Pozharov, Nikolai Arsenevich

Born Nov. 25 (Dec. 7), 1895, in the village of Zolotkovo, now in Vladimir Oblast; died June 20, 1928, in Smolensk. Participant in the revolutionary movement in Russia. Member of the Communist Party from 1916. Son of a peasant.

In 1914, Pozharov was a worker in Petrograd. The following year he became a sailor in the Baltic Fleet. He was arrested for engaging in revolutionary propaganda in 1916. After the February Revolution of 1917, he served as a member of the executive committee of the Kronstadt soviet. In June he became a member of Tsentroflot (Central Committee of the All-Russian Navy) and then served on the Kronstadt committee of the RSDLP (Bolshevik) and the military technical commission of the executive committee of the Kronstadt soviet. During the Kornilovshchina he was commissar of the Kronstadt harbors.

In September 1917, Pozharov was sent by the Central Committee of the RSDLP(B) to Sevastopol’, where he was elected secretary of the party committee. In December he served as chairman of the Sevastopol’ soviet, a member of the military revolutionary committee, and defense commissar of the fortress and city. In 1918 he was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Tauride Republic and a member of the provincial committee of the party and later served in the Naval Commissariat in Moscow. From June 1918, Pozharov was chairman of the Yaroslavl district executive committee, provincial military revolutionary committee, and provincial committee of the RCP (Bolshevik). In the same year he also participated in the suppression of the counterrevolutionary mutiny in Yaroslavl.

In 1919–20, Pozharov was commissar of the staff headquarters of the Northern Front and chairman of the revolutionary tribunal of the Sixteenth Army and then of the Sixth Army. From 1921 he worked for organs of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (Cheka) and then for organs of the State Political Directorate (GPU). From 1923 he was involved in party and managerial work.