Amatuni Amatuni

Amatuni Simoni Amatuni, born Amatuni Vardapetyan, was a Soviet Armenian politician who served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia from 1936 to 1937.

Biography

Amatuni was born in Elizavetpol, Elizavetpol Governorate, Russian Empire. After serving on the Caucasian Front in World War I, he returned to the Caucasus and later became a member of the Bolshevik Party in June 1919. From 1926 to 1927, he studied at the Institute of Red Professors, then held various party positions in Yerevan, Tiflis, and Baku.
An ally of Lavrentiy Beria, Amatuni served as Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia from 1935 to 1936, then became First Secretary in 1936 after the death of Aghasi Khanjian. With Armenian NKVD chief Khachik Mughdusi, Amatuni oversaw the initial part of the Great Purge in Armenia, before his own arrest on 23 September 1937 by Georgy Malenkov. He was executed on 28 July 1938. Despite his active role in the Stalinist repressions, Amatuni was posthumously rehabilitated in 1977.