Genrikh Lyushkov

Genrikh Lyushkov
Генрих Люшков
Genrikh Samoilovich Lyuskhov
Born1900
DiedAugust 19, 1945(1945-08-19) (aged 45)
Cause of deathExecution by shooting
NationalityUkrainian
SpouseInna Lyushkova
Children1
Far Eastern Commander of the NKVD[1]
In office
31 July 1937 – 13 June 1938
Preceded byV. A. Balitsky
Succeeded byM. M. Zapadny

Genrikh Samoilovich Lyushkov (Russian: Генрих Самойлович Люшков; 1900 – 19 August 1945) was an officer in the Soviet secret police and its highest-ranking defector. A high-ranking officer of the NKVD, he played a role in perpetrating Stalin's Great Purge. When, in 1938, he suspected he would soon fall victim to the purge, he fled to Japan. Thereafter, he acted as a major source of intelligence for Imperial Japan about the Soviet Union. At the end of World War II, he was killed by the Japanese in order to prevent him from falling back into Soviet hands.[2]

  1. ^ Coox 1968, p. 407.
  2. ^ "Комиссар НКВД Люшков бежал — специфический «бунт» сталинского чекиста: путь от верного исполнителя репрессий во враги народа". republic.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2024-02-07.