MEDVED, FILLIP DEMYANOVICH (1889–1937).Medved was a
protégé of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, who sponsored him as a member of
the Bolshevik Partyin 1907. He took part in the Revolution of No-
vember 1917in Moscow as a party militant and organizer. Medved
joined the Chekain 1918 and was notorious for his persecution of
dissidentRussian Orthodox clergy in the late 1920s. He was made
chief of the Leningrad NKVDin 1930.
In Leningrad, Medved worked closely with party boss Sergei
Kirov, with whom he became especially close. In October 1934
Joseph Stalinrecommended that Kirov be moved to Moscow and or-
dered Medved to make changes in Kirov’s security detail. On 1 De-
cember 1934, Kirov was murdered by a lone assassin, Leonid Niko-
laev, who had twice been detained loitering near the party leader’s
residence by the new security detail. Stalin blamed Medved for the
assassination, reportedly slapping him across the face when he ar-
rived in Leningrad to investigate the murder. Medved was almost im-
mediately sentenced to three years confinement in a labor camp.
While he was initially treated more as a guest than a prisoner, he was
recalled to Moscow in May 1937 and rearrested for terrorism. He was
shot in July 1937, a victim and a scapegoat of the Kirov case. He
was posthumously rehabilitated in 1957.MEMORIAL.Founded in the last years of the Soviet Union to investi-
gate the crimes of the communist era and memorialize its victims,
Memorial became one of the most powerful nongovernmental organi-
zations in Moscow. In the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union,
Memorial has continued its work to uncover the secret history of the
former regime. Memorial chapters in cities and regions have produced
detailed information of those martyred by the regime between 1917
and 1953. Memorial’s website (www.memorial.ru) and its publica-
tions are the best primary source for historians studying the purges.MENZHINSKY, VYACHESLAV RUDOLOLFOVICH (1874–1934).
One of the least known chiefs of Soviet security, Menzhinsky was born
in St. Petersburg of Russianized Polish parents. Well educated—he
spoke 16 languages—Menzhinsky joined the Bolshevik Party in- In 1907 he emigrated and spent the decade before the revolution
in Europe and the United States. Before 1917 he wrote novels and po-
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