Vasily Blokhin

Vasily Blokhin
Василий Блохин
Major General Blokhin
Chief Executioner and Commander Kommandatura Branch Main Administrative-Economic Department, Moscow Oblast People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD)
In office 1926–1953
Personal details
Born	Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin 19 January [O.S. 7 January] 1895 Gavrilovskoye, Vladimir Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	3 February 1955(1955-02-03) (aged 60) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Soviet
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1921–1953)
Awards	Order of Lenin
Military service
Allegiance	Russian Empire Soviet Union
Branch/service	Imperial Russian Army Soviet Army
Rank	Major general
Battles/wars	World War I World War II

Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin (Russian: Васи́лий Миха́йлович Блохи́н; 19 January [O.S. 7 January] 1895 – 3 February 1955) was a Soviet secret police official who served as the chief executioner of the NKVD under the administrations of Genrikh Yagoda, Nikolay Yezhov, and Lavrentiy Beria.

Blokhin was hand-picked for the position by Joseph Stalin in 1926 and led a company of executioners that performed and supervised numerous mass killings in the Soviet Union during Stalin's reign, mostly during the Great Purge and Eastern Front of World War II.^[1] Blokhin is recorded as having executed tens of thousands of prisoners by his own hand, including his killing of about 7,000 Polish prisoners of war during the Katyn massacre in spring 1940, making him the most prolific official executioner in recorded world history.^[1][2][3] Blokhin was forced into retirement in 1953 after the death of Stalin and condemned during de-Stalinization shortly before his death in 1955.