Viktor Abakumov Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov ( 24 April 1908 , Moscow – 19 December 1954 , Moscow ; Colonel General ) , was a high level Soviet security organs official , from 1943 to 1946 the head of SMERSH in the USSR People ' s Commissariat of Defense , and from 1946 to 1951 Minister of State Security or MGB ( ex - NKGB ) . Abakumov was a notoriously brutal official who was known to torture prisoners personally . 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 in spring 1922 , 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 . Rise through NKVD ranks . In 1934 after the reorganization of security apparatus ( the OGPU was joint to NKVD as a GUGB ) , Abakumov started his work in a 1st Section of Economics Department ( " EKO " ) by the Main Directorate of State Security of NKVD . Then on the first of August 1934 he was transferred to The Chief Directorate of Camps and Labour Colonies well known as GULAG , where he served to 1937 , mainly as operative officer in 3rd Section of Security Department of GULAG of the NKVD . In April 1937 Abakumov was moved to the 4th Department ( " OO " ) of GUGB of the NKVD where he served until March 1938 . After the next reorganization of NKVD structure in March 1938 , he became assistant to the chief of the 4th Department in the 1st Directorate of the NKVD , and then from September 29 to November 1 , 1938 he fulfilled duties of assistant to Pyotr Fedotov , the head of the 2nd Department ( Secret Political Dep – or . " SPO " ) of GUGB of the NKVD . Next , until the end of 1938 , he worked in " SPO " GUGB NKVD as a head of one of the Sections . Abakumov had survived the great purge by participating in it . He executed each order without scruples , probably saving him from facing an execution squad himself . Near the end of December 1938 Abakumov was moved from Moscow to Rostov - on - Don , where soon he became the head of UNKVD of Rostov Oblast , ( the head of the local NKVD Office ) . World War II activities . Abakumov returned to Moscow Hq on February 12 , 1941 as a Senior Major of State Security and , after the reorganization and creation of the new NKGB , he became one of the deputies of Lavrentiy Beria who was the People ' s Commissar for Internal Affairs ( head of the NKVD ) . On July 19 , 1941 he become the head of Special Department ( " OO " ) of the NKVD which was responsible for Counterintelligence and internal security in the RKKA ( Red Army ) . In this position after the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union and the defeats experienced by the Red Army , on Stalin ' s order he led the purges of RKKA commanders accused of betrayal and cowardice . In 1943 for some time ( from April 19 to May 20 , 1943 ) , Abakumov was one of Stalin ’ s deputies , when he held the post of People ' s Commissar of Defence of the USSR . < br > In April 1943 when Chief Counterintelligence Directorate of the People ' s Commissariat of Defence of the USSR ( or " GUKR " NKO USSR ) better known as SMERSH was created , Abakumov was put in charge of it , in the rank of Commissar ( 2nd rank ) of State Security , and held the title of vice - Commissar of Defense . Head of MGB . In 1946 , Stalin appointed Abakumov Minister for State Security ( MGB ) . Although the ministry was under the general supervision of Beria , Stalin hoped to curb the latter ' s power . In this capacity he was in charge of the 1949 purge known as the " Leningrad Affair , " in which the Politburo members Nikolai Voznesensky and Aleksei Kuznetsov were executed . Arrest and execution . At the end of 1951 an MGB employee , Mikhail Ryumin bypassed Abakumov and went directly to Stalin to report his creation , the Doctor ' s Plot . Abakumov was accused of inaction and was arrested and brutally tortured . With Stalin ' s death in March 1953 , the Doctor ' s Plot unravelled . Ryumin was arrested , tried , and executed in July 1954 . Abakumov , however , was not released ; he was eventually tried for his role in the Leningrad Affair and executed on 18 December 1954 .