Achkanov Brothers

Soviet state and Party figures. They were born in Odessa into the family of a sailor.

Grigorii Pavlovich Achkanov. Born 1887; died 1939. Ship mechanic. Member of the Communist Party since 1904.

In 1905, Achkanov was a member of the Peresyp Raion and the Odessa city RSDLP (Russian Social Democratic Labor Party) committees. In 1917 he was a member of the RSDLP (Bolshevik) committee and of the Presidium of the Odessa Soviet. He was also a delegate to the first All-Russian Conference of Soviets in March 1917 and one of the founders of the All-Russian Union of Sailors and River Transport Workers. In January 1918 he was a member of the Odessa Revolutionary Committee; in 1920–21 he was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of the Rumanian Front, the Black Sea Fleet, and Odessa Oblast (Rumcherod) and of the collegium of the Main River Transportation Administration (Glavvod). From 1921 to 1923 he was a member of the bureau of the Don Committee of the RCP (Bolshevik), the Collegium of the People’s Commissariat of Transportation of the USSR, vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the United Transportation and Water Transport Workers’ Union (Tsektran), and a member of the Presidium of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (VTsSPS). From 1926 he was a member of the Central Council of the Trade Union International (Profintern) and General Secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Propaganda and Action Committee. From 1931 he was deputy chief of the Soviet merchant marine (Sovtorgflot) and then director of the USSR Register.

Fedor Pavlovich Achkanov. Born Feb. 6,1881; died Nov. 26, 1957. A mechanic. Member of the Communist Party from 1903. Active in the general strike in Odessa in July 1903 and in the revolution of 1905–07. Member of the Odessa RSDLP committee. Member of Rumcherod in May 1917. One of the organizers of the Red Guards in Odessa. Delegate to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets and elected member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

In 1918, during the occupation of the Ukraine by German troops, Achkanov conducted underground Party work in Kharkov, Kiev, and Odessa. In 1919 he was a member of the revolutionary committee in Kiev and Odessa and vice-chairman of the All-Ukrainian Railroad revkom (revolutionary committee). From 1920 he held Party, soviet, and economic posts. He was awarded the Order of Lenin.