 1938 because of his high position in the government. Korennik was executed by firing squad in Leningrad on 30 September 1938 for treason.