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Gazanfar Musabekov

Gazanfar Mahmud-ogly Musabekov (Газанфар Махмуд-оглы Мусабеков)

b. 14/26 Jul 1888, Perebidil', Kuba district, Baku province, Russian Empire
d. 9 Feb 1938, Tbilisi (now in Georgia)

Title: Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (Председатель Центрального Исполнительного Комитета СССР)
Term: 21 May 1925 - Jun 1937
Chronology: 21 May 1925, elected, 1st session of the 3rd Central Executive Committee [1]
? Jun 1937, ceased to exercise the duties of Chairman of the Central Executive Committee with arrest [2]
Names/titles: Azerbaijani: Qəzənfər Mahmud oğlu Musabəyov; also: Gazanfar Mahmudovič Musabekov (in Soviet documents)
Biography:
Born in a poor Azerbaijani family; moved to Kiev to study medicine; after the February revolution of 1917, he became head of the local administration in his native Kuba region and then moved to Baku to chair the provincial committee for food supplies; departed for Russia (Aug 1918), where he helped Nariman Narimanov to organize a military hospital in Astrakhan; joined the Russian Communist Party (1918) and became head of the Moslem department in the Astrakhan party organization as well as local leader of the Azerbaijani "Hümmət" social-democratic organization; returned to Azerbaijan as a member of the revolutionary committee presided by Narimanov (1920); was named commissar for food-processing industry in the government of Azerbaijan (1921); became acting head of the Azerbaijani government when Narimanov left to participate in the Conference of Genoa (1922); appointed chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Azerbaijani SSR (1922-1930); following the death of Narimanov, he was elected one of the chairmen of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (21 May 1925 - Jun 1937); elected a candidate member of the Central Committee (1925-1937) at the 15th party congress ; served as chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Azerbaijani SSR (Sep 1929 - 15 Dec 1931), chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Transcaucasian SFSR (18 Jan 1931 - 28 Jan 1932) and chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Transcaucasian SFSR (12 Nov 1931 - 5 Dec 1936); during the Great Purge, he was arrested (June 1937), accused of plotting against the Soviet state and sentenced to death by the military board of the USSR Supreme Court (9 Feb 1938).
Biographical sources: Gosudarstvennaja vlast' SSSR (1999), 434.

[1] 1 сессия ЦИК СССР III созыва. Стенографический отчет. М., 1925, с. 15.