From: The New Leader | Date: June 6, 1994| Author: Shub, Anatole | COPYRIGHT 1994 American Labor Conference on International Affairs. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

BORN IN MELITOPOL, Ukraine, in 1907, Pavel Sudoplatov followed an older brother into the Cheka at the age of 14, moved up to the Moscow OGPU in 1933, and performed secret NKVD missions in Western Europe in the mid-1930s. Under Lavrenti P. Beria, between 1938 and 1953, he rose to the rank of NKGB/MGB lieutenant general, heading several State Security departments.

Sudoplatov majored in "special tasks," including "wet affairs," i.e. the killing of Stalin's foes at home and...