Amatuni Vardapetyan

Amatuni Simoni Amatuni (Ամատունի Սիմոնի Ամատունի), born Amatuni Vardapetyan (Ամատունի Վարդապետյան), was a Soviet Armenian politician who served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia from 1936 to 1937. Born in Yelisavetpol (Ganja), Elizavetpol uezd, Elizavetpol Governorate, Russian Empire, he became a member of the Bolshevik Party in 1919. From 1926 to 1928 he studied at the Institute of Red Professors, then held various party positions in Yerevan, Tiflis, and Baku. An ally of Lavrentiy Beria, he served as Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia from 1935 to 1936, then became First Secretary in 1936 after the death of his predecessor Aghasi Khanjian. With Armenian NKVD chief Khachik Mughdusi, Amatuni oversaw the initial part of the Great Purge in Armenia, before his own arrest on 23 September 1937. He appeared on Stalin's execution list of 26 July 1938 and was shot the same day.