Gennady Nikolayevich Kupriyanov (Russian: Генна́дий Никола́евич Куприя́нов; 21 November 1905 – 28 February 1979) was a Soviet politician who served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic from 1940 to 1950.^[1]

Quick Facts First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic, Preceded by ...

Gennady Kupriyanov
Геннадий Куприянов
First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic
In office 2 April 1940 – 25 January 1950
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Aleksandr Kondakov
First Secretary of the Karelian Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
In office June 1938 – 24 January 1940
Preceded by	Nikolay Ivanov
Succeeded by	Aleksandr Kondakov
Personal details
Born	Gennady Nikolayevich Kupriyanov (1905-11-21)21 November 1905 Rylo, Soligalichsky Uyezd, Kostroma Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	28 February 1979(1979-02-28) (aged 73) Pushkin, Leningrad Oblast, RSFSR, Soviet Union
Buried	Kazan cemetery
Citizenship	Soviet Union Russian Empire (previously)
Political party	CPSU
Other political affiliations	CPKFSSR
Spouse(s)	Vera Vasilievna (div. 1950s) Lidia Ivanovna
Children	Victor (b. 1928) Rosa (b. 1929) Galina (b. 1938)
Education	Candidate of Sciences
Alma mater	Sverdlov Communist University
Awards
Military service
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Branch/service	Soviet Army
Years of service	1925-1927, 1939-1940
Rank	Major general
Battles/wars	Winter War

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An ethnic Russian,^[2] Kupriyanov was born into a poor peasant family in the village of Rylo, Soligalichsky Uyezd, Kostroma Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Soligalichsky District, Kostroma Oblast, Russian Federation) on November 21, 1905.^[3] He worked as a carpenter from the age of fourteen and continued working as a carpenter until he was twenty.^[4] He joined the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (better known as the Komsomol) in 1920.^[5] He had three children with his first wife Vera Vasilievna; Victor (b. 1928), Rosa (b. 1929) and Galina (b. 1938). He attended the Sverdlov Communist University from 1932 to 1935.

Kupriyanov served in the Red Army from 1925 to 1927.^[4][6] He also briefly served in the Soviet Army from 1939 to 1940 during the Winter War. With the outbreak of World War II, Kupriyanov joined the Military Council of the 7th Army on June 30, 1941.^[7] He also became a member of the Military Council of the Karelian Front on August 23, 1941. He was awarded the rank of Division commander on October 1, 1942. Not to long after, Kupriyanov was awarded the rank of Major general.^[8] After the liberation of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic in 1944, a few members of the command of the Karelian Front (including General Terenty Shytkov) proposed to deport the indigenous population of the Karelo-Finnish SSR to Siberia and the Kazakh SSR and liquidate the republic. However the mass deportation of the Karelo-Finnish did not happen. Some historians credit Kupriyanov for preventing the mass deportation.^[9]

He joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in 1926,^[10] but worked as a social science teacher at Solgalich Secondary School from 1927 to 1929. He became the Head of the Department of Public Education of the Solgalich District Executive Committee in 1929 and remained in the position until 1931. He served as the Head of the Department of Propaganda and Agitation of the Solgalich District Committee of the Communist Party from 1931 to 1932.^[11] After returning from university in 1935, Kupriyanov served as the Head of the School Department of the Dzerzhinsky District Committee of the Communist Party. He served as the First Secretary of the Kuybyshevsky District Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1937 to 1938 in Leningrad.^[6]

Kupriyanov was elected as the First Secretary of the Karelian Regional Committee of the Communist Party in June 1938 on the recommendation of Andrei Zhdanov to Stalin.^[12] As a regional committee's First Secretary, Kupriyanov became part of the NKVD troika in September 1938.^[13] During the Winter War, he ordered the construction of the 132 kilometer-long Petrozavodsk-Shuezersk railway; the railway was built in 46 days.^[14] With the formation of the Karelo-Finnish SSR in 1940, he became the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic on April 2, 1940.^[15] He was elected as a candidate member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) during the 18th Party Congress. Gennady Kupriyanov and his family were evacuated to Novosibirsk in August 1941 due to World War II.^[16] He was removed from his post on January 25, 1950, due to the Leningrad Affair.

Kupriyanov soon became involved in the Leningrad Affair, he was accused of "failure to fulfill plans in industry and agriculture, patronage of workers who had compromised themselves, clampdown and lack of collegiality in work" by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish SSR.^[17] He was removed from his post as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish SSR on January 25, 1950.

Kupriyanov died on February 28, 1979. He is buried at the Kazan cemetery in Pushkin, Russia.^[21]

• Order of Lenin (twice)
• Order of the Red Banner
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour
• Order of the Patriotic War (first class)

• Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic
• Winter War