Stalin's shadow for 25 years as head of personal security
"If I've been arrested, it means Stalin will soon be gone," Vlasik said upon his arrest. A month and a half later, Stalin was dead.
A Belarusian of peasant origin, Vlasik led Stalin's personal security from 1931 to 1952: a quarter-century during which he managed every dacha, residence, and security detail surrounding the Soviet leader. After Nadezhda Alliluyeva's death he became a de facto tutor to Stalin's children and functioned as the family's majordomo. Rising to lieutenant general with three Orders of Lenin and the Order of Kutuzov 1st Class, he was arrested in December 1952 in connection with the Doctors' Plot. Convicted in 1955 and stripped of rank and decorations, he was posthumously exonerated by the Russian Supreme Court in 2000.
Career Timeline
- 1915–1917Russian Imperial Army, junior NCO; Cross of St. George
- 1917–1919Moscow militia; transferred to Cheka
- 1926–1931Senior representative, OGPU Operations Department
- 1931–1952Head of Stalin's personal security
- 1938–1942Head of the 1st Department, GUGB NKVD
- 1943Head of the 6th Directorate, NKGB
- 1946–1952Head of the Main Directorate of Protection (GUO), MGB
- 1952Demoted to deputy head of Bazhenovsky corrective labor camp
Related historical events
- 1918–1922The Civil War and Foreign InterventionCheka officer
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarChief bodyguard
- 1952–1953The Doctors’ PlotStalin's security chief, arrested in the sweepArrested in December 1952 on charges of 'conniving with wrecking-doctors,' since he had overseen medical care for government members and was responsible for vetting their physicians.
Arrest, Trial, and Exile
In May 1952 Vlasik was removed as Stalin's security chief and demoted to deputy head of the Bazhenovsky corrective labor camp in the Urals; on 16 December 1952 he was arrested in connection with the Doctors' Plot. The investigation proceeded on two tracks: disclosure of classified information and misappropriation of material valuables. Dozens of documents marked 'secret' were found in his apartment, and he was accused of avidly collecting trophies while accompanying the Soviet delegation to the Potsdam Conference. On 17 January 1953 the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court found him guilty of abuse of office under especially aggravating circumstances, sentencing him to 10 years' exile, stripping his lieutenant general's rank, and confiscating all state decorations. The amnesty of 27 March 1953 reduced his term to five years; he served his exile in Krasnoyarsk. On 15 December 1956 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet pardoned him and expunged his conviction, but his rank and decorations were not restored. In his memoirs Vlasik wrote: 'For 25 years of irreproachable work, without a single reprimand and only encouragement and awards, I was expelled from the Party and thrown into prison. For my boundless devotion Stalin handed me to my enemies'. Yet he added that 'not for a single minute did I harbor any ill will toward Stalin.' He died of lung cancer in Moscow on 18 June 1967. Thirty-three years later, on 28 June 2000, the Presidium of the Russian Supreme Court annulled the 1956 verdict and terminated the criminal case for absence of corpus delicti. In October 2001 the confiscated decorations were returned to his daughter.