The Cheka founding member who guarded Lenin personally
During the Left SR uprising of July 1918, Belenky was arrested alongside Dzerzhinsky — the Cheka chairman and his own security chief, captured together.
Born to a Jewish family in Belarus, he joined the Bolsheviks in 1902 and emigrated to France in 1904, working as a shoemaker in Paris before meeting Lenin at the Longjumeau Party School. From 1919 to 1924 he served as Lenin's personal security chief, building the foundation of Soviet leadership protection through the Cheka's special department. He later served as Special Plenipotentiary of the OGPU/NKVD handling personnel matters, but was arrested in 1938 and shot in 1941 amid the purge of the purgers.
Career Timeline
- 1902–1904Bolshevik underground work; repeatedly arrested
- 1904–1917Exile in Paris: shoemaker, printer; Longjumeau Party School
- 1917.5–12Manager, CC printing house 'Trud'
- 1919–1924Chief of Lenin's personal 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