Vyacheslav Menzhinsky | |
|---|---|
Вячеслав Менжинский | |
 Menzhinsky in 1926 | |
| Chairman of the OGPU | |
| In office 30 July 1926 – 10 May 1934 | |
| Premier | Alexei Rykov Vyacheslav Molotov |
| Preceded by | Felix Dzerzhinsky |
| Succeeded by | Genrikh Yagoda |
| People's Commissar for Finance of the RSFSR | |
| In office 30 October 1917 – 21 March 1918 | |
| Premier | Vladimir Lenin |
| Preceded by | Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov |
| Succeeded by | Isidore Gukovsky |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Wiesław Rudolfowicz Mężyński 31 August 1874 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Died | 10 May 1934 (aged 59) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Resting place | Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow |
| Political party | RSDLP (1902–1903) RSDLP (Bolsheviks) (1903–1918) Russian Communist Party (1918–1934) |
| Alma mater | Saint Petersburg State University |
Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky (Russian: Вячесла́в Рудо́льфович Менжи́нский, Polish: Wiesław Rudolfowicz Mężyński; 31 August [O.S. 19 August] 1874 – 10 May 1934) was a Soviet revolutionary and politician who served as chairman of the OGPU, the secret police of the Soviet Union, from 1926 to 1934.
Born to Polish parents in Saint Petersburg, Menzhinsky joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1902. He emigrated from Russia in 1907, and spent the next decade in Europe and the United States. After the 1917 February Revolution, he joined the Cheka in 1919, and in 1923 was promoted to its deputy under Felix Dzerzhinsky. After his death in 1926, Menzhinsky became head of the Cheka's successor, the OGPU. He worked to crush resistance in the countryside during Joseph Stalin's forced agricultural collectivization.