Boris Pugo

Boris Karlovich Pugo, OAN (Latvian: Boriss Pugo, Russian: Бори́с Ка́рлович Пу́го) (February 19, 1937 – August 22, 1991, in Moscow) was a hardline Soviet Communist political figure.

Pugo was born in Kalinin, Russian SFSR (now Tver, Russia) into a family of Latvian communists who had left Latvia after Latvia was proclaimed as an independent country in 1918. His family returned to Latvia after the Soviet Union occupied and annexed it in 1940.

Pugo graduated from Riga Polytechnical in 1960 and worked in various Komsomol, Communist Party and Soviet government positions, both in Latvia and Moscow. His positions between 1960 and 1984 included the first secretary of the Central Committee of Komsomol of Latvian SSR, a secretary of the Central Committee of Komsomol of USSR, the first secretary of Riga City Committee of Communist Party and the chairman of KGB in Latvia.

Pugo was the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Latvian SSR from April 14, 1984 to October 4, 1988. Pugo also served as chairman of the Control Commission of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1988-1991.

Between 1990 and 1991, he was the Minister of the Interior Affairs of the USSR. He was a member of the August Coup in 1991. He soon after committed suicide. He shot his wife and himself as soon as he realized that the coup had failed.

Several media sources (including Moscow Times and TIME) have cast doubts on the circumstances of his suicide, suggesting he might have been killed and the murder masked as a suicide.

External links

• An article on Pugo's death in Moscow Times
• Boris Pugo at Find a Grave

v t e Latvian SSR First Secretaries Jānis Kalnbērziņš Arvīds Pelše Augusts Voss Boris Pugo Jānis Vagris Alfrēds Rubiks