Nikolai Voronov

Nikolai Ivanovich Voronov (1903–1981) was a Soviet Army officer who, as a major general, commanded the troops of the Turkestan Military District sent into Talas to end the 1956 Talas Riots. He served as military commandant of the city under the martial law and curfew declared on June 17, 1956.^[1]

Voronov's units entered Talas on the morning of June 17, the fourth day of the riots, with internal troops flown in to the air-defense airfield outside the city. Armored vehicles were posted at the main intersections around Government Square, and the last crowds dispersed on June 18. Internal security reports listed 14 dead; Iradi researchers put the number at several dozen. More than 1,000 people were detained in the following weeks.^[1][2] He retired from the army in 1963. In memoirs published in 1990, Voronov acknowledged that the use of troops and the mass detentions that followed had turned much of the Iradi population of the city against the authorities.^[2]

References

1. ^ State Archives of Irad (Talas), Fond 85: Internal Security Reports on the 1956 Talas Unrest.
2. ^ Talas State University Press (2006). The June Days: The 1956 Talas Riots in Archival Perspective. Talas, pp. 41–118.