12 Facts About Aleksi Inauri

Aleksi Inauri was a Soviet commander who headed the Georgian KGB for over 30 years and made it one of the most effective of the KGB's regional Soviet branches.

Aleksi Inauri ended his career as a colonel general and a Hero of the Soviet Union.

Aleksi Inauri became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1932.

From October 1936, Aleksi Inauri was put in charge of the regimental schools for the same division, later in 1938 as assistant commander for the commanding officer.

From June 1941 to January 1942, lieutenant colonel Aleksi Inauri led the 99th Cavalry Regiment into combat.

From August 1942 to the end of the war, Aleksi Inauri commanded the 1st Cavalry Division of the 15th Cavalry Corps, Transcaucasus Front, stationed in Iran.

Aleksi Inauri continued service as a commander of a cavalry division till 1946.

In 1954, Aleksi Inauri was made head of the Georgian KGB, a post that he retained until 1986.

Aleksi Inauri's tenure coincided with a series of upheavals, including the 1956 uprising, and rise of anti-Soviet dissident groups in Georgia to which Inauri was able to respond vigorously due largely to a strict discipline imposed by him within the KGB and a large web of espionage through which Inauri's agents infiltrated dissident groups and even the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Aleksi Inauri played a key role in a palace coup against Nikita Khrushchev in October 1964, escorting the Soviet leader from his dacha at Pitsunda to a special meeting of the Presidium of the Central Committee in Moscow where Khrushchev was to be ousted.

Aleksi Inauri was promoted to the rank of colonel general in 1967 and awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union in 1985, shortly before his retirement later in 1986.

From 1984 to 1989, Aleksi Inauri was a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.