Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin - a security officer, an employee of the security agencies of the Soviet Union, better known under the nickname "chief executioner." Blokhinâs personality is known to the whole world, because the employeeâs reputation is distinguished by terrible deeds and terrible work activities. In addition, Blokhin is known not only for his cruelty and love of bloodshed, but also for how many innocent lives were personally ruined by the head of the NKVD of the USSR. More on this later in the article.
Biography of General Vasily Blokhin
Born on January 7, 1895 in the Vladimir province. Parents of Vasily Blokhin were very poor peasants.
Back in his youth, Vasily had to work to help his family survive. Vasily Blokhin earned both the work of a shepherd and a bricklayer.
Revolutionary unrest
In 1915, Blokhin became an ordinary tsarist army. Soon he received the rank of non-commissioned officer of the reserve infantry regiment.
By 1917, Vasily Blokhin rose to the rank of senior non-commissioned officer. During World War I, Vasily served as chairman of the company committee of the 218th infantry regiment.
Soviet years
Already in 1918, Vasily Blokhin officially joined the Red Army of the Russian Communist Party, taking the side of the Bolsheviks. At that time, the Bolshevik party gained enormous size and was one of the most massive on a global level.
After joining the ranks of the Red Army, Vasily Blokhin holds the post of assistant bosses of the military commissariat, and also works as a platoon commander.
Education
In 1933, Vasily Blokhin graduated from the University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in Moscow.
In 1937, Vasily increased his qualifications in the profession of "builder" in Moscow, but did not work in his specialty.
Government job
Vasily Blokhin manages to build his career in government. Most of his work Vasily works in state security agencies.
It was in 1921 that he began his work in the NKVD of the USSR.
For Blokhin, the first step in his career advancement was his work on the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-Revolution and Sabotage. It was there that Vasily began his state work, becoming the commander of 62 battalions.
Five years later, Vasily Blokhin begins work in the United State Political Administration of the Soviet Union.
After working for nearly ten years, Blokhin gets a place in the administrative office, which was led by the NKVD of the USSR.
Work in the security organs
Already in 1946, Vasily became the head of the commandant department of the affairs department of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR. In 1952, in addition to his work at the Ministry of State Security, Blokhin also became a commandant in the administrative department.
Creepy work
It was Blokhin who in 1924 led the firing squad working at the OGPU. In acts that confirmed the execution of the death sentence, Blokhin's signature flickers everywhere.
The last execution, which was carried out by Blokhin, was on March 2, 1953. This happened three days before Stalin's death.
Speaking of the commandant of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR, one can say that his preference for weapons for shooting fell on Walter PP, a German pistol that is distinguished by its caliber and lightness.
A strange combination of circumstances
Blokhin repeatedly put forward his candidacy for the post of commandant of the Peopleâs Commissariat of Internal Affairs . In addition, Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin was respected by Heinrich Berry. For many years, Vasily worked under Nikolai Yezhov.
Given all these facts, it remains strange why Vasily Blokhin was not repressed and cleaned up under Lavrentiya Beria. In addition, Blokhin even received the rank of general. Why and how this happened remains a mystery to historians throughout Russia.
Executions
Today, the personality of Vasily Blokhin is always associated with the personality of Peter Maggo - both public servants have shown themselves to be extremely effective executioners.
With his own hands and on his own, he executed a huge number of death sentences. Today we can say that Vasily Blokhin was the chief executioner of the NKVD, because he has uncountable amount of blood of innocent people on his hands.
Among his victims can be called very famous names - Tukhachevsky, Smilga, Karakhan, Yezhov, Frinovsky and many others.
Executive position
In 1940, Blokhin became the leader of a large-scale mass execution of Polish officers, who are better known as the Katyn execution, which was carried out in a small village near Tver.
For his direct participation in this execution, Blokhin received many awards, including the Order of the Red Banner.
Executioner's death
The executioner Vasily Blokhin was dismissed from the Ministry of State Security on the same day when he made his last execution.
A year after the dismissal of the head executioner of the NKVD, Blokhin was deprived of all military ranks and merits, explaining this by the fact that he compromised himself and was not worthy of such great honors.
Speaking of death, Major General Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin died on February 3, 1955. According to the official version, the executioner suffered from heart disease and died as a result of a heart attack. Historians also say that Blokhin did not survive such a strong humiliation of his dignity and shot himself with his own hands.
The main Soviet executioner was buried at the Don cemetery, where not far from his burial there are mass graves of those who fell under the execution of Blokhin.
At the very entrance to the cemetery you can see a monument to Blokhin, and next to his grave.
Words about the executioner
The most striking statement published in the press about the personality and activities of the main executioner of the NKVD, Vasily Blokhin, was a quote from Tokarev, known as Major General of the NKVD, who told how terrified he was when he saw how the main executioner of the entire Soviet Union was dressed in special clothes intended for the death penalty.
In many newspapers, already in the years after the collapse of the USSR, a lot of information was published about what was hidden from the public. One of these topics was the activities of the Chekists, thanks to which a huge number of people died, both guilty and not.
The activities and position of Blokhin also did not pass by, because, according to some reports, it is known that the executioner personally shot more than ten thousand people. Some sources indicate that there were up to fifteen thousand victims, in others - up to fifty. To date, this figure is still inaccurate. However, the fact that Blokhin could shoot up to two hundred people a day, today has a solid foundation.
If we talk about the personality of Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin, then it must be said that his activity was hidden for a very long time from the public, for fear that people, having learned about all the horrors that occurred under the leadership of the Soviets of the USSR, would raise a huge rebellion and not only overthrow the government, but also personally deal with everyone who took any part in this.
Already in the post-Soviet years, many documents from archives began to pop up in the press, many bodies that existed in the 90s of the last century began to analyze cases that aroused great doubt in their veracity and accuracy. The Blokhin case was not the only high-profile case that was hushed up and kept for a very long time in the strictest confidence.
However, now that the personality and activities of Vasily Blokhin are revealed, the only thing people can do is to accept all these terrible incidents that have taken place for too long, as a story that can no longer be avoided.
In addition, speaking of the âdark deedsâ of the Soviets, it is important that not only Blokhinâs hands destroyed a lot of both guilty and innocent people who could leave their bright mark on history. Along with Blokhin is also the personality of Peter Maggo, who is also considered to be a âSoviet executionerâ; Jacob Agranov, because of the devotion of the USSR, a huge number of talented writers and poets were killed.
Books about his activities
Many authors were not afraid of the consequences and wrote entire works that told about the "work" of the executioner. Today they are accessible to all readers, but not everyone can start reading. Not everyone can read indifferently about the horrors that the executioner was capable of, killing thirty to forty people per shift.
Interesting facts about the life of Blokhin
Vasily Mikhailovich never used someone else's weapon for execution. He always had a small suitcase with several German pistols in it.
A separate basement was built for execution, which did not produce sound from the premises. No shots or screams were heard from the outside. In addition, the concrete floor was initially specially poured at an angle so that after the shooting the blood of the victims did not remain a puddle, which would have to be removed, but flowed into a separate runoff.
One of the members of the firing squad spoke about the cruelty with which Blokhin executed the shootings. According to this member, the victim was held tightly by the hand so that the death row couldnât move, and the executioner would aim and shoot at the head. This happened daily after the death sentence took effect.
According to some reports, every day Vasily made a huge number of executions. It was easier for him to shoot a man for three minutes.
Vasily Blokhin initially set himself the goal of shooting up to three hundred people in one shift.
In 2010, the name Blokhin appeared in the Guinness Book of Records. The section about Vasily was called âThe Most Prolific Executionerâ. "Merit", for which the name of the executioner fell into this rating, was a record - seven thousand lives in twenty-eight years.
When Nikita Khrushchev came to power, Blokhin lost all of his many awards. This was due to the fact that Khrushchev began the process of exposing and removing the personality cult from the Soviet Union. In addition to the fact that the new representative of the Soviet government stripped many of his military awards, a new stage of change began in Russia, which changed the life of the entire Russian people.
For a long time, very little was known about the Katyn execution. The Soviet Union refused to take responsibility for a huge number of deaths. And only in the 90s of the last century the power of the USSR began to admit the idea that, perhaps, part of the blame falls on her.
After the death of Stalin, Vasily Blokhin was removed as far as possible from the work of state bodies. His friends said that after the dismissal, the executioner began to suffer from alcoholism, which prompted the âmaster of his craftâ to commit suicide.
While serving in government bodies of the USSR, Blokhin was constantly promoted in posts and titles for his âproductive and fruitful work.â
Despite the fact that Blokhin was deprived of all the awards, which were far from many, in the late 60s of the last century the executionerâs personality was still posthumously rehabilitated and the awards returned to the Blokhin family again.
Despite the fact that Blokhin worked for Nikolai Yezhov for a long time , he himself executed the execution of this famous figure of the Soviet Union.
When Vasily Blokhin compiled lists of those who âmust be eliminatedâ and those who âpose a real threat to the power of the Soviet Union,â he included more than 300 names, among which was the name of Marshal Dmitry Tokarev. Despite the fact that Blokhin himself spoke of âa loyal attitude to the activities and Tokarevâs words about himself,â the marshal was one of the first who Vasily was going to shoot.
Some sources say that Blokhinâs choice of weapon for his âworkâ fell on German pistols, not only because they were comfortable and withstood heavy loads, but also because if at least something about the executioner's activities would be recognized among ordinary citizens, it was possible to throw off all the blame, thereby accusing the German soldiers of what was happening.
Families headed by executors of death sentences generally did not see their husbands and fathers. When the executioners returned home, most often they were drunk. Many of the executioners could not stand such a job and went crazy. Many families did not even suspect that the head of the family was "the arbiter of human destiny." It is possible that the family of Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin also remained in ignorance, like many others.
Blokhin himself drank vodka every day after the end of the shift and treated his colleagues and accomplices.
Every night for the change of Blokhin, 25 so-called trenches were dug, which were up to fifteen meters in length. This was done so that the corpses of the executed victims could be removed away from prying eyes.
During the Katyn massacre, Blokhin personally destroyed more than twenty thousand Polish officers. After that he was awarded "For the labor organization and active execution of special assignments."
Despite the fact that thousands of people could not find peace after death, Vasily was buried as an ordinary person and recently a beautiful marble monument appeared on his grave. Apparently, for the executioner's relatives it doesnât matter at all that the bodies of all those people who were killed by the hands of the Chekist Vasily Blokhin were burnt nearby, and their ashes were scattered over nameless graves literally three hundred meters from the grave of their killer.
After the executioner was fired, he, as a serviceman, was paid a pension, which already in those years was quite large - more than three thousand rubles a month. However, already in 1954, they stopped paying pensions, because Vasily lost all ranks. Whether the executioner managed to draw up documents for a simple old-age pension remains an unknown fact in the biography.
General conclusion
Speaking about everything that the Soviet government was hiding, we understand that it remains in doubt whether everything is known now. Undoubtedly, much is hiding from people today. From what we know at the moment, we still cannot say whether things were even more terrible than the activities of the Soviet executioners. This narrow enlightenment in this matter does not give us any authority to say anything concrete about the history of our country. The personality cult of Stalin leads to a huge number of mysteries and secrets, which, perhaps, we will never know.
But the fact that information about personalities such as Blokhin has come out and is accessible to everyone today suggests that not everything was as good as the natives of the Soviet Union say today. However, we can only reconcile with what Russian history contains: itâs impossible to correct what has been done, itâs the past, which for a long time will be a wound for the Russian people, who suffered great losses from their compatriots.
It is impossible to denigrate the personality of Joseph Stalin, because it was he who carried out many changes in Russia that could develop the country and increase its authority on a global level. However, his paranoia and fear of betrayal became the basis of such terrible events and huge losses within the country.
In addition, the fact that the Soviet government was looking for any way to throw all the blame on Germany does not show the system of doing business in the Soviet Union from the best side. Politics, which occupied a leading position in those years, implied the inability to tell the truth about what really happened behind the curtain.
Even for the citizens themselves, everything seemed wonderful from the outside: economic growth, declining unemployment, a large selection of domestic goods, affordable housing - all this was able to hide the domestic policy, which had been carefully hidden for many years.
The worst thing is that this happened in Russia and it was considered normal, even though in the Soviet years there were certain social norms that rejected the killing as something normal.