Vasily Blokhin
Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin (19 January (Julian calendar)/7 January 1895 – 3 February 1955) was a Soviet secret police official who served as the chief executioner of the NKVD under the administrations of Genrikh Yagoda, Nikolay Yezhov and Lavrentiy Beria.
Blokhin was selected for the position by Joseph Stalin in 1926 and led a company of executioners that performed and supervised numerous mass killings in the Soviet Union during Stalin's tenure in office, mostly during the Great Purge and Eastern Front during World War II. Blokhin is recorded as having executed tens of thousands of prisoners by his own hand, including his killing of about 7,000 Polish prisoners of war during the Katyn massacre in the Spring of 1940, making him the most prolific official executioner in recorded world history.[1][2] Blokhin was forced into retirement in 1953 after the death of Stalin and subsequently condemned during de-Stalinization shortly before his death in 1955.
Sources
- Glenday, Craig (2010). Guinness World Records 2010. Random House Digital. ISBN 978-0-553-59337-2.
- Montefiore, Simon Sebag (2005). Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 978-1-4000-7678-9.
