Viktor Abakumov
| Viktor Abakumov | |
|---|---|
| Allegiance |
Soviet Union 
|
| Service | OGPU GULAG NKVD GUGB NKVD GUKR NKO |
| Rank | Colonel general |
|
|
|
| Born |
24 April 1908 Moscow |
| Died | 19 December 1954 (aged 46) |
| Cause of death |
Firing squad |
Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov (Russian: Виктор Семёнович Абакумов; 24 April 1908 – 19 December 1954) was a high level Soviet security official, from 1943 to 1946 the head of SMERSH in the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense, and from 1946 to 1951 Minister of State Security or MGB (ex-NKGB). Abakumov was a notoriously brutal official who was known to torture prisoners personally.
Abakumov was born in 1908 in Moscow in a family of Russian ethnicity. His father was an unskilled labourer and his mother a nurse. Despite being only a teenager, Abakumov joined the Red Army in spring 1922, and served with the 2 Special Task Moscow Brigade in the Russian Civil War, until he was demobilized in December 1923. He then joined the Communist Youth League, became a candidate member of the Communist Party in 1930, and worked in the People's Commissariat of Supplies until 1932, while also being responsible for the Military Section of the Communist Youth League in the Moscow area (raion). In early 1932, he was recommended by the Party to join the security services (OGPU), and was assigned to the Economic Department and possibly to the Investigation Department. In 1933, he was dismissed from the Economic Department and assigned as an overseer to the GULAG. This was a clear demotion; Abakumov was a compulsive womanizer, and his superior, M.P. Shreider (), felt that he was unfit to be a Chekist.
In 1934 after the reorganization of the security apparatus (the OGPU was joined to the NKVD as a GUGB), Abakumov started his work in a 1st Section of Economics Department (EKO) by the Main Directorate of State Security of NKVD. Then on 1 August 1934 he was transferred to the Chief Directorate of Camps and Labour Colonies (GULAG), where he served to 1937, mainly as operative officer in 3rd Section of Security Department of GULAG of the NKVD. In April 1937 Abakumov was moved to the 4th Department (OO) of GUGB of the NKVD where he served until March 1938.
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