Krylenko, Nikolai Vasilievich (1885-1940)

Russian Bolshevik politician. A military commander in the immediate aftermath of the revolution of 1917, he helped suppress White forces during the Russian Civil War of 1918-21. Later he was appointed a public prosecutor in revolutionary tribunals, and conducted several show trials of alleged counter-revolutionaries. However, he himself disappeared during Josef Stalin's purges of the Communist party in the 1930s.

After taking part in the revolution of 1905 as a Bolshevik, Krylenko became an anarcho-syndicalist (see anarcho-syndicalism), but later rejoined his former party. He was active in the Bolshevik seizure of power in the October Revolution of 1917, and was appointed commissar for war in the first Soviet government. By 1936 he had risen to the position of principal commissar of justice of the USSR, but was never seen again after 1937, and was presumed murdered or deported to a forced labour camp, where he met his end.