Cheka founding member who guarded Lenin personally
During the Left SR uprising of July 1918, Belenky was arrested together with Dzerzhinsky; accounts date the episode to 6 July or to August 1918.
Born in 1882 or 1883 in Sverzhen, Belarus, to a Jewish family. He joined the RSDLP in January 1902 as a Bolshevik, emigrated to France in December 1904, worked in Paris as a shoemaker and printer, and met Lenin at the Longjumeau Party School. Returning in May 1917, he managed the Central Committee press 'Trud' until December, when he was assigned to the Cheka. He headed Lenin's personal security from 1919 to 1924 and until 1928 led the special department protecting party and government leaders. From 1930 he served as OGPU-NKVD Special Plenipotentiary, but was arrested on 9 May 1938, shot at Kommunarka on 16 October 1941, and rehabilitated in 1956.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1902–1904Bolshevik underground work; repeatedly arrested
- 1904–1917Exile in Paris: shoemaker, printer; Longjumeau Party School
- 1917.5–12Manager of the Central Committee printing press 'Trud'
- 1919–1924Chief of Lenin's security
- 1921–1928Head of Cheka-OGPU special department (leadership protection)
- 1930–1936Special Plenipotentiary, OGPU / NKVD
- 1936–1938Assistant to the Special Plenipotentiary, NKVD
- 1938–1941Arrested, imprisoned, executed
- 1917.12–Assigned to the Cheka as commissar for press matters
- 1921–1928Member of the Cheka Collegium; head of the special section at the Cheka Presidium, then of the GPU-OGPU special section
- 1936–1938Assistant to the NKVD Special Plenipotentiary
- 1938–1941Arrested, camp, execution; rehabilitated 1956
Related historical events
Leadership protection and personnel vetting in the Cheka and OGPU
Assigned to the Cheka in December 1917, Belenky served as a commissioner responsible for printing matters and, in 1918–1919, worked in its department dealing with official misconduct. In 1921–1922 he was a member of the Cheka Collegium and head of its special section; from March 1922 to October 1928 he led the special section under the GPU-OGPU Collegium, responsible for protecting the country’s senior leadership. In 1922, on his recommendation, a group of about twenty guards was assembled at Gorki for Lenin, led by P. P. Pakaln. Some accounts date Belenky’s tenure as head of Lenin’s personal security to 1919–1924, while another account describes his remit as protection of the senior leadership without giving that specific span. From September 1930 he was Special Plenipotentiary under the OGPU chairman, and from July 1934 under the People’s Commissar for Internal Affairs, responsible for reviewing agency personnel files. In December 1936 he became an assistant to the NKVD Special Plenipotentiary. Arrested in May 1938, he was sentenced in May 1939 to five years in a labour camp, but was returned for reinvestigation and that decision was annulled in April 1940. The Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court sentenced him to death in July 1941; he was shot on 16 October. In 1956 the Collegium annulled the sentence and closed the case for lack of corpus delicti.