Ogoltsov, Sergei Ivanovich

(1900–1977)

   Ogoltsov was one of the few “Old Chekists” to survive the purges of both Nikolai Yezhov and Lavrenty Beria. Ogoltsov entered the Cheka at age 17. During the purges he was rapidly promoted, and he served as head of the security service in Leningrad during the hardest months of the 900-day German siege. Ogoltsov ensured that order was maintained during the winter of 1941–1942, when more than 600,000 Leningraders starved and froze to death. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and promoted for his effort.

   In 1946 Ogoltsov was promoted to lieutenant general and made head of the section for “special questions.” He planned the murder of the Jewish actor Solomon Mikhoels, whose death Joseph Stalin had personally insisted on. Ogoltsov received the Order of the Red Banner for this operation. At the time of Stalin’s death, Ogoltsov worked closely with Minister of State Security Semyon Ignatiev to ensure power passed quietly to the next generation. Ogoltsov was arrested following Stalin’s death for Mikhoels’s murder, but he was released four months later, a reward for having smoothed the transition of power following Stalin’s death.