Ryasnoi, Vasilii Stepanovich

(1904–1995)

   Ryasnoi was transferred from Communist Party work to the security service during the height of the Yezhovshchina, and he rose quickly in the service. During World War II, he served in the Ukraine, and he was later given responsibility for the MVD’s campaign against “bandits” (anti-Soviet partisans) in the western Ukraine and Baltics. Following Joseph Stalin’s death, he served as chief of foreign intelligence and then chief of the security service in Moscow. He was expelled from the service in 1955 and died in obscurity.