Vasili Blokhin

Vasili Blokhin

Vasili Mikhailovich Blokhin (January 7, 1895 – February 3, 1955) was a Soviet Major-General who served as the chief executioner of the Stalinist NKVD under the administrations of Genrikh Yagoda, Nikolai Yezhov and Lavrenty Beria (after their respective falls from power, Yagoda and Yezhov were executed by Blokhin himself). Hand-picked for the position by Joseph Stalin in 1926, Blokhin led a company of executioners that performed and supervised numerous mass executions during Stalin's reign, mostly during the Great Purge and World War II. He is recorded as having executed tens of thousands of prisoners by his own hand, including his killing of about 7,000 Polish prisoners of war during the Katyn Massacre in 1940, making him the most prolific official executioner in recorded world history. Forced into a retirement following the death of Stalin, Blokhin died in 1955, officially by suicide.