Nikishov, Ivan Fedorovich

(1894–1958)

   After service in the Border Guards and internal troops of the NKVD, Nikishov became chief of the gulag archipelago’s largest and most infamous island— the Kolyma River network of labor camps. From 1943 through 1948, he managed the huge slave labor complex, which was the major source of the USSR’s gold. In 1943 he convinced the visiting U.S. vice president, Henry Wallace, of the generosity of the Soviet penal system and the humanity of its managers. Wallace’s visit to Kolyma was a centerpiece of Soviet propaganda in the United States during the war. Nikishov retired in 1948 after being promoted to lieutenant general. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner multiple times for his management of the Kolyma region.

   See also Dalstroi.