Stalin’s Torturer Who Was Tortured: Viktor Abakumov’s Final Days ht

 

December 1954. Leortovo prison, Moscow. A man sat freezing in a punishment cell. He had been beaten. His ribs were broken. His face was swollen beyond recognition. His interrogator was Male Ruman, a junior MGB officer who had once served under him. Now Ruman beat him with rubber tunchons for hours. The same rubber trenchons he had used on thousands of prisoners.

 His name was Victor Abakumov. Before his arrest in 1951, he was the most feared man in the Soviet Union, the head of smursh, death to spies, Stalin’s personal instrument of terror. He had personally tortured prisoners. He fabricated evidence. He destroyed entire families. Thousands died on his orders. And now the torturer would be tortured.

This is his story. Victor Seamanovich Abakumov was born on April the 24th, 1908 in Moscow into a workingclass family. His father was a factory worker. Nothing about his childhood suggested he would become one of Stalin’s most trusted executioners. He joined the Communist Party in 1930 at age 22. By 1932, he was working for the OGPU, the secret police.

During the great purge of 1937 to 1938, Abakumov distinguished himself by enthusiastically participating in mass arrests and executions. While others hesitated, Abukumov never questioned orders. Stalin noticed. In April 1943, at the height of World War II, Stalin created a new organization, SMCH, an acronym for smurbion or death to spies.

Its mission, hunt down traders, deserters, spies, and anyone suspected of disloyalty to the Soviet Union. Smurch operated behind the front lines in liberated territories and even inside the Red Army itself. Stalin appointed Victor Abakumoff as its chief. He was 35 years old. Smurch became the most feared organization in the Soviet Union.

 While the NKD handled domestic repression, Smursh hunted enemies during wartime and Abakumov ran it with absolute brutality. Smurch executed Soviet soldiers who had been captured by Germans, even if they escaped and returned. The logic was simple. If you were captured, you were compromised. Death was the only option.

Smurch executed civilians in liberated territories suspected of collaborating with Nazis. Entire villages were arrested. Evidence was optional. Smurch operated filtration camps where returning Soviet PWS were interrogated, tortured, and often shot. Of the 5.7 million Soviet PS captured by Germany, those who survived and returned home were treated as traitors.

But here’s what made Abukumov different from other security chiefs. He personally participated in torture. Alexander Solchiniten, who was arrested by Smursh in February 1945 for writing critical remarks about Stalin in a private letter, later described Smurch’s methods in the Gulag Archipelago. Soljaniten wrote, “A Bakumoff would personally beat prisoners with rubber trenchons. He didn’t delegate this work.

He enjoyed it. The trenchons left no visible marks but caused excruciating internal injuries. After the war ended in 1945, Stalin promoted Abakumaf to an even higher position. In 1946, he became Minister of State Security, MGB. He now controlled the entire Soviet intelligence and security apparatus. Although the ministry was under the general supervision of Barriia, Stalin hoped to curb barrier’s power by creating a rival.

Historian Amy Knight, author of Barriia, Stalin’s first lieutenant, wrote about their relationship. Barriia was terrified of Abakumoff because Abakumoff reported directly to Stalin and could arrest anyone, including Beria’s own people, without explanation. Why? Because Abakumof was a true believer. He didn’t scheme for power.

 He didn’t build political alliances. He simply executed Stalin’s will without question. Abakamoff was 38 years old and commanded virtually unlimited power. But with power came danger. In 1949, Stalin became convinced of a conspiracy in Lennengrad. There was no conspiracy. But Stalin believed there was and that was enough.

Stalin ordered Abakumoff to investigate what became known as the Lenengrad affair. Abakumoff fabricated the entire case. In August 1949, Abakumoff arrived in Lennengrad with two trains carrying 500 MGB officers and 20 investigators. The arrests began. On August 13th, Alexe Khnitzoff, central committee secretary responsible for state security organs, was summoned to Moscow.

I’ll be back, he told his wife and son, Valeri. Don’t start supper without me. Knit off was arrested. The prisoners were held in a prison on Matroskaya Tisha Street. Under Abakumov’s direction, the torturers went to work. The confessions were fabricated. The evidence was invented. In September 1950, the trial was held in secret.

 On October 1st, 1950, six highranking party members were executed by firing squad, including Nikolai Vosnenski, Plet Bureau member, economist, Alexe Khnets, central committee secretary. The verdict was announced behind closed doors after midnight. One hour later, all six were shot. Hundreds more were arrested, shot or sent to goologs.

The Lennengrad affair eliminated an entire generation of Soviet leadership. All based on lies fabricated by Victor Abakumoff. But this would be his last success. In 1952, Stalin became obsessed with another conspiracy, the doctor’s plot. Stalin believed Kremlin doctors, mostly Jewish, were plotting to assassinate Soviet leaders.

 It was classic Stalinist paranoia tinged with anti-semitism. A junior MGB officer named Mikail Ryumin claimed to have uncovered evidence of the plot, but Abakumoff didn’t believe him. Ryum retaliated. He wrote directly to Stalin, alleging that Abakumoff was covering up the conspiracy. Stalin wanted immediate arrests, immediate confessions, immediate executions.

Abukumoff, perhaps sensing the absurdity of the accusations, hesitated. Stalin interpreted this as disloyalty or worse, complicity. On July 11th, 1951, Abakumov was dismissed as Minister of State Security. On July 12th, 1951, Victor Abakumov was arrested. The charges were grimly ironic. Sabotaging the investigation of the doctor’s plot, fabricating cases, the Lengrad affair, using illegal torture methods, corruption and abuse of power.

Everything he had done for Stalin, the torture, the fabrications, the executions was now being used against him. For three years, Abakumoff was held in Leftovo prison, the same prison where thousands of his victims had been tortured. His interrogator, Mikail Ruman, the same junior officer who had written to Stalin about him.

Ruman was a vicious torturer. He loved to say, “We used to beat, we still beat, and we don’t hide it from anyone.” At the Sukanovka interrogation center, Ruman’s beatings were legendary. He would remove the prisoner’s trousers. An NKVD colonel would sit on the prisoner’s back.

 Then, Ryuman would beat him with a rubber tunchon until his body looked like a bloody lump of meat. Now, Abakumoff was the one being beaten. He was placed in a freezing punishment cell. The temperature was kept just above 0° C. He was given minimal food. He was beaten regularly. His interrogators used the same methods he had perfected, the same rubber tunchons, the same sleep deprivation, the same psychological torture.

During interrogations, Abukumov reportedly said, “I fulfilled my duty. I did what the party ordered.” But his interrogators didn’t care. They wanted confessions. Meanwhile, his family was destroyed. His wife, Antonyina Smeirn Nova, was arrested shortly after him. Their infant son was taken away. Their fate remains unknown to this day.

On March 5th, 1953, Stalin died. Barrier regained control of the police. He arrested Ryum and declared the doctor’s plot a fabrication, but Abakumov remained in prison. In June 1953, Beria himself was arrested by Khrushchev and other party leaders who feared his power. In December 1953, Barriia was tried and executed, but still Abakumoff remained in prison.

 The case against him continued. Now he was accused of being an accomplice in the crimes of Beria. The most serious charge, he had fabricated the Lennengrad affair. On December 12th, 1954, more than three years after his arrest, Abakamov’s trial finally began. It lasted 6 days. He was charged with fabricating the Lenengrad affair which Stalin had ordered using illegal torture methods which Stalin had approved.

Sabotaging the doctor’s plot investigation because he didn’t move fast enough for Stalin. Corruption and abuse of power. The trial was secret. No public announcement. No journalists. just judges, prosecutors, and the accused. Abakamov pleaded not guilty. He argued he had followed orders. Every arrest, every torture session, every execution, all approved by Stalin.

 It didn’t matter. On December 19th, 1954, the verdict was announced. Death by firing squad. One hour later, Victor Abakumov was executed. As the executioner later recalled, just seconds before falling dead, Abakumov shouted, “I’ll report everything to the pilot bureau. Everything.” He didn’t. He was 46 years old.

 Think about the symmetry of his story. What Abakumoff did to Alexe Khnets. Arrested him without warning. Don’t start supper without me. Held him in Matroskaya Tisha prison. Tortured him. Executed him 1 hour after verdict. What happened to Abakumov? He was arrested without warning. Held in Leferovo prison.

 Tortured by Ruman using the same methods he perfected. Executed one hour after verdict. The man who ran Smursh. death to spies was executed as a spy. The man who fabricated the Lennengrad affair was executed for fabricating cases. The man who tortured thousands died after being tortured himself. Soviet justice had come full circle. One hour after the verdict, Victor Abakumoff was taken to the execution chamber.

 There was no ceremony, no final words recorded, no delay, just a bullet. His body was cremated. The ashes were scattered in an unmarked location. His wife and infant son disappeared into the Gulog system. Their fate is unknown. and Victor Abbakumoff, Stalin’s most trusted enforcer, the head of Smursh, the fabricator of the Lennengrad affair, the man who tortured thousands, was erased from history.

Today, almost nobody remembers him. But in the archives, in the testimony of survivors, in the records of trials and executions, his name remains. A reminder that in Stalin’s Soviet Union, even the executioners were not safe. Even the hunters could become the hunted. Even the torturers could be tortured.