Ruhulla Akhundov

Ruhulla Akhundov (; 1 January 1897 – 21 April 1938) was an Azerbaijani Soviet politician, publisher and journalist who was the Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan from 1925 to 1926, under the Soviet leadership of Joseph Stalin.

Life and career Akhundov was born into the family of a teacher. He spoke several eastern and western languages. From 1916, Akhundov worked in a printing house. In 1917 he was a member of a group of Azerbaijani Left-Socialist-Revolutionaries called the Farmers' Party. In 1918 he was the editor of the newspaper Izvestia of the Baku Council, and in 1919, the Azerbaijani illegal Bolshevik newspaper "Kommunist". In the same year he joined the Communist Party. After the final establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan, he became the head of the department for work in the villages of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Azerbaijan SSR, then secretary of the Baku party committee, editor of the newspaper "Communist" and other periodicals. In the period from 1924 to 1930 Akhundov was secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the Azerbaijan SSR, director of Azerneshra (state book publishing house) and served as People's Commissar of Education of the Azerbaijan SSR. He was criticized as a member of the “right-leftist bloc”. He made an admission of mistakes.

In the 1930s, he was a member of the editorial board of the journal Revolution and Nationalities, which was the press organ of the People's Commissariat of Nationalities.

Arrest and execution In December 1936, Akhundov was removed from all posts and expelled from the party. In 1938, he was arrested for "participation in terrorist activities" and sentenced to execution by firing squad by Military Tribunal. He was executed on April 21, 1938, at Butovo firing range. Buried at the secret NKVD execution and burial site “Kommunarka–Loza.” In 1959, he was posthumously rehabilitated by Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.

His wife, Frida Naumovna Shlyomova, was arrested twice by the NKVD after her husband’s death.