Martin Latsis (14 December 1888-11 February 1938) was the chairman of the Cheka in Ukraine during the Russian Revolution, supervising the "Red Terror" in the region. Latsis himself would be executed during the Great Purge.
Biography[]
Martin Latsis was born on 14 December 1888 in Putina, Livland Governorate, Russian Empire (in present-day Latvia). Latsis joined the Bolsheviks in 1905, and he took part in the failed 1905 Russian Revolution and the successful 1917 Russian Revolution. From 1918 to 1919, he held various positions in Cheka, leading the Cheka in all of Ukraine from April to August 1919 and the Cheka in Kiev Governorate from August to September 1919. From 1932 to 1937, Latsis served as director of the Plekhanov Institute of People's Economy, but he was arrested and accused of being a member of a counter-revolutionary organization and executed by the NKVD in 1938 during the Great Purge.