Kugushev, Viacheslav

Born Jan. 22 (Feb. 3), 1863, in Ufa; died Aug. 30, 1944, in Moscow. Participant in the Russian revolutionary movement. Son of Prince A. I. Kugushev.

Kugushev graduated from the St. Petersburg Forestry Institute. During his student years he was a member of the D. Blagoev group (1883). In 1901, Kugushev was enlisted to work in the RSDLP organizations by A. D. Tsiurupa. He greatly supported the party financially and carried out assignments for the Central Committee of the RSDLP. He was repeatedly subjected to arrest and exile and he lived abroad for a time. He joined the party of the Constitutional Democrats in 1906 and was elected a member of the State Council. From 1906 to 1917 he worked in the Don Land Bank while continuing his revolutionary activity. In February 1917 he conducted agitation among the soldiers in Samara.

After the October Revolution of 1917, Kugushev worked in the Ufa provincial administration of the People’s Commissariat of Food Supplies. During the Civil War he carried out a number of assignments for V. I. Lenin. In November 1918, Kugushev was the representative of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in negotiations for the release of Bolshevik hostages taken by Kolchak’s troops in Ufa. From 1919 to 1923 he worked in the Committee for Assistance to the Starving. From 1923 to 1930 he was an inspector in the All-Russian Cooperative Bank. In 1930 he began to receive a special pension.