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<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title>Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him - Donald Rayfield - Google Books</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/books/css/_a33f2a89320471e58c940b9287b9d4eb/kl_viewport_kennedy_full_bundle.css" type="text/css" /><link rel="stylesheet"href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Product+Sans:wght@400"><script src="/books/javascript/v2_a33f2a89320471e58c940b9287b9d4eb__en.js"></script><script>_OC_Hooks = ["_OC_Page", "_OC_SearchReload", "_OC_TocReload", "_OC_EmptyFunc", "_OC_SearchPage", "_OC_QuotePage" ];for (var _OC_i = 0; _OC_i < _OC_Hooks.length; _OC_i++) {eval("var " + _OC_Hooks[_OC_i] + ";");}function _OC_InitHooks () {for (var i = 0; i < _OC_Hooks.length; i++) {var func = arguments[i];eval( _OC_Hooks[i] + " = func;");}}</script><link rel="canonical" href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Stalin_and_His_Hangmen.html?id=Yi3ow3TU8-4C"/><meta property="og:url" content="https://books.google.com/books/about/Stalin_and_His_Hangmen.html?id=Yi3ow3TU8-4C"/><meta name="title" content="Stalin and His Hangmen"/><meta name="description" content="Stalin did not act alone. The mass executions, the mock trials, the betrayals and purges, the jailings and secret torture that ravaged the Soviet Union during the three decades of Stalin’s dictatorship, were the result of a tight network of trusted henchmen (and women), spies, psychopaths, and thugs. At the top of this pyramid of terror sat five indispensable hangmen who presided over the various incarnations of Stalin’s secret police. Now, in his harrowing new book, Donald Rayfield probes the lives, the minds, the twisted careers, and the unpunished crimes of Stalin’s loyal assassins.Founded by Feliks Dzierzynski, the Cheka–the Extraordinary Commission–came to life in the first years of the Russian Revolution. Spreading fear in a time of chaos, the Cheka proved a perfect instrument for Stalin’s ruthless consolidation of power. But brutal as it was, the Cheka under Dzierzynski was amateurish compared to the well-oiled killing machines that succeeded it. Genrikh Iagoda’s OGPU specialized in political assassination, propaganda, and the manipulation of foreign intellectuals. Later, the NKVD recruited a new generation of torturers. Starting in 1938, terror mastermind Lavrenti Beria brought violent repression to a new height of ingenuity and sadism.As Rayfield shows, Stalin and his henchmen worked relentlessly to coerce and suborn leading Soviet intellectuals, artists, writers, lawyers, and scientists. Maxim Gorky, Aleksandr Fadeev, Alexei Tolstoi, Isaak Babel, and Osip Mandelstam were all caught in Stalin’s web–courted, toyed with, betrayed, and then ruthlessly destroyed. In bringing to light the careers, personalities, relationships, and “accomplishments” of Stalin’s key henchmen and their most prominent victims, Rayfield creates a chilling drama of the intersection of political fanaticism, personal vulnerability, and blind lust for power spanning half a century.Though Beria lost his power–and his life–after Stalin’s death in 1953, the fundamental methods of the hangmen maintained their grip into the second half of the twentieth century. Indeed, Rayfield argues, the tradition of terror, far from disappearing, has emerged with renewed vitality under Vladimir Putin. Written with grace, passion, and a dazzling command of the intricacies of Soviet politics and society, Stalin and the Hangmen is a devastating indictment of the individuals and ideology that kept Stalin in power."/><meta property="og:title" content="Stalin and His Hangmen"/><meta property="og:type" content="book"/><meta property="og:site_name" content="Google Books"/><meta property="og:image" content="https://books.google.com.sg/books/content?id=Yi3ow3TU8-4C&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&edge=curl&imgtk=AFLRE72PQxYlp25FLJjvkjShaMko48B1BurvCa6n4WQXSlsv21FNHob9q0lgSdme-m013N43Apj3yxG9rmnbaESGc_XBKDonLO2s2nRI4aV3ewBjof5rUZ-zitPbMN-7Jx5dl264nyc-"/><link rel="image_src" href="https://books.google.com.sg/books/content?id=Yi3ow3TU8-4C&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&edge=curl&imgtk=AFLRE72PQxYlp25FLJjvkjShaMko48B1BurvCa6n4WQXSlsv21FNHob9q0lgSdme-m013N43Apj3yxG9rmnbaESGc_XBKDonLO2s2nRI4aV3ewBjof5rUZ-zitPbMN-7Jx5dl264nyc-"/><script></script><style>#gbar,#guser{font-size:13px;padding-top:1px !important;}#gbar{height:22px}#guser{padding-bottom:7px !important;text-align:right}.gbh,.gbd{border-top:1px solid #c9d7f1;font-size:1px}.gbh{height:0;position:absolute;top:24px;width:100%}@media all{.gb1{height:22px;margin-right:.5em;vertical-align:top}#gbar{float:left}}a.gb1,a.gb4{text-decoration:underline !important}a.gb1,a.gb4{color:#00c !important}.gbi .gb4{color:#dd8e27 !important}.gbf .gb4{color:#900 !important} #gbar { padding:.3em .6em !important;}</style></head><body class=""><div id=gbar><nobr><a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://www.google.com.sg/search?tab=pw">Search</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://www.google.com.sg/imghp?hl=en&tab=pi">Images</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://maps.google.com.sg/maps?hl=en&tab=pl">Maps</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://play.google.com/?hl=en&tab=p8">Play</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://www.youtube.com/?tab=p1">YouTube</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://news.google.com/?tab=pn">News</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://mail.google.com/mail/?tab=pm">Gmail</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 href="https://drive.google.com/?tab=po">Drive</a> <a target=_blank class=gb1 style="text-decoration:none" href="https://www.google.com.sg/intl/en/about/products?tab=ph"><u>More</u> »</a></nobr></div><div id=guser width=100%><nobr><span id=gbn class=gbi></span><span id=gbf class=gbf></span><span id=gbe></span><a target=_top id=gb_70 href="https://www.google.com/accounts/Login?service=print&continue=https://books.google.com.sg/books%3Fid%3DYi3ow3TU8-4C%26pg%3DRA2-PA1915%26redir_esc%3Dy%26hl%3Den&hl=en&ec=GAZACg" class=gb4>Sign in</a></nobr></div><div class=gbh style=left:0></div><div class=gbh style=right:0></div><div role="alert" style="position: absolute; left: 0; right: 0;"><a href="https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=Yi3ow3TU8-4C&pg=RA2-PA1915&redir_esc=y&hl=en&output=html_text" title="Screen reader users: click this link for accessible mode. 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Beria in the Caucasus Beria as Satrap Mopping Up After ","Pid":"PA384","PgNum":"384","Order":409},{"Title":"Ten The Gratification of Cruelty423 ","Pid":"PA423","PgNum":"423","Order":448},{"Title":"Notes ","Pid":"PA473","PgNum":"473","Order":498},{"Title":"Select Bibliography493 ","Pid":"PA493","PgNum":"493","Order":518}]}},"table_of_contents_page_id":"PR17","max_resolution_image_width":1280,"max_resolution_image_height":1972,"num_toc_pages":2,"quality_info":"We have no quality information about this book.","volume_id":"Yi3ow3TU8-4C","permission_info":"Published by Random House Publishing Group","is_ebook":true,"volumeresult":{"has_flowing_text":true,"has_scanned_text":true,"can_download_pdf":false,"can_download_epub":false,"is_pdf_drm_enabled":false,"is_epub_drm_enabled":false},"publisher":"Random House Publishing Group","publication_date":"2007.12.18","subject":"History","num_pages":592,"sample_url":"https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=Yi3ow3TU8-4C\u0026source=gbs_vpt_hover","synposis":"Stalin did not act alone. The mass executions, the mock trials, the betrayals and purges, the jailings and secret torture that ravaged the Soviet Union during the three decades of Stalin’s dictatorship, were the result of a tight network of trusted henchmen (and women), spies, psychopaths, and thugs. At the top of this pyramid of terror sat five indispensable hangmen who presided over the various incarnations of Stalin’s secret police. Now, in his harrowing new book, Donald Rayfield probes the lives, the minds, the twisted careers, and the unpunished crimes of Stalin’s loyal assassins.Founded by Feliks Dzierzynski, the Cheka–the Extraordinary Commission–came to life in the first years of the Russian Revolution. Spreading fear in a time of chaos, the Cheka proved a perfect instrument for Stalin’s ruthless consolidation of power. But brutal as it was, the Cheka under Dzierzynski was amateurish compared to the well-oiled killing machines that succeeded it. Genrikh Iagoda’s OGPU specialized in political assassination, propaganda, and the manipulation of foreign intellectuals. Later, the NKVD recruited a new generation of torturers. Starting in 1938, terror mastermind Lavrenti Beria brought violent repression to a new height of ingenuity and sadism.As Rayfield shows, Stalin and his henchmen worked relentlessly to coerce and suborn leading Soviet intellectuals, artists, writers, lawyers, and scientists. Maxim Gorky, Aleksandr Fadeev, Alexei Tolstoi, Isaak Babel, and Osip Mandelstam were all caught in Stalin’s web–courted, toyed with, betrayed, and then ruthlessly destroyed. In bringing to light the careers, personalities, relationships, and “accomplishments” of Stalin’s key henchmen and their most prominent victims, Rayfield creates a chilling drama of the intersection of political fanaticism, personal vulnerability, and blind lust for power spanning half a century.Though Beria lost his power–and his life–after Stalin’s death in 1953, the fundamental methods of the hangmen maintained their grip into the second half of the twentieth century. Indeed, Rayfield argues, the tradition of terror, far from disappearing, has emerged with renewed vitality under Vladimir Putin. Written with grace, passion, and a dazzling command of the intricacies of Soviet politics and society, Stalin and the Hangmen is a devastating indictment of the individuals and ideology that kept Stalin in power.","my_library_url":"https://www.google.com/accounts/Login?service=print\u0026continue=https://books.google.com.sg/books%3Fop%3Dlibrary\u0026hl=en","is_magazine":false,"is_public_domain":false,"last_page":{"pid":"PA566","order":591,"title":"566"}},{"enableUserFeedbackUI":true,"pseudocontinuous":true,"is_cobrand":false,"sign_in_url":"https://www.google.com/accounts/Login?service=print\u0026continue=https://books.google.com.sg/books%3Fid%3DYi3ow3TU8-4C%26pg%3DRA2-PA1915%26redir_esc%3Dy%26hl%3Den\u0026hl=en","isEntityPageViewport":false,"showViewportOnboarding":false,"showViewportPlainTextOnboarding":false},{"page":[{"pid":"PR1","src":"https://books.google.com.sg/books/content?id=Yi3ow3TU8-4C\u0026pg=PR1\u0026img=1\u0026zoom=3\u0026hl=en\u0026sig=ACfU3U0OpUjIvY3aGrL69vgUWIta_LpC0g","flags":32,"order":0,"uf":"https://books.google.com.sg/books_feedback?id=Yi3ow3TU8-4C\u0026spid=AFLRE71fntsEUvBIWb0xOd0uA9p1vgHIxXIGsMY815Y-1SZnyeyssk1ehWBKYl40xcRNw5FYA7J1\u0026ftype=0"},{"pid":"PR4","src":"https://books.google.com.sg/books/content?id=Yi3ow3TU8-4C\u0026pg=PR4\u0026img=1\u0026zoom=3\u0026hl=en\u0026sig=ACfU3U2jXdeld__1qkTmbCaoMJUHK0HADQ"},{"pid":"PR5","src":"https://books.google.com.sg/books/content?id=Yi3ow3TU8-4C\u0026pg=PR5\u0026img=1\u0026zoom=3\u0026hl=en\u0026sig=ACfU3U3azvWFxnQ1U5mwc9w6okA39ZjYtw"},{"pid":"PR6","src":"https://books.google.com.sg/books/content?id=Yi3ow3TU8-4C\u0026pg=PR6\u0026img=1\u0026zoom=3\u0026hl=en\u0026sig=ACfU3U2HOYMX-65SEIvR1uUQXIdmGlKOjQ"}]},null,null,{});</script></div></div></div><script>(function() {var href = window.location.href;if (href.indexOf('?') !== -1) {var parameters = href.split('?')[1].split('&');for (var i = 0; i < parameters.length; i++) {var param = parameters[i].split('=');if (param[0] == 'focus') {var elem = document.getElementById(param[1]);if (elem) {elem.focus();}}}}})();</script>