Vyacheslav Menzhinsky
Vyacheslav Menzhinsky was a Stalinist chief of the OGPU in the USSR from 1926 to 1934. The OGPU was a body of state security and intelligence, a predecessor to the NKVD.
Menzhinsky joined the Cheka in 1919, became a deputy to its chief Dzerzhinsky (also known as Iron Felix) in 1923, and finally succeeded Dzerzhinsky in leading the OGPU.
In his late life, Menzhinsky grew ill and Yagoda began to take over the OGPU. Yagoda eventually poisoned Menzhinsky, a fact which was uncovered in the Moscow Trials. After Menzhinsky, the state security would be taken over by Yagoda, Yezhov, and Beria.
Personal life
Menzhinsky was of 100% Polish descent, born in Leningrad, but this has not stopped JQers from boldly claiming he was Jewish.
Trotsky hated Menzhinsky's humble discipline, saying: "The impression he made on me could best be described by saying that he made none at all. He seemed like a poor sketch for an unfinished portrait. Only now and then would an ingratiating smile or secret play of the eyes betray his eagerness from insignificance ... No-one took any notice of Menzhinsky, so quietly toiling away over his papers."[1] Here Trotsky psychologically projects his intense need for validation and petty-bourgeois egoistic pride.
Menzhinsky had mastered over 10 languages, including Korean, Chinese, Turkish, and Persian, the last one learned especially in order to read works by Omar Khayyám. [2]
References
- ↑ Trotsky, Leon (1975). My Life. Hardmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin. pp. 465–66.
- ↑ Simon Sebag Montefiore. Stalin, The Court of the Red Tsar. London: Phoenix. p. 135. ISBN 0-75381-766-7.