Viktor Polyanichko

{{Short description|Soviet and Russian diplomat and politician (1937–1993)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

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| name = Viktor Polyanichko

| birth_name = Viktor Petrovich Polyanichko

| birth_date = {{birth date|1937|03|09|df=y}}

| birth_place = Rostov-on-Don, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

| death_date = {{death date and age|1993|08|01|1937|03|09|df=y}}

| death_place = Tarskoye, Prigorodny District, North Ossetia–Alania

| nationality = {{unbulleted list|Soviet Union (until 1991)|Russian (from 1991)}}

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| party = {{unbulleted list|Communist Party of the Soviet Union (until 1991)}}

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Viktor Petrovich Polyanichko ({{langx|ru|Виктор Петрович Поляничко}}; 9{{nbsp}}March 1937{{snd}}1{{nbsp}}August 1993) was a Soviet and Russian diplomat and politician. He was an official who held the rank of Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, a people's deputy of the USSR, a people's deputy of the Azerbaijan SSR, a deputy of the Chelyabinsk Regional Council of Workers' Deputies, and a delegate of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Career

Polyanichko began his political activity as a member of the Komsomol, and professionally worked physically in a machinery factory. From 1959 to 1964, he headed the Komsomol branch in Orsk as the first secretary. In 1965, he worked briefly in the Central Committee of the organization in Moscow, then for six years he headed its structures in Chelyabinsk. In 1972, he joined the city committee of the Communist Party and became its first secretary. From 1972 to 1978, he worked in a similar position in the Orenburg Oblast. From 1978 to 1985, he headed the propaganda section in the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party.{{cite book | last = Kwiatkiewicz | first = P. | title = Przemiany polityczne w Azerbejdżanie. Od republiki radzieckiej do współczesnego państwa | year = 2013 | publisher = Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek | location = Toruń | isbn = 9788377805329| page = 628}}

In 1985, Polyanichko was delegated to Afghanistan and worked for three years as one of the Soviet advisers to the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. In 1988, he was sent to work in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic as deputy first secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan. He held this position for three years. From 1990, he also headed the party committee dealing with the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. He belonged to a group of Azerbaijani communists advocating a more decisive policy regarding Armenian claims to Nagorno-Karabakh. In 1990, Polyanichko was involved in organizing and later executing a campaign to deport ethnic Armenians from their homeland of Nagorno-Karabakh.{{Cite book |title=Armenia and Karabagh: the struggle for unity |date=1991 |publisher=Minority Rights Group |isbn=978-1-873194-00-3 |editor-last=Walker |editor-first=Christopher J. |series=Minority Rights Publications |location=London |quote=In July 1990 the Second Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party seriously formulated a plan for deporting all Armenians from Nagorno Karabagh - a grisly echo of the 1915 massacres.}}{{Cite news |last=Corley |first=Felix |date=1993-08-01 |title=Obituary: Viktor Polyanichko |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-viktor-polyanichko-1459479.html |work=Independent |quote="His violent death at the hands of one or other ethnic group has brought grim satisfaction especially to the Armenians, who remember with bitterness his brutal deportations of whole Armenian villages in Nagorno-Karabakh in summer 1991….His duty was to suppress the demands of the majority Armenian population...He organised a campaign to deport Armenian villages, using Soviet troops and semi- official Azeri militias. And he devised the notorious 'Operation Ring', begun in April 1991 in the villages of Getashen and Martunashen and continued throughout the summer."}}{{cite book | last= Kwiatkiewicz | first = P. | title = Przemiany polityczne w Azerbejdżanie. Od republiki radzieckiej do współczesnego państwa | year = 2013 | publisher = Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek | location = Toruń | isbn = 9788377805329| pages = 155–156}}

On 26 June 1993, Polyanichko was appointed head of the interim administration of designated areas of the republics of North Ossetia and Ingushetia, with the rank of deputy prime minister of Russia.{{cite news|url=http://www.azadliq.org/content/article/1934653.html|title=Harda Polyaniçko var, orda qan var|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304193526/http://www.azadliq.org/content/article/1934653.html |archive-date=2016-03-04|newspaper=Azadlıq radiosu|date=20 January 2010 }}

Death

On 1 August 1993, Polyanichko was shot to death in a terrorrist attack in Tarskoye. The medical examination determined that he died on the spot from 15 gunshot wounds. Along with him, the head of the Vladikavkaz garrison, Major General Anatoly Koretsky, and senior lieutenant of the Alfa special forces unit, Viktor Kravchuk, were also killed. In addition, 4 Russian soldiers were injured during the attack. His death is still unsolved. Polyanichko was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.{{cite web|url=http://www.moscow-tombs.ru/1993/polyanichko_vp.htm |title=Московский некрополь. ПОЛЯНИЧКО Виктор Петрович (1937 – 1993)|language=ru}}