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in 1936, thought he "was a person of many contradictions ... he would weep while telling of the interrogation of some of the defendants at the trials and bemoan the fates of their families; in the same breath he would denounce them as 'Trotskyite fascists.'" But, as she noted, he might have been stage-acting, hoping that others "would betray themselves when he feigned sympathy for the victims of the trials." Poretsky adds that he courageously interceded with his superiors to save the families of condemned
Bolsheviks.
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assumed control of the NKVD in 1937, he began to arrest and liquidate the department heads whom he knew were close to his deposed predecessor, Yagoda. Slutsky was spared, even though he was implicated in confessions as a "participant in Yagoda's conspiracy," because Yezhov feared that Slutky's arrest
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In character, the defector Orlov, who worked directly under him and knew him well, thought
Slutsky was "distinguished by laziness, a propensity for window dressing and by subservience to his chiefs. He was gentle by nature, cowardly and double-faced." Elizabeth Poretsky, who met with him frequently
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The second account comes from
Frinovsky's confession, obtained before his execution, in which he claims Yezhov ordered him to "remove Slutsky without noise." Accordingly, Frinovsky invited Slutsky to his office for a conference, and while they were talking another deputy slipped into the room and
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covered
Slutsky's nose with a chloroform mask. Once Slutsky passed out, a second deputy, who was hiding in an adjacent office, entered the room and "injected poison into the muscle of his right arm." Frinovsky summoned a doctor, who confirmed that Slutsky had died of a heart attack, which
439:, ordered Slutsky's body put in the main hall of the NKVD club and surrounded by an honor guard of NKVD officers. However, the embalmers neglected to cover the tell-tale spots on Slutsky's face which indicated to the mourners that he had been poisoned with
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for his role in directing the apparatus which stole the process for making ball-bearings from the Swedes. In another clandestine operation, he extorted $ 300,000 from
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431:, was called into the office and he observed Slutsky slumped in a chair with tea and cakes at the table beside him. Frinovsky said Slutsky had died suddenly of a
324:, the Swedish Match King, by threatening to flood world markets with cheap matches made in the Soviet Union. In 1929, he was appointed as the assistant to
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During
Slutsky's tenure, the Foreign Department was principally engaged in tracking down and eliminating opponents of Stalin's regime, essentially emigre
415:(1953) and presumably is based on gossip Orlov heard in France or Spain in 1938. In Orlov's version, Slutsky was invited to a meeting in the office of
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would cause Soviet agents who were operating abroad to defect. Nevertheless, Slutsky's days were numbered, and his end came on 17 February 1938.
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Originally, Slutsky worked in the OGPU's
Economic Department engaged in industrial espionage. He received the first of two
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253:) (July 1898 – 17 February 1938) was a Soviet intelligence officer who headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service (
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repeated in its 18 February obituary. None of the witnesses to this crime survived the
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There are two unofficial accounts of
Slutsky's death. The first appeared in Orlov's
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fell to him. The voluble
Slutsky described his methods for "breaking-down" these
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as a volunteer in the 7th
Siberian Rifle Regiment. In 1917, he joined the
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Stalin's Loyal
Executioner: People's Commissar Nikolai Ezhov, 1895-1940
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Two months after his death, Slutsky was posthumously stripped of his
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Stalin's Loyal Executioner: People's Commissar Nikolai Ezhov
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Our own people: A memoir of 'Ignace Reiss' and his friends
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Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks)
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343:. Major operations included kidnapping of General
566:, University of Michigan Press, 1969. 278 pages
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531:, Hoover Institution Press, 2002. 274 pages
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753:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner
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69:Learn how and when to remove this message
277:railroad worker in a Ukrainian village,
32:This article includes a list of general
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355:. Slutsky's illegals in Great Britain,
728:Commissars 2nd Class of State Security
460:All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
625:Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941
612:Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941
557:The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes
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580:, Little, Brown & Company, 1994.
38:it lacks sufficient corresponding
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599:Secret History of Stalin's Crimes
427:. Shortly afterward, his deputy,
413:Secret History of Stalin's Crimes
148:May 1935 – February 1938
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462:membership and declared an
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53:more precise citations.
601:, p. 231-232, 237-238.
559:. Random House, 1953.
545:, Enigma Books, 2000
383:to his subordinates,
291:Imperial Russian Army
196:Chernigov Governorate
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95:family name
51:introducing
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585:References
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192:Parafiivka
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34:references
627:, p. 524.
614:, p. 523.
423:, in the
353:Civil War
299:Civil War
269:Biography
189:July 1898
144:In office
91:Aronovich
653:Archived
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610:Kotkin.
470:See also
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303:Red Army
263:poisoned
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