Vasily Blokhin

Vasily Mikhailovich Blokhin (January 1895-February 1955) was a Soviet Major-General and chief executioner in the NKVD during World War II, having been hand-picked for the position by Joseph Stalin.

Early career
Blokhin served in World War I in the Imperial Russian Army. In March 1921 he joined the Cheka and quickly drew the attention of Russian leader Joseph Stalin for his skill at carrying out executions, assassinations and interrogations, as well as torturing and intimidating suspects. Having gained Stalin's favour, Blokhin was quickly promoted and within six years he was head of the Kommandatura Branch of the Administrative Executive Department of the NKVD. During his time in this position, he served under three different NKVD chiefs: Genrikh Yagoda, Nikolai Yezhov and Lavrentiy Beria, two of whom he would later personally execute under Stalin's orders in addition to overseeing all mass executions undertaken by the NKVD.

Katyn massacre
In April 1940, Blokhin was ordered to liquidate about seven thousand Polish soldiers and police officers in the Ostashkov POW camp in the Katyn forest. In order to deal with the prisoners efficiently, Blokhin put a quota of three hundred executions a night into place. Each prisoner would be taken into an antechamber called "The Leninist Room" for identification before being led into the execution chamber and restrained, allowing Blokhin to execute them with a single shot to the head with a German pistol, specially picked in order to frame Nazi Germany for the atrocity. All prisoners were dead after twenty-eight days, earning Blokhin the record of "Most Prolific Executioner in History" in 2010.

Later life
In 1953 Stalin died. Lavrentiy Beria, who Blokhin had once served under, forcibly retired Blokhin that March. Following Nikita Khrushchev's rise to power that very year, Blokhin was stripped of all the accolades given to him by Stalin, causing him to sink into alcoholism and depression and eventually driving him to suicide.