Early Life and Career
Abakumov was born in 1908 in Moscow. His father was an unskilled laborer and his mother a nurse. Despite being only a teenager, Abakumov joined the Red Army, and served with the 2 Special Task Moscow Brigade in the Russian Civil War, until he was demobilized in December 1923. He then joined the Communist Youth League, became a candidate member of the Communist Party in 1930, and worked in the People's Commissariat of Supplies until 1932, while also being responsible for the Military Section of the Communist Youth League in the Moscow area (raion). In early 1932, he was recommended by the Party to join the security services (OGPU), and was assigned to the Economic Department and possibly to the Investigation Department. In 1933, he was dismissed from the Economic Department and assigned as an overseer to the GULAG. This was a clear demotion; Abakumov was a compulsive womanizer, and his superior, P.M. Shreider, felt that he was unfit to be a Chekist.
Read more about this topic: Viktor Abakumov
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