Fedotov, Petr Vasilyevich

(1900–1963)

   After 16 years service in the provinces, Fedotov was brought to Moscow by Nikolai Yezhov to head the NKVD’s Secret Political Department in 1937. During World War II, he headed the NKVD’s counterintelligence directorate and was promoted to lieutenant general in 1945. From 1946 to 1949 he served as Joseph Stalin’s chief of foreign intelligence in the Komitet Informatsii (Committee of Information). From 1949 to 1959 Fedotov held a series of senior positions in the MVD and KGB. He retired in 1959, after having served on the faculty of the KGB’s Higher School. Fedotov was one of the very few senior Chekists of Yezhov’s generation to survive promotion to the center in 1937. Of the more than 120 promoted in this period to important posts in Moscow, barely 20 survived.