Vladimir Efimovich Semichastny

Vladimir Semichastny, 1964

Wladimir Jefimowitsch Semitschastny ( Russian Владимир Ефимович Семичастный , scientific transliteration Vladimir Efimovič Semičastnyj ; born January 15, 1924 in Grigoryevka , Yekaterinoslav Governorate ; † January 12, 2001 in Moscow ; † Chairman of the KGB from January 12, 2001 to 1967 in Moscow ) .

Life

In 1958, Semichastny became the first secretary of the youth union of the CPSU , the Komsomol . In this capacity he emerged in the campaign against the writer Boris Pasternak with a speech in Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium .

After Schelepin left the KGB in December 1961, his follower Semitschastny became the new chairman of the KGB. He had no experience in the work of the KGB and only took over the post at the urging of Khrushchev , who wanted to keep the KGB under control.

On Khrushchev's orders, Semichastny continued to clear the archives of documents incriminated by members of the Central Committee Presidium for their involvement in the Stalinist terror.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis , the KGB was inadequately informed about US policy , in contrast to the information the CIA received through its agent Penkowski .

After the KGB contract killer Bogdan Staschinski defected to West Germany in August 1961 and was convicted by a West German court in 1962, the presidium of the CPSU instructed the KGB to refrain from contract killings in future.

In 1964, Semichastny played a key role in the conspiracy to overthrow Khrushchev. He changed the chief of Khrushchev's bodyguard and had his private telephone tapped. He then rose to become a full member of the Central Committee without the usual candidate period.

In 1966 the Soviet agent George Blake escaped from British custody to the Soviet Union.

The persecution of the dissident movement in the Soviet Union began in 1966 with the trial of the writers Andrei Sinjawski and Juli Danijel .

In the same year, Stalin's daughter Svetlana Allilujewa was allowed to leave the Soviet Union for the funeral of her third husband, but she never returned. A hasty kidnapping attempt ordered by Semitschastny failed.

Brezhnev used the chance in 1967 to take action against Schelepin's protégé Semitschastny and for the first time demanded his removal, which Schelepin was able to prevent for the time being. In May, however, Brezhnev's second attempt was successful and Semichastny was relieved of his post by the Politburo.

In his later years he took part in various television documentaries: Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? (1992), The Secret KGB JFK Assassination Files (1998) and Cold War (1998). He criticized the breakdown of the KGB into various secret services after 1992, as it made the services less effective. Until recently he was convinced of the advantages of the Soviet system and the impracticability of Western democracy in Russia. In 2001 he died of a heart attack and was buried in the Trojekurowo cemetery in Moscow.

Web links

Commons : Vladimir Semichastny  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Semichastny curriculum vitae (Russian)
• Museum of Komsomol History: Vladimir Semichastny (Russian)
• Semitschastny's last interview in Ogonyok (Russian)