Terenty Deribas

Terenty Dmitrievich Deribas (Терентий Дмитриевич Дерибас; 28 March 1883 – 28 July 1938) was a top official in the NKVD, the Soviet security agency that served as the predecessor of the KGB.

Deribas was born in the village of Uspenskoe, Kherson Governorate, of Russian ethnicity. He joined the Bolshevik Party in 1904.

In November 1918, Deribas joined the Cheka and the Red Army, and was chief of the political department of several divisions. He took part in the suppression of counter-revolutionary uprisings, including those of Kronstadt and Tambov.

In 1929, Deribas was transferred as a representative of the OGPU to the Far East, where he led a massive repression. In 1931, he became a member of the board of the NKVD.

During the Great Purge, Deribas was removed from his post (31 July 1937), then arrested (12 August 1937), sentenced to death (28 July 1938), and shot on the same day, at the firing range Kommunarka.

He was posthumously rehabilitated on 31 December 1957.