Boris Pugo

Who was Boris Pugo?

Boris Karlovich Pugo, OAN was a hardline Soviet Communist political figure.

Pugo was born in Kalinin, Russian SFSR 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.