On the night of June 13, 1938, Lyushkov arrived at Border Detachment 59 in field uniform with decorations, told the outpost commander that he was meeting an agent alone on the other side, then crossed the border and surrendered to the Japanese.
Born in Odessa, he served in the Soviet state security organs and from the 1920s held senior Cheka, OGPU and NKVD posts in Ukraine, Moscow and the Far East. In 1930 he carried out an industrial espionage mission against the Junkers company in Germany, and in 1936-1937 he headed the Azov-Black Sea and then the Far East NKVD, directing mass arrests and executions of the Great Purge. While Far East NKVD chief in 1937 he took part in the forced deportation of 171,781 Soviet Koreans to Central Asia, the USSR's first mass ethnic deportation, with estimates of deaths ranging from about 16,500 to 50,000. In June 1938 he realised he was about to be arrested, crossed into Manchukuo and surrendered to the Japanese with a mass of Soviet military intelligence, and in August 1945 he was shot by his Japanese handlers as Soviet troops closed on Dalian.
Career timeline
1919Political commissar, 14th Red Army
1920Odessa Cheka operative
c. 1930Industrial espionage at Junkers, Germany
1937–1938NKVD chief, Far East; Commissar 3rd Class
Armenian party functionary who managed the international communist movement in late Stalinism
In August 1953, CC official A. L. Dedov reported to Khrushchev that Grigoryan's colleagues 'point to close relations between Grigoryan and Beria.'
Born in an Armenian village in Azerbaijan, Grigoryan rose from army newspaper editor to head of publishing and propaganda in the Moscow party apparatus. In 1949 he succeeded Mikhail Suslov as chairman of the Foreign Policy Commission (International Department), overseeing CPSU relations with communist parties worldwide until 1953. His tenure coincided with the deepening Tito–Stalin split after the Cominform's founding, the victory of the Chinese Revolution, and the Korean War. Elected a candidate member of the Central Committee at the 19th Party Congress in 1952, he was removed after Beria's fall, transferred to the Foreign Ministry, and dropped from the Central Committee.
Career timeline
1920–1924Head of press department, CC of CP of Azerbaijan; army newspaper editor
1924–1927Head of press, Khamovniki district committee; head of press, Moscow Party Committee
1927–1933Secretary, deputy editor, and editor of 'Rabochaya Pravda', 'Proletar', 'Na Rubezhe Vostoka', Tiflis
1933–1946Executive editor of 'Zarya Vostoka', Tbilisi
1946–1947Head of central newspapers section, Propaganda and Agitation Directorate, CC VKP(b)
1947–1949Deputy editor-in-chief, 'For a Lasting Peace, for People's Democracy'
1949–1953Chairman, Foreign Policy Commission of the CC (head of International Department)
1952–1954Candidate member, CC CPSU
1953Collegium member and sector head, USSR Foreign Ministry; CC plenipotentiary for Ajarian ASSR
Founder of North Korea's state security and enforcer of its political repression
Arrival dates conflict: Russian Wikipedia and Lankov say 1946 (Lankov: September), English Wikipedia says October 1945. By 1947 he already headed the state protection (political police) department, and Lankov considers it likely he was the first head of North Korean state security.
A Koryo-saram from the Russian Empire whose birthplace is undocumented and whose birth year sources give as 1912, 1913 or 1914. He worked in the Soviet NKVD and intelligence agencies. Russian Wikipedia and Lankov date his arrival to 1946, English Wikipedia to October 1945. By 1947 he already headed the state protection (political police) department, and in September 1948 became Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Director of the Political Security Bureau, though Lankov holds he was never again allowed to control the political police. He held the security portfolio as Minister of Social Security (March/May 1951) and Interior Minister until November 1960. Russian Wikipedia describes him both as organizer of the North's repression system and as an executor who carried out the leadership's directives. Of the Soviet faction, he escaped the purges and died on 18 July 1992.
Career timeline
1937–1944Deported to Kazakhstan, then investigator in Kzyl-Orda and prosecutor's office work in Kzyl-Orda and Taldy-Kurgan oblasts, 1942–1944 (Russian Wikipedia); joined the party in 1940. Lankov says his record before 1946 is undocumented
1947Head of the state protection (political police) department, Interior Bureau, North Korean People's Committee (Lankov). English Wikipedia has him as Director-General of the Interior Affairs Bureau from May 1947, which does not fit the bureau-under-ministry structure after 1948
Sep 1948 – Feb or Mar 1951Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Director of the Political Security Bureau (English Wikipedia). Per Lankov he was afterwards never allowed to control the political police again
Mar or May 1951 – 1952Minister of Social Security (the Political Security Bureau was reorganized as the Ministry of Social Security). March per English Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture; May per English Wikipedia's Ministry of Social Security article
1952.10–1960.11Minister of Interior (the Ministry of Social Security was merged back into the Ministry of Internal Affairs)
1956.08As Minister of Internal Affairs during the August faction incident mobilized the police to monitor Pyongyang and led the investigation of the 'factionalists' (English Wikipedia). The same article also records a claim that he was abroad at the time
1956–1980Member of the WPK Central Committee (elected April 1956; reelected November 1970 and October 1980)
1960.11–1972Deputy Director of the Central Court; from November 1966 information director of the party Liaison Bureau
1972.12–1992President of the Central Court (reappointed 1982 and 1986, in office until his death)
