Ivan Serov
Encyclopedia
State Security
General
Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov was a prominent leader of Soviet security and intelligence agencies, head of the KGB
between March 1954 and December 1958, as well as head of the GRU
between 1958 and 1963. He was Deputy Commissar of the NKVD
under Lavrentiy Beria
, and was to play a major role in the political intrigues after Joseph Stalin
's death. Serov helped establish a variety of secret police forces in Central and Eastern Europe after the rise of the Iron Curtain
, and played an important role in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Serov headed both the political intelligence agency (KGB), and the military intelligence agency (GRU), making him unique in Soviet/Russian history.
province of the Russian Empire
. Major changes in Russia occurred during his childhood, culminating in the Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917. In 1923 (when he was 18) he joined the Red Army
, shortly after the end of the Russian Civil War
; in 1926, he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
, and graduated from the Artillery
Officers School of Leningrad
in 1928. A major step in his career as a Red Army officer was the attendance of Higher Academic Courses in the prestigious Frunze Military Academy from which he graduated in 1939. Later that year, he entered the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), in a major capacity.
Serov was able to survive the Great Purge
, and in 1937, was tasked as the executioner of Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky
, along with other leading Red Army figures. Viktor Suvorov
claims that Serov had a responsibility in the deposition and execution of Nikolai Yezhov
.
and the peoples of the Baltic States
, becoming Beria's primary lieutenant in 1941.
, the local Head of State, who himself was nicknamed the "Butcher of the Ukraine".
As well as performing his duties in this post, Serov was also responsible for the co-ordination of deportation from the Baltic States
and Poland
. Viktor Suvorov
claims Serov may have been one of the people responsible for the Katyn Massacre
, and William Taubman
, Khrushchev's biographer, states this as a fact.
. He issued the so-called Serov Instructions, which detailed procedures for mass deportations from the Baltic States. He also coordinated the mass expulsion of Crimean Tatars
from the Crimean ASSR in the end of World War II.
Viktor Suvorov
claims that in 1946 Serov personally took part in the execution of Andrey Vlasov
, along with the rest of the command of the Russian Liberation Army
, an organization that had co-operated with the Nazis in World War II.
Serov was one of the major figures in SMERSH
, the wartime counterintelligence department of the Red Army, a deputy to Viktor Abakumov
. It was in this function that Serov established the Polish Ministry of Public Security
, the Polish secret police until 1956, acting as its main Soviet adviser and organizer.
Serov organized the persecution of the Armia Krajowa
as Deputy Commissar, helping to bring about the Stalinist
era of Polish history.
, the
East German secret police.
against him, thus avoiding his own downfall in the aftermath. Serov was one of the few major figures in the secret police to survive this incident.
In 1954, Serov became Chairman of the KGB
, and so the head of the larger part of the Soviet secret police. Serov organized security for the tours of Nikolai Bulganin
and Nikita Khrushchev
, but did not travel to Britain in 1956 when he was decried by the British media as "Ivan the Terrible" and "the Butcher".
and Mikhail Suslov
in an armed personnel carrier into Budapest on October 24, because there was too much shooting in the streets.
In 1956, the Hungarian revolution overthrew the incumbent Communist Hungarian government and in response to this, János Kádár
formed a new government more loyal to Moscow, but this received little popular support. Serov was responsible for arresting supporters of Imre Nagy
who were trying to negotiate with Soviet military officials.
Serov organized deportations of Hungarians, among them Imre Nagy. Serov co-ordinated the abduction of Pál Maléter
, the Hungarian general, and the disruption of peace talks between the Red Army and the Hungarian forces.
, who had said that Western visitors could expect that they "wouldn't see so many policemen around the place", that the Soviet police force would undergo a restructuring. Serov was moved from his post to that of Director of the GRU
.
, helping the Soviet leadership with American intelligence. After the failure of the Soviet Union to gain the upper hand in the crisis, Serov was dismissed from the position, and in 1965 was stripped of his Party membership, bringing his career to an end.
Serov, however, lived on till 1990, the year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
to Europe and to intensify the Stalinist process in the Soviet Union. Serov's consolidation of Soviet power in Eastern Europe was helped by his organization of both the UB
(Polish Intelligence Service) in Poland and the Stasi in East Germany.
Serov's downfall from position of power has been linked to a case called the Penkovsky affair. Oleg Penkovsky was Serov's protege, an officer who turned to be a double agent. Serov was married to Khrushchev's daughter and this saved him when he was expelled from power.
State Security
General
Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov was a prominent leader of Soviet security and intelligence agencies, head of the KGB
between March 1954 and December 1958, as well as head of the GRU
between 1958 and 1963. He was Deputy Commissar of the NKVD
under Lavrentiy Beria
, and was to play a major role in the political intrigues after Joseph Stalin
's death. Serov helped establish a variety of secret police forces in Central and Eastern Europe after the rise of the Iron Curtain
, and played an important role in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Serov headed both the political intelligence agency (KGB), and the military intelligence agency (GRU), making him unique in Soviet/Russian history.
province of the Russian Empire
. Major changes in Russia occurred during his childhood, culminating in the Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917. In 1923 (when he was 18) he joined the Red Army
, shortly after the end of the Russian Civil War
; in 1926, he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
, and graduated from the Artillery
Officers School of Leningrad
in 1928. A major step in his career as a Red Army officer was the attendance of Higher Academic Courses in the prestigious Frunze Military Academy from which he graduated in 1939. Later that year, he entered the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), in a major capacity.
Serov was able to survive the Great Purge
, and in 1937, was tasked as the executioner of Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky
, along with other leading Red Army figures. Viktor Suvorov
claims that Serov had a responsibility in the deposition and execution of Nikolai Yezhov
.
and the peoples of the Baltic States
, becoming Beria's primary lieutenant in 1941.
, the local Head of State, who himself was nicknamed the "Butcher of the Ukraine".
As well as performing his duties in this post, Serov was also responsible for the co-ordination of deportation from the Baltic States
and Poland
. Viktor Suvorov
claims Serov may have been one of the people responsible for the Katyn Massacre
, and William Taubman
, Khrushchev's biographer, states this as a fact.
. He issued the so-called Serov Instructions, which detailed procedures for mass deportations from the Baltic States. He also coordinated the mass expulsion of Crimean Tatars
from the Crimean ASSR in the end of World War II.
Viktor Suvorov
claims that in 1946 Serov personally took part in the execution of Andrey Vlasov
, along with the rest of the command of the Russian Liberation Army
, an organization that had co-operated with the Nazis in World War II.
Serov was one of the major figures in SMERSH
, the wartime counterintelligence department of the Red Army, a deputy to Viktor Abakumov
. It was in this function that Serov established the Polish Ministry of Public Security
, the Polish secret police until 1956, acting as its main Soviet adviser and organizer.
Serov organized the persecution of the Armia Krajowa
as Deputy Commissar, helping to bring about the Stalinist
era of Polish history.
, the
East German secret police.
against him, thus avoiding his own downfall in the aftermath. Serov was one of the few major figures in the secret police to survive this incident.
In 1954, Serov became Chairman of the KGB
, and so the head of the larger part of the Soviet secret police. Serov organized security for the tours of Nikolai Bulganin
and Nikita Khrushchev
, but did not travel to Britain in 1956 when he was decried by the British media as "Ivan the Terrible" and "the Butcher".
and Mikhail Suslov
in an armed personnel carrier into Budapest on October 24, because there was too much shooting in the streets.
In 1956, the Hungarian revolution overthrew the incumbent Communist Hungarian government and in response to this, János Kádár
formed a new government more loyal to Moscow, but this received little popular support. Serov was responsible for arresting supporters of Imre Nagy
who were trying to negotiate with Soviet military officials.
Serov organized deportations of Hungarians, among them Imre Nagy. Serov co-ordinated the abduction of Pál Maléter
, the Hungarian general, and the disruption of peace talks between the Red Army and the Hungarian forces.
, who had said that Western visitors could expect that they "wouldn't see so many policemen around the place", that the Soviet police force would undergo a restructuring. Serov was moved from his post to that of Director of the GRU
.
, helping the Soviet leadership with American intelligence. After the failure of the Soviet Union to gain the upper hand in the crisis, Serov was dismissed from the position, and in 1965 was stripped of his Party membership, bringing his career to an end.
Serov, however, lived on till 1990, the year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
to Europe and to intensify the Stalinist process in the Soviet Union. Serov's consolidation of Soviet power in Eastern Europe was helped by his organization of both the UB
(Polish Intelligence Service) in Poland and the Stasi in East Germany.
Serov's downfall from position of power has been linked to a case called the Penkovsky affair. Oleg Penkovsky was Serov's protege, an officer who turned to be a double agent. Serov was married to Khrushchev's daughter and this saved him when he was expelled from power.
State Security
General
Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov was a prominent leader of Soviet security and intelligence agencies, head of the KGB
between March 1954 and December 1958, as well as head of the GRU
between 1958 and 1963. He was Deputy Commissar of the NKVD
under Lavrentiy Beria
, and was to play a major role in the political intrigues after Joseph Stalin
's death. Serov helped establish a variety of secret police forces in Central and Eastern Europe after the rise of the Iron Curtain
, and played an important role in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Serov headed both the political intelligence agency (KGB), and the military intelligence agency (GRU), making him unique in Soviet/Russian history.
province of the Russian Empire
. Major changes in Russia occurred during his childhood, culminating in the Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917. In 1923 (when he was 18) he joined the Red Army
, shortly after the end of the Russian Civil War
; in 1926, he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
, and graduated from the Artillery
Officers School of Leningrad
in 1928. A major step in his career as a Red Army officer was the attendance of Higher Academic Courses in the prestigious Frunze Military Academy from which he graduated in 1939. Later that year, he entered the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), in a major capacity.
Serov was able to survive the Great Purge
, and in 1937, was tasked as the executioner of Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky
, along with other leading Red Army figures. Viktor Suvorov
claims that Serov had a responsibility in the deposition and execution of Nikolai Yezhov
.
and the peoples of the Baltic States
, becoming Beria's primary lieutenant in 1941.
, the local Head of State, who himself was nicknamed the "Butcher of the Ukraine".
As well as performing his duties in this post, Serov was also responsible for the co-ordination of deportation from the Baltic States
and Poland
. Viktor Suvorov
claims Serov may have been one of the people responsible for the Katyn Massacre
, and William Taubman
, Khrushchev's biographer, states this as a fact.
. He issued the so-called Serov Instructions, which detailed procedures for mass deportations from the Baltic States. He also coordinated the mass expulsion of Crimean Tatars
from the Crimean ASSR in the end of World War II.
Viktor Suvorov
claims that in 1946 Serov personally took part in the execution of Andrey Vlasov
, along with the rest of the command of the Russian Liberation Army
, an organization that had co-operated with the Nazis in World War II.
Serov was one of the major figures in SMERSH
, the wartime counterintelligence department of the Red Army, a deputy to Viktor Abakumov
. It was in this function that Serov established the Polish Ministry of Public Security
, the Polish secret police until 1956, acting as its main Soviet adviser and organizer.
Serov organized the persecution of the Armia Krajowa
as Deputy Commissar, helping to bring about the Stalinist
era of Polish history.
, the
East German secret police.
against him, thus avoiding his own downfall in the aftermath. Serov was one of the few major figures in the secret police to survive this incident.
In 1954, Serov became Chairman of the KGB
, and so the head of the larger part of the Soviet secret police. Serov organized security for the tours of Nikolai Bulganin
and Nikita Khrushchev
, but did not travel to Britain in 1956 when he was decried by the British media as "Ivan the Terrible" and "the Butcher".
and Mikhail Suslov
in an armed personnel carrier into Budapest on October 24, because there was too much shooting in the streets.
In 1956, the Hungarian revolution overthrew the incumbent Communist Hungarian government and in response to this, János Kádár
formed a new government more loyal to Moscow, but this received little popular support. Serov was responsible for arresting supporters of Imre Nagy
who were trying to negotiate with Soviet military officials.
Serov organized deportations of Hungarians, among them Imre Nagy. Serov co-ordinated the abduction of Pál Maléter
, the Hungarian general, and the disruption of peace talks between the Red Army and the Hungarian forces.
, who had said that Western visitors could expect that they "wouldn't see so many policemen around the place", that the Soviet police force would undergo a restructuring. Serov was moved from his post to that of Director of the GRU
.
, helping the Soviet leadership with American intelligence. After the failure of the Soviet Union to gain the upper hand in the crisis, Serov was dismissed from the position, and in 1965 was stripped of his Party membership, bringing his career to an end.
Serov, however, lived on till 1990, the year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
to Europe and to intensify the Stalinist process in the Soviet Union. Serov's consolidation of Soviet power in Eastern Europe was helped by his organization of both the UB
(Polish Intelligence Service) in Poland and the Stasi in East Germany.
Serov's downfall from position of power has been linked to a case called the Penkovsky affair. Oleg Penkovsky was Serov's protege, an officer who turned to be a double agent. Serov was married to Khrushchev's daughter and this saved him when he was expelled from power.
State Security
State Security can refer to:* general concepts of security agency or national security* Committee for State Security * State Security * State Security...
General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov was a prominent leader of Soviet security and intelligence agencies, head of the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
between March 1954 and December 1958, as well as head of the GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
between 1958 and 1963. He was Deputy Commissar of the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
under Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....
, and was to play a major role in the political intrigues after Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's death. Serov helped establish a variety of secret police forces in Central and Eastern Europe after the rise of the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
, and played an important role in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Serov headed both the political intelligence agency (KGB), and the military intelligence agency (GRU), making him unique in Soviet/Russian history.
Early life and military career
Serov was born on August 13, 1905, in Afimskoe, a village in the VologdaVologda
Vologda is a city and the administrative, cultural, and scientific center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the Vologda River. The city is a major transport knot of the Northwest of Russia. Vologda is among the Russian cities possessing an especially valuable historical heritage...
province of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Major changes in Russia occurred during his childhood, culminating in the Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917. In 1923 (when he was 18) he joined the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
, shortly after the end of the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
; in 1926, he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
, and graduated from the Artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
Officers School of Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
in 1928. A major step in his career as a Red Army officer was the attendance of Higher Academic Courses in the prestigious Frunze Military Academy from which he graduated in 1939. Later that year, he entered the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), in a major capacity.
Serov was able to survive the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
, and in 1937, was tasked as the executioner of Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, commander in chief of the Red Army , and one of the most prominent victims of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge.-Early life:...
, along with other leading Red Army figures. Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
claims that Serov had a responsibility in the deposition and execution of Nikolai Yezhov
Nikolai Yezhov
Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov or Ezhov was a senior figure in the NKVD under Joseph Stalin during the period of the Great Purge. His reign is sometimes known as the "Yezhovshchina" , "the Yezhov era", a term that began to be used during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s...
.
Actions in World War II
Serov became the Ukrainian Commissar of the NKVD in 1939, and from this point onwards he played a major role in many of the actions of the Soviet secret police in World War II, helping to organize the deportation of the ChechensOperation Lentil
Operation Lentil may refer to:* Operation Lentil , deportation of populations by Soviet Union* Operation Lentil , British naval air attack on Japanese installations...
and the peoples of the Baltic States
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
, becoming Beria's primary lieutenant in 1941.
Ukrainian Commissar
Serov was the Ukrainian commissar of the NKVD between 1939 and 1941. Time magazine has accused him of being responsible for the death of "hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian peasants" in this time period. Serov was also a colleague in Ukraine of Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, the local Head of State, who himself was nicknamed the "Butcher of the Ukraine".
As well as performing his duties in this post, Serov was also responsible for the co-ordination of deportation from the Baltic States
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
claims Serov may have been one of the people responsible for the Katyn Massacre
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all members of...
, and William Taubman
William Taubman
William Chase Taubman is an American political scientist. His biography of Nikita Khrushchev won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2004 and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography in 2003....
, Khrushchev's biographer, states this as a fact.
Deputy Commissar of the NKVD
In 1941 Serov was promoted to become Deputy Commissar of the NKVD as a whole, serving under Beria as one of his primary lieutenants; in this function, Serov was responsible for the deportation of a variety of Caucasian peoplesCaucasian peoples
This article deals with the various ethnic groups inhabiting the Caucasus region. There are more than50 ethnic groups living in the region.-Peoples speaking Caucasian languages:...
. He issued the so-called Serov Instructions, which detailed procedures for mass deportations from the Baltic States. He also coordinated the mass expulsion of Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group that originally resided in Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language...
from the Crimean ASSR in the end of World War II.
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
claims that in 1946 Serov personally took part in the execution of Andrey Vlasov
Andrey Vlasov
Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov or Wlassow was a Russian Red Army general who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.-Early career:...
, along with the rest of the command of the Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army was a group of predominantly Russian forces subordinated to the Nazi German high command during World War II....
, an organization that had co-operated with the Nazis in World War II.
Serov was one of the major figures in SMERSH
SMERSH
SMERSH was the counter-intelligence agency in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on April 14, 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin...
, the wartime counterintelligence department of the Red Army, a deputy to Viktor Abakumov
Viktor Abakumov
Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov , was a high level Soviet security organs 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 . Abakumov was a notoriously brutal official who was known to torture prisoners...
. It was in this function that Serov established the Polish Ministry of Public Security
Ministry of Public Security of Poland
The Ministry of Public Security of Poland was a Polish communist secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage service operating from 1945 to 1954 under Jakub Berman of the Politburo...
, the Polish secret police until 1956, acting as its main Soviet adviser and organizer.
Serov organized the persecution of the Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
as Deputy Commissar, helping to bring about the Stalinist
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
era of Polish history.
Post-War actions
In 1945, Serov was transferred to the Second Belarusian Front, and he went to Berlin in May of that year. He stayed there until 1947, helping to organize the construction of the StasiStasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
, the
East German secret police.
Becoming Head of the KGB
After the death of Stalin, Serov, who was close to Beria, betrayed him, conspiring with the officers of GRUGRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
against him, thus avoiding his own downfall in the aftermath. Serov was one of the few major figures in the secret police to survive this incident.
In 1954, Serov became Chairman of the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
, and so the head of the larger part of the Soviet secret police. Serov organized security for the tours of Nikolai Bulganin
Nikolai Bulganin
Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin was a prominent Soviet politician, who served as Minister of Defense and Premier of the Soviet Union . The Bulganin beard is named after him.-Early career:...
and Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, but did not travel to Britain in 1956 when he was decried by the British media as "Ivan the Terrible" and "the Butcher".
Hungary
Serov played a key role in the Hungarian crisis, sending reports to the Kremlin from Budapest, and escorting visiting Soviet Presidium leaders Anastas MikoyanAnastas Mikoyan
Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan was an Armenian Old Bolshevik and Soviet statesman during the rules of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Leonid Brezhnev....
and Mikhail Suslov
Mikhail Suslov
Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1965, and as unofficial Chief Ideologue of the Party until his death in 1982. Suslov was responsible for party democracy and the separation of power...
in an armed personnel carrier into Budapest on October 24, because there was too much shooting in the streets.
In 1956, the Hungarian revolution overthrew the incumbent Communist Hungarian government and in response to this, János Kádár
János Kádár
János Kádár was a Hungarian communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, presiding over the country from 1956 until his forced retirement in 1988. His thirty-two year term as General Secretary makes Kádár the longest ruler of the People's Republic of Hungary...
formed a new government more loyal to Moscow, but this received little popular support. Serov was responsible for arresting supporters of Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist politician who was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary on two occasions...
who were trying to negotiate with Soviet military officials.
Serov organized deportations of Hungarians, among them Imre Nagy. Serov co-ordinated the abduction of Pál Maléter
Pál Maléter
Pál Maléter was born to Hungarian parents in Eperjes, a city in the northern part of Historical Hungary, today part of Slovakia. He was the military leader of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution....
, the Hungarian general, and the disruption of peace talks between the Red Army and the Hungarian forces.
Removal
Serov was removed from his post as head of the KGB in 1958 after hints by Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, who had said that Western visitors could expect that they "wouldn't see so many policemen around the place", that the Soviet police force would undergo a restructuring. Serov was moved from his post to that of Director of the GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
.
GRU Executive and downfall
As head of GRU, Serov was a player in the Cuban Missile CrisisCuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
, helping the Soviet leadership with American intelligence. After the failure of the Soviet Union to gain the upper hand in the crisis, Serov was dismissed from the position, and in 1965 was stripped of his Party membership, bringing his career to an end.
Serov, however, lived on till 1990, the year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Significance
Though Serov is generally considered less significant than Lavrentiy Beria in modern literature, his actions helped to bring StalinismStalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
to Europe and to intensify the Stalinist process in the Soviet Union. Serov's consolidation of Soviet power in Eastern Europe was helped by his organization of both the UB
Ub
-Places:*Ub, Serbia, a town in Serbia*Ub , a river in Serbia*UB postcode area, in London, England*Ulan Bator, Mongolia-Organizations and businesses:*UltimateBet, an online poker site*Ungermann-Bass, a computer networking company in California...
(Polish Intelligence Service) in Poland and the Stasi in East Germany.
Serov's downfall from position of power has been linked to a case called the Penkovsky affair. Oleg Penkovsky was Serov's protege, an officer who turned to be a double agent. Serov was married to Khrushchev's daughter and this saved him when he was expelled from power.
State Security
State Security
State Security can refer to:* general concepts of security agency or national security* Committee for State Security * State Security * State Security...
General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov was a prominent leader of Soviet security and intelligence agencies, head of the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
between March 1954 and December 1958, as well as head of the GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
between 1958 and 1963. He was Deputy Commissar of the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
under Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....
, and was to play a major role in the political intrigues after Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's death. Serov helped establish a variety of secret police forces in Central and Eastern Europe after the rise of the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
, and played an important role in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Serov headed both the political intelligence agency (KGB), and the military intelligence agency (GRU), making him unique in Soviet/Russian history.
Early life and military career
Serov was born on August 13, 1905, in Afimskoe, a village in the VologdaVologda
Vologda is a city and the administrative, cultural, and scientific center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the Vologda River. The city is a major transport knot of the Northwest of Russia. Vologda is among the Russian cities possessing an especially valuable historical heritage...
province of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Major changes in Russia occurred during his childhood, culminating in the Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917. In 1923 (when he was 18) he joined the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
, shortly after the end of the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
; in 1926, he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
, and graduated from the Artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
Officers School of Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
in 1928. A major step in his career as a Red Army officer was the attendance of Higher Academic Courses in the prestigious Frunze Military Academy from which he graduated in 1939. Later that year, he entered the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), in a major capacity.
Serov was able to survive the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
, and in 1937, was tasked as the executioner of Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, commander in chief of the Red Army , and one of the most prominent victims of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge.-Early life:...
, along with other leading Red Army figures. Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
claims that Serov had a responsibility in the deposition and execution of Nikolai Yezhov
Nikolai Yezhov
Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov or Ezhov was a senior figure in the NKVD under Joseph Stalin during the period of the Great Purge. His reign is sometimes known as the "Yezhovshchina" , "the Yezhov era", a term that began to be used during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s...
.
Actions in World War II
Serov became the Ukrainian Commissar of the NKVD in 1939, and from this point onwards he played a major role in many of the actions of the Soviet secret police in World War II, helping to organize the deportation of the ChechensOperation Lentil
Operation Lentil may refer to:* Operation Lentil , deportation of populations by Soviet Union* Operation Lentil , British naval air attack on Japanese installations...
and the peoples of the Baltic States
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
, becoming Beria's primary lieutenant in 1941.
Ukrainian Commissar
Serov was the Ukrainian commissar of the NKVD between 1939 and 1941. Time magazine has accused him of being responsible for the death of "hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian peasants" in this time period. Serov was also a colleague in Ukraine of Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, the local Head of State, who himself was nicknamed the "Butcher of the Ukraine".
As well as performing his duties in this post, Serov was also responsible for the co-ordination of deportation from the Baltic States
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
claims Serov may have been one of the people responsible for the Katyn Massacre
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all members of...
, and William Taubman
William Taubman
William Chase Taubman is an American political scientist. His biography of Nikita Khrushchev won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2004 and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography in 2003....
, Khrushchev's biographer, states this as a fact.
Deputy Commissar of the NKVD
In 1941 Serov was promoted to become Deputy Commissar of the NKVD as a whole, serving under Beria as one of his primary lieutenants; in this function, Serov was responsible for the deportation of a variety of Caucasian peoplesCaucasian peoples
This article deals with the various ethnic groups inhabiting the Caucasus region. There are more than50 ethnic groups living in the region.-Peoples speaking Caucasian languages:...
. He issued the so-called Serov Instructions, which detailed procedures for mass deportations from the Baltic States. He also coordinated the mass expulsion of Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group that originally resided in Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language...
from the Crimean ASSR in the end of World War II.
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
claims that in 1946 Serov personally took part in the execution of Andrey Vlasov
Andrey Vlasov
Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov or Wlassow was a Russian Red Army general who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.-Early career:...
, along with the rest of the command of the Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army was a group of predominantly Russian forces subordinated to the Nazi German high command during World War II....
, an organization that had co-operated with the Nazis in World War II.
Serov was one of the major figures in SMERSH
SMERSH
SMERSH was the counter-intelligence agency in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on April 14, 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin...
, the wartime counterintelligence department of the Red Army, a deputy to Viktor Abakumov
Viktor Abakumov
Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov , was a high level Soviet security organs 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 . Abakumov was a notoriously brutal official who was known to torture prisoners...
. It was in this function that Serov established the Polish Ministry of Public Security
Ministry of Public Security of Poland
The Ministry of Public Security of Poland was a Polish communist secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage service operating from 1945 to 1954 under Jakub Berman of the Politburo...
, the Polish secret police until 1956, acting as its main Soviet adviser and organizer.
Serov organized the persecution of the Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
as Deputy Commissar, helping to bring about the Stalinist
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
era of Polish history.
Post-War actions
In 1945, Serov was transferred to the Second Belarusian Front, and he went to Berlin in May of that year. He stayed there until 1947, helping to organize the construction of the StasiStasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
, the
East German secret police.
Becoming Head of the KGB
After the death of Stalin, Serov, who was close to Beria, betrayed him, conspiring with the officers of GRUGRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
against him, thus avoiding his own downfall in the aftermath. Serov was one of the few major figures in the secret police to survive this incident.
In 1954, Serov became Chairman of the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
, and so the head of the larger part of the Soviet secret police. Serov organized security for the tours of Nikolai Bulganin
Nikolai Bulganin
Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin was a prominent Soviet politician, who served as Minister of Defense and Premier of the Soviet Union . The Bulganin beard is named after him.-Early career:...
and Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, but did not travel to Britain in 1956 when he was decried by the British media as "Ivan the Terrible" and "the Butcher".
Hungary
Serov played a key role in the Hungarian crisis, sending reports to the Kremlin from Budapest, and escorting visiting Soviet Presidium leaders Anastas MikoyanAnastas Mikoyan
Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan was an Armenian Old Bolshevik and Soviet statesman during the rules of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Leonid Brezhnev....
and Mikhail Suslov
Mikhail Suslov
Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1965, and as unofficial Chief Ideologue of the Party until his death in 1982. Suslov was responsible for party democracy and the separation of power...
in an armed personnel carrier into Budapest on October 24, because there was too much shooting in the streets.
In 1956, the Hungarian revolution overthrew the incumbent Communist Hungarian government and in response to this, János Kádár
János Kádár
János Kádár was a Hungarian communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, presiding over the country from 1956 until his forced retirement in 1988. His thirty-two year term as General Secretary makes Kádár the longest ruler of the People's Republic of Hungary...
formed a new government more loyal to Moscow, but this received little popular support. Serov was responsible for arresting supporters of Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist politician who was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary on two occasions...
who were trying to negotiate with Soviet military officials.
Serov organized deportations of Hungarians, among them Imre Nagy. Serov co-ordinated the abduction of Pál Maléter
Pál Maléter
Pál Maléter was born to Hungarian parents in Eperjes, a city in the northern part of Historical Hungary, today part of Slovakia. He was the military leader of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution....
, the Hungarian general, and the disruption of peace talks between the Red Army and the Hungarian forces.
Removal
Serov was removed from his post as head of the KGB in 1958 after hints by Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, who had said that Western visitors could expect that they "wouldn't see so many policemen around the place", that the Soviet police force would undergo a restructuring. Serov was moved from his post to that of Director of the GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
.
GRU Executive and downfall
As head of GRU, Serov was a player in the Cuban Missile CrisisCuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
, helping the Soviet leadership with American intelligence. After the failure of the Soviet Union to gain the upper hand in the crisis, Serov was dismissed from the position, and in 1965 was stripped of his Party membership, bringing his career to an end.
Serov, however, lived on till 1990, the year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Significance
Though Serov is generally considered less significant than Lavrentiy Beria in modern literature, his actions helped to bring StalinismStalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
to Europe and to intensify the Stalinist process in the Soviet Union. Serov's consolidation of Soviet power in Eastern Europe was helped by his organization of both the UB
Ub
-Places:*Ub, Serbia, a town in Serbia*Ub , a river in Serbia*UB postcode area, in London, England*Ulan Bator, Mongolia-Organizations and businesses:*UltimateBet, an online poker site*Ungermann-Bass, a computer networking company in California...
(Polish Intelligence Service) in Poland and the Stasi in East Germany.
Serov's downfall from position of power has been linked to a case called the Penkovsky affair. Oleg Penkovsky was Serov's protege, an officer who turned to be a double agent. Serov was married to Khrushchev's daughter and this saved him when he was expelled from power.
State Security
State Security
State Security can refer to:* general concepts of security agency or national security* Committee for State Security * State Security * State Security...
General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Ivan Aleksandrovich Serov was a prominent leader of Soviet security and intelligence agencies, head of the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
between March 1954 and December 1958, as well as head of the GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
between 1958 and 1963. He was Deputy Commissar of the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
under Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....
, and was to play a major role in the political intrigues after Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's death. Serov helped establish a variety of secret police forces in Central and Eastern Europe after the rise of the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
, and played an important role in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Serov headed both the political intelligence agency (KGB), and the military intelligence agency (GRU), making him unique in Soviet/Russian history.
Early life and military career
Serov was born on August 13, 1905, in Afimskoe, a village in the VologdaVologda
Vologda is a city and the administrative, cultural, and scientific center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the Vologda River. The city is a major transport knot of the Northwest of Russia. Vologda is among the Russian cities possessing an especially valuable historical heritage...
province of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Major changes in Russia occurred during his childhood, culminating in the Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917. In 1923 (when he was 18) he joined the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
, shortly after the end of the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
; in 1926, he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
, and graduated from the Artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
Officers School of Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
in 1928. A major step in his career as a Red Army officer was the attendance of Higher Academic Courses in the prestigious Frunze Military Academy from which he graduated in 1939. Later that year, he entered the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), in a major capacity.
Serov was able to survive the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
, and in 1937, was tasked as the executioner of Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Mikhail Tukhachevsky
Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, commander in chief of the Red Army , and one of the most prominent victims of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge.-Early life:...
, along with other leading Red Army figures. Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
claims that Serov had a responsibility in the deposition and execution of Nikolai Yezhov
Nikolai Yezhov
Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov or Ezhov was a senior figure in the NKVD under Joseph Stalin during the period of the Great Purge. His reign is sometimes known as the "Yezhovshchina" , "the Yezhov era", a term that began to be used during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s...
.
Actions in World War II
Serov became the Ukrainian Commissar of the NKVD in 1939, and from this point onwards he played a major role in many of the actions of the Soviet secret police in World War II, helping to organize the deportation of the ChechensOperation Lentil
Operation Lentil may refer to:* Operation Lentil , deportation of populations by Soviet Union* Operation Lentil , British naval air attack on Japanese installations...
and the peoples of the Baltic States
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
, becoming Beria's primary lieutenant in 1941.
Ukrainian Commissar
Serov was the Ukrainian commissar of the NKVD between 1939 and 1941. Time magazine has accused him of being responsible for the death of "hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian peasants" in this time period. Serov was also a colleague in Ukraine of Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, the local Head of State, who himself was nicknamed the "Butcher of the Ukraine".
As well as performing his duties in this post, Serov was also responsible for the co-ordination of deportation from the Baltic States
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
claims Serov may have been one of the people responsible for the Katyn Massacre
Katyn massacre
The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all members of...
, and William Taubman
William Taubman
William Chase Taubman is an American political scientist. His biography of Nikita Khrushchev won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2004 and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography in 2003....
, Khrushchev's biographer, states this as a fact.
Deputy Commissar of the NKVD
In 1941 Serov was promoted to become Deputy Commissar of the NKVD as a whole, serving under Beria as one of his primary lieutenants; in this function, Serov was responsible for the deportation of a variety of Caucasian peoplesCaucasian peoples
This article deals with the various ethnic groups inhabiting the Caucasus region. There are more than50 ethnic groups living in the region.-Peoples speaking Caucasian languages:...
. He issued the so-called Serov Instructions, which detailed procedures for mass deportations from the Baltic States. He also coordinated the mass expulsion of Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group that originally resided in Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language...
from the Crimean ASSR in the end of World War II.
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov
Viktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
claims that in 1946 Serov personally took part in the execution of Andrey Vlasov
Andrey Vlasov
Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov or Wlassow was a Russian Red Army general who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.-Early career:...
, along with the rest of the command of the Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army was a group of predominantly Russian forces subordinated to the Nazi German high command during World War II....
, an organization that had co-operated with the Nazis in World War II.
Serov was one of the major figures in SMERSH
SMERSH
SMERSH was the counter-intelligence agency in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on April 14, 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin...
, the wartime counterintelligence department of the Red Army, a deputy to Viktor Abakumov
Viktor Abakumov
Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov , was a high level Soviet security organs 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 . Abakumov was a notoriously brutal official who was known to torture prisoners...
. It was in this function that Serov established the Polish Ministry of Public Security
Ministry of Public Security of Poland
The Ministry of Public Security of Poland was a Polish communist secret police, intelligence and counter-espionage service operating from 1945 to 1954 under Jakub Berman of the Politburo...
, the Polish secret police until 1956, acting as its main Soviet adviser and organizer.
Serov organized the persecution of the Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
as Deputy Commissar, helping to bring about the Stalinist
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
era of Polish history.
Post-War actions
In 1945, Serov was transferred to the Second Belarusian Front, and he went to Berlin in May of that year. He stayed there until 1947, helping to organize the construction of the StasiStasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
, the
East German secret police.
Becoming Head of the KGB
After the death of Stalin, Serov, who was close to Beria, betrayed him, conspiring with the officers of GRUGRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
against him, thus avoiding his own downfall in the aftermath. Serov was one of the few major figures in the secret police to survive this incident.
In 1954, Serov became Chairman of the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
, and so the head of the larger part of the Soviet secret police. Serov organized security for the tours of Nikolai Bulganin
Nikolai Bulganin
Nikolai Alexandrovich Bulganin was a prominent Soviet politician, who served as Minister of Defense and Premier of the Soviet Union . The Bulganin beard is named after him.-Early career:...
and Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, but did not travel to Britain in 1956 when he was decried by the British media as "Ivan the Terrible" and "the Butcher".
Hungary
Serov played a key role in the Hungarian crisis, sending reports to the Kremlin from Budapest, and escorting visiting Soviet Presidium leaders Anastas MikoyanAnastas Mikoyan
Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan was an Armenian Old Bolshevik and Soviet statesman during the rules of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Leonid Brezhnev....
and Mikhail Suslov
Mikhail Suslov
Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1965, and as unofficial Chief Ideologue of the Party until his death in 1982. Suslov was responsible for party democracy and the separation of power...
in an armed personnel carrier into Budapest on October 24, because there was too much shooting in the streets.
In 1956, the Hungarian revolution overthrew the incumbent Communist Hungarian government and in response to this, János Kádár
János Kádár
János Kádár was a Hungarian communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, presiding over the country from 1956 until his forced retirement in 1988. His thirty-two year term as General Secretary makes Kádár the longest ruler of the People's Republic of Hungary...
formed a new government more loyal to Moscow, but this received little popular support. Serov was responsible for arresting supporters of Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy
Imre Nagy was a Hungarian communist politician who was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary on two occasions...
who were trying to negotiate with Soviet military officials.
Serov organized deportations of Hungarians, among them Imre Nagy. Serov co-ordinated the abduction of Pál Maléter
Pál Maléter
Pál Maléter was born to Hungarian parents in Eperjes, a city in the northern part of Historical Hungary, today part of Slovakia. He was the military leader of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution....
, the Hungarian general, and the disruption of peace talks between the Red Army and the Hungarian forces.
Removal
Serov was removed from his post as head of the KGB in 1958 after hints by Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, who had said that Western visitors could expect that they "wouldn't see so many policemen around the place", that the Soviet police force would undergo a restructuring. Serov was moved from his post to that of Director of the GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
.
GRU Executive and downfall
As head of GRU, Serov was a player in the Cuban Missile CrisisCuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
, helping the Soviet leadership with American intelligence. After the failure of the Soviet Union to gain the upper hand in the crisis, Serov was dismissed from the position, and in 1965 was stripped of his Party membership, bringing his career to an end.
Serov, however, lived on till 1990, the year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Significance
Though Serov is generally considered less significant than Lavrentiy Beria in modern literature, his actions helped to bring StalinismStalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
to Europe and to intensify the Stalinist process in the Soviet Union. Serov's consolidation of Soviet power in Eastern Europe was helped by his organization of both the UB
Ub
-Places:*Ub, Serbia, a town in Serbia*Ub , a river in Serbia*UB postcode area, in London, England*Ulan Bator, Mongolia-Organizations and businesses:*UltimateBet, an online poker site*Ungermann-Bass, a computer networking company in California...
(Polish Intelligence Service) in Poland and the Stasi in East Germany.
Serov's downfall from position of power has been linked to a case called the Penkovsky affair. Oleg Penkovsky was Serov's protege, an officer who turned to be a double agent. Serov was married to Khrushchev's daughter and this saved him when he was expelled from power.
Further reading
- Nikita PetrovNikita PetrovNikita Vasilyevich Petrov is a Russian historian. He works at Memorial, a Russian organization dedicated to Soviet political repression. Petrov specializes in Soviet security services....
, "The First Chairman of the KGBKGBThe KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
: Ivan Serov" (Pervy predsedatel KGB : Ivan Serov), MoscowMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
: Materik (2005) ISBN 5-85646-129-0 - Johanna Granville, The First Domino: International Decision Making During the Hungarian Crisis of 1956, Texas A & M University Press, 2004. ISBN 1585442984.
- Viktor SuvorovViktor SuvorovViktor Suvorov is the pen name for Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun , a former Soviet and now British writer of Russian and Ukrainian descent who writes primarily in Russian, as well as a former Soviet military intelligence spy who defected to the UK...
, "Inside Soviet Military Intelligence" (1984), ISBN 0-02-615510-9