Sergei Ogoltsov

Sergei Ivanovich Ogoltsov (Сергей Иванович Огольцов in Russian)(August 29, 1900 – October 26, 1976) was a Russian member of the Soviet NKVD from 1936 until it was reorganized as the MGB in 1946. He served in the MGB until his arrest in 1953. He was the Deputy Director of State Security (MGB) from July 14, 1951 to August 9, 1951. By the time he was arrested in 1953 he had risen to the rank of Lieutenant General in the NKVD. He was released from prison in 1953 after a short arrest and he retired from the MGB. He died in 1976.

Early life
Sergei Ivanovich Ogoltsov was born on August 29, 1900 in a village in Ryazan Governorate in a peasant family of Russian ethnicity. He worked as a trainee clerk in 1916 and as a parish executive committee secretary in Prigorodskogo in 1917. In 1918-1919 he was the investigator for Sapozhkovskoy county and in 1919-1920 he was the Cheka chief there. In 1919, Ogoltsov joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (RKP) In 1920 Ogoltsov was transferred by the Cheka to Ukraine where he worked as the operkommissar until his promotion to deputy in 1921 Kharkiv. Following his duty in Kharkiv, Ogoltsov also worked for the Cheka in Poltava.

He graduated from the School of the Frontier (OGPU) in 1927.

Career in State Security
In 1923, Ogoltsov became the Inspector for the Special Branch 14 Infantry Corps based in Kiev. His command was continually transferred in the 1930s to different units within Ukraine including the 22nd Volochisskogo NKVD border unit, and the 26th NKVD border detachment in Odessa, and the 27th NKVD border unit in Sevastopol. He was promoted to the commander officer of the 27th Crimean NKVD border group in 1936.

After spending most of the 1930s in Ukraine among various NKVD and border units, he joined the NKVD administration in Leningrad in 1939. For the next few years he spent time in Leningrad and Kuibyshev until he was made the Commissar of State Security of the Kazakh SSR in 1944. While at this position, Ogoltsov participated in the deportation of many Soviet peoples to Kazakh SSR. After holding several other positions Ogoltsov became the 1st Deputy Minister of Public Security of the USSR in 1951. Joseph Stalin then nominated Ogoltsov for Minister of State Security after the removal of Vsevolod Nikolayevich Merkulov, but he initially refused citing a lack of knowledge and experience. In 1952 Ogoltsov served as the Minister of Public Security in Uzbekistan, and then became the Head of Main Intelligence Directorate of the MVD. His final position was as the First Deputy Minister of State Security. In 1954 he was expelled from the RKP, and in 1959 he was stripped of his rank and awards from the government.

List of titles held
1939-1941 Head of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs NKVD Leningrad

1941 Deputy Head of People's Commissariat of State Security NKGB Leningrad, Deputy Head of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs NKVD Leningrad

1941-1943 Head of People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs NKVD Kuibyshev

1943-1944 Head of People's Commissariat of State Security NKGB Kuibyshev

1944-1945 Head of People's Commissariat of State Security Kazakh SSR

1945-1946 First Deputy People's Commissariat of State Security

1946 First Deputy Minister of State Security

1946-1951 Deputy Minister of State Security

1951-1952 Acting Minister of State Security, First Deputy Minister of State Security

1952 Head of Ministry of State Security MGB Uzbek SSR

1952-1953 First Deputy Minister of State Security, Head of Main Intelligence Directorate, Ministry of State Security MVD

1953 First Deputy Minister of State Security

Controversies and arrest
During Ogoltsov's tenure in the NKVD under Lavrenti Beria, he was involved in the killings of several prominent Jews. In 1941, while Ogoltsov was Head of People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs NKVD Kuibyshev, he was involved in the execution of Wiktor Alter. Alter was part of the Bund, a Jewish-socialist committee against Adolf Hitler in Poland. Alter was arrested as a result of the Soviet persecution of Poles after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed. A number of Polish Jews were outraged after they discovered the Katyn Massacre, and anyone who opposed the Soviets could expect to face deportation or execution.

The other controversial act of Ogoltsov's career was the murder of Jewish actor and producer Solomon Mikhoels. In 1948, while serving as the Deputy Director of State Security, Ogoltsov is accused of participating in the murder of Solomon Mikhoels in Minsk, Belarus. Robert Conquest, a British historian and author, wrote in his book "Reflections on a Ravaged Century" that Mikhoels "was clubbed to death at Belorussia's KGB dacha on January 1948 under the supervision of Stalin's Deputy Minister of State Security, Sergei Ogoltsov."

After Stalin's death, Ogoltsov was removed from his position as the First Deputy Minister of State Security by Beria and arrested on 3 April 1953 for the murder of Solomon Mikhoels. Soon after Beria died Ogoltsov was rehabilitated and released on 6 August 1953.