Ivan Serov

Ivan Serov
Иван Серов
1st Chairman of the Committee for State Security (KGB)
In office 13 March 1954 – 8 December 1958
Premier	Georgy Malenkov Nikolai Bulganin Nikita Khrushchev
Preceded by	Sergei Kruglov
Succeeded by	Aleksandr Shelepin
People's Commissar for Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR
In office 1939–1941
Personal details
Born	Ivan Alexandrovich Serov Иван Александрович Серов 13 August 1905 Afimskoye, Kadnikovsky Uyezd, Vologda Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	1 July 1990(1990-07-01) (aged 84) Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1926–1965)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Branch/service	NKVD MGB MVD KGB GRU
Years of service	1923–1965
Rank	Major general

Ivan Alexandrovich Serov (Russian: Ива́н Алекса́ндрович Серóв; 13 August 1905 – 1 July 1990) was a Soviet intelligence officer who served as Chairman of the KGB from March 1954 to December 1958 and Director of the GRU from December 1958 to February 1963. Serov was NKVD Commissar of the Ukrainian SSR from 1939 to 1941 and Deputy Commissar of the NKVD under Lavrentiy Beria from 1941 to 1954.

Serov was active in organizing NKVD activities against anti-Soviet forces during the Soviet Invasion of Poland and World War II, including the Katyn massacre. Serov issued the Serov Instructions and helped organize the mass deportations of people from Poland, Baltic states and the Caucasus. Serov helped establish secret police forces in the Eastern Bloc after the war and played an important role in suppressing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.^{[1][page needed]} Serov was removed from power in 1963 when his protégé Oleg Penkovsky was exposed as a double agent. Serov was stripped of his position, Communist Party membership and Hero of the Soviet Union award in 1965, and lived in obscurity until his death in 1990.