Mikhail Tukhachevsky
In the 1930s, Alksnis's grandfather, Yakov Alksnis () was the head of the Soviet Air Force. He also took part in the military tribunal for the Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization, which sentenced Mikhail Tukhachevsky and other high-ranking Soviet officers to death on Joseph Stalin's order. However, only eight months later, Yakov Alksnis himself was also arrested and executed.