was found guilty of professional misconduct, and he, his wife, and
son were rusticated in a forced labor camp until 1953.ZAKOVSKIY, LEONID MIKHAILOVICH (1894–1938). A Latvian
worker born Henry Shtubis, Zakovskiy joined the Bolshevik Party
at age 19. He was arrested before the 1917 Revolutionbut then
joined the Red Guards and helped the Bolsheviks build support
among the soldiers and sailors in Petrograd (St. Petersburg). Za-
kovskiy was co-opted into the Chekain December 1917 and served
in intelligence and counterintelligencein the Russiancivil war.
Days following Sergei Kirov’s death in December 1934, Za-
kovskiy was brought to Leningrad to take command of the local
NKVD. Zakovskiy, clearly Joseph Stalin’s man, pushed the purge of
dissidents. Over the next four years, thousands of men and women
were arrested, tried, and shot for being somehow connected to the
murder of Kirov. There has been speculation that Zakovskiy was sent
to Leningrad by Stalin to cover up any evidence that Stalin and
NKVD chief Genrykh Yagodahad set up Kirov’s murder. At a
Communist Partyplenum, however, Zakovskiy played a key role in
calling for an intensification of the terror, and the arrest of Yagoda.
In 1938 Zakovskiy began a downward spiral. He was given a
provincial assignment for a few weeks to get him away from his
power base; his inevitable arrest followed. After several months of
interrogation, Zakovskiy was tried on 29 August 1938 for treason. He
was shot the same day. He has not been rehabilitated.
Zakovskiy was typical of those drafted into the Cheka in the early
days of the regime. Poorly educated, street smart, and tough, he was
the type of person firstVladimir Lenin and then Stalin relied on to
maintain power. Yet during the Yezhovshchina, people with Za-
kovskiy’s background were at risk, and many perished. They were
not Russians, or Slavs; they had little idea of how to manage the more
complex Soviet society; and they knew the most important secrets of
the leadership.ZARUBIN, VASILY MIKHAILOVICH (1894–1974).After military
service in the Russian civil war, Zarubin joined the Chekain 1920,
taking part in the fight against “bandits.” In 1925 he joined the foreignZARUBIN, VASILY MIKHAILOVICH (1894–1974) • 29706-313 P-Z.qxd 7/27/06 7:57 AM Page 297