After this Grishaev participated in writing a draft proposal of the indictment of Abakumov and his nine accomplices prepared personally for Stalin. However, Stalin died before Abakumov and the other alleged leaders of the ‘MGB Zionist plot’ could be put on trial. Grishaev remained Assistant to the head of the OVD until March 12, 1953, after Ryumin’s dismissal in November 1952 and Stalin’s death on March 5, 1953. On March 17, 1953, Ryumin was arrested, on July 7, 1954 he was sentenced to death and on July 22, he was executed.
In the meantime, in 1952, 32-year-old Boris Solovov reached the peak of his career, being appointed head of an investigation division of foreign prisoners within the 4th Department of the 2nd MGB Main Directorate. There was a lot of work for his division: new foreign prisoners, arrested by MGB counterintelligence directorates of the occupation troops, continued to arrive from the countries of Eastern Europe. Both Boris Solovov and Pavel Grishaev were discharged from the MGB in late 1953 and escaped any punishment. Amazingly, later the torturer Grishaev made a career as a law professor.
After Stalin’s death and the closed trials of Beria (December 1953) and Abakumov (December 1954), many former SMERSH officers were also convicted in separate trials in the 1950s and thousands of former MGB officers were under investigation. In 1957, Ivan Serov, Abakumov’s former enemy and now KGB Chairman (the KGB was created in 1954), reported to Nikita Khrushchev’s Central Committee that overall, from 1954 to 1957, 18,000 former MGB officers were discharged, and of them, 2,300 were discharged due to ‘violation of Soviet law’, which was a KGB euphemism for torture.24 This number included 40 generals, demoted to privates, and among them, there were generals who had served in SMERSH and the MGB and were mentioned in this book: Aleksandr Avseevich, Mikhail Belkin, Afanasii Blinov, Vasilii Blokhin, Grigorii Bolotin-Balyasnyi, Aleksandr Bystrov, Ivan Gorgonov, Nikolai Korolev, Nikolai Kovalchuk, Aleksandr Vadis, Aleksei Voul, Ivan Vradii, and Pavel Zelenin. All these measures were conducted in secrecy and the Soviet population was not aware that the Communist Party leaders of the time admitted de facto that SMERSH and the other Stalin-era secret services were involved in criminal activities.
But all this would happen later. In May 1946, the newly appointed MGB Minister, Abakumov, became one of the most powerful men in the Soviet Union and a rare favorite of his Khozyain (Master)—Stalin. For the next five years, Abakumov was in control of the life of almost every Soviet citizen and his MGB could arrest any citizen it chose to—without waiting for an order from Stalin. Through the MGB branches in occupied countries, Abakumov also controlled half of Europe. Those SMERSH officers who joined the MGB along with Abakumov also gained enormous power. I will describe the next five years of MGB glory and Abakumov’s triumph in 1946–51, as well as his downfall, in another book.
Notes
1. Politburo decision P46/232, dated September 4, 1945. Document No. 1 in Politburo TsK VKP(b) i Sovet Ministrov SSSR 1945–1953, edited by O. V. Khlevnyuk et al., 21 (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2002) (in Russian).
2. Na prieme u Stalina. Tetradi (zhurnaly) zapisei lits, pronyatykh I. V. Stalinym (1924–1953 gg.), edited by A. V. Korotkov, A. D. Chernev, and A. A. Chernobaev, 464 (Moscow: Novyi khronograf, 2008) (in Russian).
3. Politburo decision P47/111, dated December 29, 1945. Document No. 3, in Politburo TsK VKP(b), 24.
4. Hugh Thomas, Armed Truce: The Beginning of the Cold War, 1945–46 (New York: Atheneum, 1987), 4, 7–15.
5. Ibid., 503–14.
6. Decree of the USSR Supreme Council, dated March 15, 1946. Document No. 5, in Politburo TsK VKP(b), 25–26.
7. Na prieme u Stalina, 472.
8. Politburo decisions P51/V, P52/2, and P52/8, dated May 4, 5, and 7, 1946. Document Nos. 184–186 in Politburo TsK VKP(b), 207–8.
9. A footnote to Document No. 187 in Politburo TsK VKP(b), 208–9.
10. Amy Knight, How the Cold War Began: The Igor Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies (New York: Carrol & Graf Publishers, 2006).
11. Details in Kathryn S. Olmsted, Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2002).
12. Aleksandr Kolpakidi, Likvidatory KGB. Spetsoperatsii sovetskikh spetssluzhb 1941–2004 (Moscow: Yauza-Eksmo, 2004), 407–8 (in Russian). A report of Kim Philby on Volkov’s attempted defection to Philby’s handler, the NKGB rezident Boris Krotov, played a key role in capturing Volkov and his wife. See details in Andrew and Gordievsky, KGB, 371–2. Supposedly, in 1947 Volkov was sentenced to a 25-year imprisonment.
13. Decision of the Central Committee’s Plenum P9/2, dated August 21–23, 1946. Document No. 187 in Politburo TsK VKP(b), 208–9.
14. Merkulov’s letter, June 1946. Quoted in Nikita Petrov, ‘Samyi obrazovannyi palach,’ Novaya gazeta. ‘Pravda Gulaga,’ No. 12 (33), August 30, 2010 (in Russian), http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2010/gulag12/00.html, retrieved September 8, 2011.
15. Merkulov’s letter to Khrushchev, dated August 23, 1953. Document No. 5 in O. Marinin, ‘“Dokladyvayu o soderzhanii razgovorov, kotorye u menya byli s vragom naroda Beria…”,’ in Neizvestnaya Rossiya: XX vek, Vol. 3 (Moscow: Istoricheskoe nasledie, 1993), 43–84 (in Russian).
16. In Yevgenii Zhirnov, ‘Na doklady v Kreml’ on ezdil v mashine Gimmlera,’ Kommersant-Vlast’, no. 19 (472), May 21, 2002 (in Russian), http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/322678, retrieved September 9, 2011.
17. The report in Politburo TsK VKP(b), 208.
18. Nicola Sinevirsky, SMERSH (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1950), 82.
19. Detailed new MGB structure in N. V. Petrov, Kto rukovodil organami bezopasnosti 1941–1954. Spravochnik (Moscow: Zven’ya, 2010), 35–64 (in Russian).
20. Ibid., 51.
21. MGB Order No. 00496, dated November 2-4, 1946. Details in O. B. Mozokhin, Pravo na repressii (Moscow: Kuchkovo pole, 2006), 331 (in Russian).
22. Grishaev’s report on Abakumov, dated November 15, 1952, in Kirill Stolyarov, Palachi i zhertvy (Moscow: Olma-Press, 1997), 66–67 (in Russian).
23. Quoted in Nikita Petrov, ‘Bukhgalter—takoi prostoi,’ Novaya gazeta. Pravda ‘GULAGa’, no. 18, October 27, 2010, http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2010/gulag18/01.html, retrieved September 9, 2011..
24. Cited in Nikita Petrov, Pervyi predsedatel’ KGB Ivan Serov (Moscow: Materik, 2005), 151 (in Russian).
INDEX
25-year imprisonment: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
1st Baltic Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
1st Belorussian Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
1st Czechoslovak Army Corps: 1
1st Polish Army: 1
1st Ukrainian Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26
2nd Baltic Front: 1, 2, 3, 4
2nd Belorussian Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
2nd GUKR Department: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
2nd (NKGB) Directorate: 1, 2, 3
2nd Ukrainian Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
3rd Baltic Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
3rd Belorussian Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,
3rd MGB Main Directorate: 1, 2
3rd NKO Directorate: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
3rd Ukrainian Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
4th Department (3rd MGB Main Directorate): 1, 2
4th GUKR Department: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
4th NKVD/NKGB Directorate: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
4th Ukrainian Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, m 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
6th German Army: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
6th GUKR Department: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Abakumov, Viktor: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60
, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79
Abwehr (German Military Intelligence and Counterintelligence): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28
Abwehr (Abteilung I): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Abwehr (Abteilung II): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Abwehr (Abteilung III): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Abwehr schools: 1, 2, 3, 4
Akifusa, Shun: 1, 2
alcohol: 1, 2
Aleksandrovsk Prison: 1, 2, 3, 4
Allied Control Commission (ACC): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Amster, Otto: 1, 2
Amt IV (Gestapo): 1
Amt VI (SD): 1, 2
Amt Mil: 1
Anders, Wladyslaw: 1
Antonescu, Ion: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Apollonov, Arkadii: 1, 2
April 19, 1943 decree: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Armija Krajowa: 1, 2, 3
Army Group Center: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Army Group North: 1, 2, 3, 4
Army Group South: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Arrow Cross Party: 1
Article 58: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
Article 193: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Artuzov, Artur: 1, 2
Asano, Takashi: 1
assault battalion: 1, 2, 3
Ast Vienna: 1, 2
Auschwitz: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Avseevich, Aleksandr: 1, 2, 3
Axis: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Babich, Isai: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Baden: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Baltic States: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
barrage units: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Baryshnikov, Vladimir: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Bashtakov, Leonid: 1, 2, 3
Bastamov, Vladimir: 1, 2
battalion: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23
Baun, Wilhelm: 1, 2, 3, 4
Baur, Hans: 1, 2, 3
Beckerle, Adolf Heinz: 1, 2, 3, 4
Belkin, Mikhail: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Belyanov, Aleksandr: 1, 2, 3, 4
Bentivegni, Franz-Eccard von: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Beria, Lavrentii: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78
Berlin: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44
Bessarabia: 1, 2, 3, 4
Bethlen, Istvan: 1, 2, 3
Bezverkhny, Aleksandr: 1, 2, 3
Bialystok: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Biryuzov, Sergei: 1, 2, 3, 4
Bishop, Robert: 1
Blokhin, Vasilii: 1, 2
Blue Division: 1
Bochkov, Viktor: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Bohlen, Charles: 1
Bohlen, Harold: 1, 2
Bolotin-Balyasnyi, Grigorii: 1, 2, 3, 4
Bolshevik: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Border Guards: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Brandenburg (Abwehr division): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Braun, Eva: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
brigade: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27
Britain: iv, 1, 2, 3, 4
Broverman, Yakov: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Bryner, Boris: 1
Bubnov, Oleg: 1, 2
Bucharest: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Budapest: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Budennyi, Semyon: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Bukharin, Nikolai: 1, 2
Bukovina: 1
Bulganin, Nikolai: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Bulgaria: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Bunyachenko, Sergei: 1, 2
Burashnikov, Nikolai: 1
Buschenhagen, Erich: 1
Butyrka Prison: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Bykov, Vasil’: 1, 2, 3
Canaris, Wilhelm: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Čatloš, Ferdinand: 1, 2
Caucasus: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
CheKa (Extraordinary Commission): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Chekist: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Chernov, Ivan: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Cherepanov, Aleksandr: 1
Chertov, Ivan: 1
ChON ([Military] Formation for Special Tasks): 1, 2
Christian Ludwig, Duke of Mecklenburg: 1
Christmann, Kurt: 1, 2, 3
chsiry (members of a traitor’s family): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Churchill, Winston: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
CIC (American military counterintelligence): 1, 2, 3
Clark, Mark: 1, 2
Comintern: 1, 2, 3, 4
Continuation War: 1
corps: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48
corpse: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Cossack: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Council of Commissars: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Council of Ministers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Courland: 1, 2
court: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46
Crane, John A.: 1
Crimea: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Crimean Peninsula: 1, 2
Criminal Code: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Crome, Hans (Johannes): 1
Czaplinski, Henri: 1
Czechoslovakia: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Deane, John R.: 1
death sentence: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21
death penalty: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Death’s Head Division: 1
Defence Commissariat: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Deich, Yakov: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Dekanozov, Vladimir: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Delagrammatik, M.: 1, 2, 3, 4
deportation: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Dietrich, Sepp: 1, 2, 3, 4
Dimitrov, Georgi: 1, 2
division (military): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55
Dolgorukov, Pyotr: 1, 2
Donovan, William (Bill): 1, 2
Druzhina (SD brigade): 1, 2
Dvinsky, Boris: 1, 2
Dzerzhinsky, Felix: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Eastern Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Economic Department (EKO/OGPU): 1, 2
Economic Directorate (EKU/OGPU): 1, 2
Economic Directorate (EKU/NKVD): 1, 2, 3
Einsatzgruppe: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Eisenhower, Dwight: 1, 2
Eitingon, Naum: 1
EKU (Economic Directorate, NKVD): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Estonia: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Far East: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Far Eastern Front: 1, 2
FHO (Foreign Armies East): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
field courts: 1
filtration (vetting): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Finland: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Fitin, Pavel: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
foreign intelligence: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
, 20, 21, 22, 23
France: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Fremde Luftwaffe Ost (German Air
Force Intelligence): 1, 2, 3)
Freytag-Loringhoven, Wessel von: 1, 2
Fritzsche, Hans: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76
FSB (Federal Security Service): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Galfe, Alois: 1
gas van: 1, 2, 3, 4
Gehlen, Reinhard: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Geisler, Kurt: 1, 2
General Staff: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39
Georgievsky, Mikhail: 1
German agent: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
German Legation: 1, 2, 3
Gerstenberg, Alfred: 1
Gestapo (Amt IV): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
GFP (German Secret Field Police): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Gil (Rodionov), Vladimir: 1
GKO (State Defence Committee): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40
Gladkov, Pyotr: 1, 2, 3
GlavPURKKA (Red Army’s Main Political Directorate): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Goebbels, Paul Joseph: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Goering, Hermann: 1, 2, 3
Golikov, Filipp: 1, 2
Golikov, Fyodor: 1, 2
Goglidze, Sergei: 1, 2, 3
Gorbushin, Vasilii: 1
Gordov, Vasilii: 1, 2
Gorgonov, Ivan: 1, 2, 3, 4
Gorshenin, Konstantin: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Gräfe, Heinz: 1, 2, 3
Smersh: Stalin's Secret Weapon: Soviet Military Counterintelligence in WWII Page 70