Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence

weaken the United States’ position in NATO and to strengthen the

Soviet Union’s position in international fora.

VLASIK, NIKOLAI SIDOROVICH (1896–1967).Vlasik entered the

Chekafrom the Red Army in 1919. He formed a close personal re-

lationship with Joseph Stalinin the 1920s and served as his body-

guard for almost two decades. In 1938 he officially took command of

the directorate responsible for leadership protection, and from 1946

to 1952 he served as the commandant of the Kremlin with the rank of

lieutenant general. Vlasik also served as Stalin’s chief informer,

gathering information about other members of the leadership. He was

by all reports widely hated within the party leadership and the secu-

rity service. Along with Stalin’s unofficial chief of staff Aleksandr

Poskrebyshev, he had immense authority.

In May 1952 Vlasik was stripped of his command and made

deputy head of a forced labor camp as Stalin moved to purge the se-

curity service. He was arrested at Stalin’s order in December 1952

and spent the next two years in confinement. In 1955 he was sen-

tenced to 10 years in exile. An amnesty set him free a year later, but

he was condemned to live out the rest of his life under surveillance.

VLODOMIRSKIY, LEV YEMELYANOVICH (1903–1953).Vlodo-

mirskiy was one of the most prominent Russian Chekistsin Lavrenty

Beria’s official family. He apparently came to Beria’s attention in the

Caucasus, where he had been assigned by Genrykh Yagoda. Beria

brought him to Moscow to head the investigations department. In this

role, Vlodomirskiy routinely tortured and executed prisoners. In the

summer of 1941, Vlodomirskiy was put in charge of the arrest, inter-

rogation, and executionof senior officers and their wives who had an-

gered Joseph Stalin: among those executed were a former chief of the

GRUand two former leaders of the air force.

Vlodomirskiy is remembered as one of Beria’s hardest men. He

took part in a number of extra-legal killings for Beria. He was ar-

rested shortly after Beria and executed the same evening. In 2000

a Moscow court reversed the death sentence, substituting one of

25 years. This allowed his heirs to claim his estate, which had been

confiscated as part of the 1953 death sentence. This decision angered

VLODOMIRSKIY, LEV YEMELYANOVICH (1903–1953) • 279

06-313 P-Z.qxd 7/27/06 7:57 AM Page 279