Nikishov was born in 1894 the son of a peasant in Varkino , in the Saratov Governorate of the Russian Empire ( now Volgograd Oblast ) . He joined the Communist Party in 1919 . He entered a career in the NKVD and became its head for Azerbaijan in 1937 , where he directed the purges . In 1938 and 1939 he was the head of the NKVD at Khabarovsk
purges
Great Purge
Ivan Nikishov