Mikhail Frinovsky

Mikhail Frinovsky
Михаил Фринoвский
Mikhail Frinovsky in 1935
People’s Commissar for the Navy
In office
November 1938 – March 1939
Preceded byPyotr Smirnov
Succeeded byNikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov
First Deputy People's Commissar for Internal Affairs
In office
April 1937 – August 1938
Preceded byYakov Agranov
Succeeded byVsevolod Merkulov
Personal details
Born
Mikhail Petrovich Frinovsky

7 February 1898
Narovchat, Penza Governorate, Russian Empire
Died4 February 1940 (aged 41)
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Signature
Military service
Allegiance Soviet Union
Branch/serviceNKVD
Years of service1916–1939
RankKomandarm 1st rank

Mikhail Petrovich Frinovsky (Russian: Михаи́л Петро́вич Фрино́вский; 7 February 1898 – 4 February 1940) was a Soviet secret police official who served as a deputy head of the NKVD under Nikolai Yezhov during the Great Purge.

Frinovsky was a revolutionary during the Russian Revolution and rose through the ranks of the Cheka and its successor agencies. Frinovsky was actively involved in the Great Purge and personally led the mass arrests and executions of security and military officials across the Soviet Union from 1937 to 1938. Frinovsky was made People's Commissar of the Soviet Navy in 1938 when he was himself removed from power and purged along with Yezhov. Frinovsky was arrested in 1939 on conspiracy charges and executed in 1940.