Amatuni Vardapetyan

Amatuni Amatuni
Ամատունի Ամատունի
Amatuni after his arrest in 1937
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia
In office 13 July 1936 – 21 September 1937
Preceded by	Aghasi Khanjian
Succeeded by	Grigory Arutinov
Personal details
Born	Amatuni Vardapetyan 24 October 1900 Elizavetpol, Elizavetpol uezd, Elizavetpol Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	28 July 1938(1938-07-28) (aged 37) Kommunarka shooting ground, Moscow Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Armenian

Amatuni Simoni Amatuni (Armenian: Ամատունի Սիմոնի Ամատունի; 24 October 1900 – 28 July 1938), born Amatuni Vardapetyan (Armenian: Ամատունի Վարդապետյան), 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 (Ganja), 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 his predecessor 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.

Bibliography

• Medvedev, Roy Aleksandrovich (1989). Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism. Translated by Shriver, George. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231063500.
• Shakarian, Pietro A. (2025). Anastas Mikoyan: An Armenian Reformer in Khrushchev's Kremlin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0253073556.