What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Vasily Blokhin, a figure you may never have heard of, was the chief executioner of the Stalinist era in the former Soviet Union, who personally executed tens of thousands of people and set a Guinness World Record for 7,000 people shot in 28 days.
Pictured: The real people beheaded Brosin, and the real photos were also full of murderous spirits
Born in 1895 to a peasant family in Suzdal, Blokhin fought in World War I, joined the Cheka (All-Russian Council for the Suppression of Corruption, later renamed the General Directorate of State Security, the predecessor of the KGB) in 1921, and in August 1924 he carried out his first execution in the Lubianka prison in Moscow, winning Stalin's favor and personally naming him as the chief executioner of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (a police agency in stalin's era).
Pictured: Old photograph of executioners of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs
Executioners are an extraordinary profession, and not everyone can afford such a brutal job. In the Soviet era, a good executioner must have the following three points: 1, absolute loyalty; 2, calm mentality; 2, excellent skills.
Blokhin possessed all three of these points, was loyal to Stalin, was proficient in business, and carried out orders to the letter.
Pictured: Executioners of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR
During the Great Purge (Purge) in the SOVIET Union, especially during the high tide of 1937-1938, a total of 680,000 people were executed. As chief executioner, Blokhin was involved in the executions of many prominent military and political figures, and Marshal Tukhachevsky of the Red Army was executed by himself. Even the two heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Yagoda and Yenov, were executed by him.
How many people did Blokhin shoot during the Purge? It is not statistically clear that there were at least 10,000 executions in Russia, in which he participated and organized.
Blokhin's most gruesome execution took place in the spring of 1940: some 22,000 Polish soldiers, policemen and intellectuals were secretly killed by Soviet troops in the Kalinin, Kharkov and Katyn Forests, known in history as the "Katyn Incident".
Of the 22,000 people, Blokhin alone killed a third.
Blokhin was responsible for the execution of Kalinin Prison, where tens of thousands of Polish state police and Border Protection Corps officers were murdered en masse. At that time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR specially built an underground execution chamber in Kalinin Prison, specially designed with soundproof cushioned walls to prevent other prisoners from hearing gunshots, a sloping floor with hoses and drain pipes for flushing and removing blood.
As the top executor, the ambitious Blokhin initially decided to shoot 300 people a night, which was later reduced to 250. According to disclosed historical information, Blokhin was executed in a leather apron around the butcher, and wore a leather hat and elbow-high leather gloves to avoid staining the uniform with blood. The pistol that Blokhin executed was the German-made Walter pistol, because it had less recoil than the Soviet TT-30 pistol, which was conducive to multiple shots, and in case the body was found, there could be an excuse for denial.
Blokhin's firing squad consisted of 30 men, and the division of escorts, executions, transports, and burials was strict. Executions were carried out at night and ended before dawn. The Polish prisoners were handcuffed by the guards and taken into the execution chamber separately. Then, behind the door, Blokhin fired a pistol at the back of the prisoner's head. The bodies were then removed from the back door and loaded onto a flatbed truck and transported to 25 trenches dug by a bulldozer in the suburbs for burial.
Blokhin and his team worked tirelessly 10 hours a night, executing an average of one prisoner every 3 minutes. At the end of the work, Blokhin rewarded his men for drinking vodka. In this way, in 28 days, Blokhin personally executed 7,000 Polish prisoners, and because of this appalling figure, he became the Guinness Book of World Records "the most murderous executioner in the world".
For "the skills and organizational skills to carry out special tasks effectively", Blokhin was awarded numerous medals (Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner, Order of the Great Patriotic War I, Order of the Red Banner of Labor, Order of the Red Star, Medal of Honor, etc.), as well as a gold watch and a Mauser pistol, and was awarded the rank of Major General in 1945.
After Stalin's death, Blokhin's good days came to an end. In 1953, he was forcibly retired, stripped of his medals, ranks and pensions. Blokhin began to live by alcoholism, so much so that he was often delirious with alcoholism.
On 3 February 1955, Blokhin committed suicide, supposedly completing the executioner's last execution with the rewarding Mauser pistol.