Vlasik, Nikolai Sidorovich

(1896–1967)

   Vlasik entered the Cheka from the Red Army in 1919. He formed a close personal relationship with Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and served as his bodyguard for almost two decades. In 1938 he officially took command of the directorate responsible for leadership protection, and from 1946 to 1952 he served as the commandant of the Kremlin with the rank of lieutenant general. Vlasik also served as Stalin’s chief informer, gathering information about other members of the leadership. He was by all reports widely hated within the party leadership and the security service. Along with Stalin’s unofficial chief of staff Aleksandr Poskrebyshev, he had immense authority.

   In May 1952 Vlasik was stripped of his command and made deputy head of a forced labor camp as Stalin moved to purge the security service. He was arrested at Stalin’s order in December 1952 and spent the next two years in confinement. In 1955 he was sentenced to 10 years in exile. An amnesty set him free a year later, but he was condemned to live out the rest of his life under surveillance.