Genrikh Lyushkov

Genrikh Lyushkov
Генрих Люшков
Born1900
DiedAugust 19, 1945(1945-08-19) (aged 45)
Cause of deathExecution by shooting
SpouseInna Lyushkova
Children1
Far Eastern Commander of the NKVD
In office
31 July 1937 – 13 June 1938
Preceded byTerenti Deribas
Succeeded byGrigori Gorbach

Genrikh Samoilovich Lyushkov (Russian: Генрих Самойлович Люшков; 1900 – 19 August 1945) was a Soviet secret police officer. A high-ranking officer of the NKVD, he played a role in implementing Stalin's Great Purge. When, in 1938, he suspected he would soon fall victim to the purge, he fled to Japan, becoming the highest-ranking NKVD defector in the organization's history. Thereafter, he acted as a major source of intelligence for Imperial Japan about the Soviet Union. At the end of World War II, he was killed by the Japanese in order to prevent him from falling back into Soviet hands.