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List of Soviet assassinations

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This is a list of people confirmed and alleged to have been assassinated by the government of the Soviet Union.[1] Some of the assassinations or targeted killings took place overseas.

Soviet assassinations

Assassinations confirmed or generally accepted to have been committed by the Soviet Union.

<tbody> </tbody>
Target Position Date City Country Perpetrator Method
Fyodor Kokoshkin Member of the First Russian State Duma 1918-01-20 Leningrad Russian SFSR Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee Shot.
Nicholas II last Tsar of Russia 1918-07-17 Yekaterinburg Cheka Execution.[2]
Francis Cromie British naval attaché 1918-08-31 Petrograd Bolsheviks Killed in combat
Alexander Dutov Russian Cossacks 1921-02-07 Suiding China Bolsheviks Shot.[3][4]
Vladimir Nesterovich Defected Red Army commander and intelligence officer 1925-08-06 Mainz Germany GRU Poisoning.[5][6]
Pyotr Wrangel Russian White Army General 1928-04-25 Brussels Belgium Soviet agent Poisoning.
Alexander Kutepov White Army General 1930-01-26 Paris France OGPU Heart attack during kidnapping.[7]
Noe Ramishvili former Prime Minister of Georgia 1930-12-07 Paris France Shot.[8][9][10]
Sergey Kirov First Secretary of the Leningrad City Bolsheviks 1934-12-01 Leningrad Soviet Union NKVD Shot by revolver.
Faizal Maksum One of the leaders of the Basmachi movement 1935-??-?? Kashgar East Turkestan [11]
Nester Lakoba Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Abkhaz ASSR 1936-12-28 Tbilisi Georgian SSR Poisoned.[12][13]
Andreu Nin Leader of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) 1937-06-20 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid Second Spanish Republic Tortured to death.[14][15][16][17]
Aghasi Khanjian First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia 1937-07-09 Tbilisi Georgian SSR Shot.[18]
Georges Agabekov Defected OGPU agent 1937-08-?? Pyrenees Mountains Unsure French or Spanish side in the Pyrenees Mountains Unknown.
Ignace Reiss Soviet spy 1937-09-04 Lausanne Switzerland Strangulation and/or machine gun.[19][20]
Kurt Landau Austrian communist, Member of the International Left Opposition 1937-09-23 Barcelona Second Spanish Republic Unknown.[20]
Yevhen Konovalets Leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists 1938-05-23 Rotterdam Netherlands Explosive hidden in box of chocolates.
Rudolf Klement Senior official in the Fourth International and longtime confidant of Trotsky 1938-07-13 Paris France Unknown. Possible beheading.[21]
Zinaida Reich Soviet actress 1939-07-15 Moscow Soviet Union Stabbing.
Jadwiga Szeptycka Archaeologist and ethnographer 1939-09-27 Prylbychi Second Polish Republic Shot.[22]
Leon Trotsky Soviet politician and Marxist revolutionary theorist 1940-08-21 Coyoacán Mexico Exsanguination from attack by ice pick[23]
Nikolai Koltsov Soviet biologist 1940-12-02 Leningrad Soviet Union Poisoning.[24]
Mairbek Sheripov Chechen nationalist 1942-11-07 Chechnya Soviet Union Soviet security force Soviet reprisal raid.
Wilhelm Kube Generalkommissar of Weissruthenien 1943-09-22 Minsk Soviet Union Yelena Mazanik Timed explosive.
Solomon Mikhoels Soviet actor and the artistic director of the Moscow State Jewish Theatre. 1948-01-13 MGB Death staged as traffic accident.[25]
Khasan Israilov Chechen nationalist 1944-12-29 Chechnya Soviet security force Unknown.
Yurii Lypa Ukrainian nationalist 1944-08-20 Shutova Ukrainian SSR NKVD Tortured to death.[26]
Konstantin Volkov Soviet diplomat and NKVD officer 1945-09-?? Istanbul Turkey Disappeared from his post.
Isaiah Oggins American-born spy for the Soviet secret police 1947-??-?? Norilsk Russian SFSR Poisoned with curare.[27][28]
Theodore Romzha Bishop of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo 1947-10-31 Uzhhorod Ukrainian SSR Poisoned with curare.[29][30]
Wolfgang Salus Czechoslovak Trotskyist 1953-03-05 Munich West Germany KGB Poisoned.[31][32]
Alexander Trushnovich Chairman of the Committee for Aid to Russian Refugees, leader of the National Alliance of Russian Solidarists 1954-04-13 West Berlin West Germany Choked to death during botched kidnapping.[33]
Danylo Skoropadskyi Leader of the Hetmanite movement 1957-02-23 London United Kingdom Poisoned with air gun.[34][35]
Lev Rebet Leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists 1957-10-10 Munich West Germany Poisoning with vapor gun.[36]
Imre Nagy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary 1958-06-16 Budapest Hungary Soviet show trial Execution.
Stepan Bandera Leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists 1959-10-15 Munich West Germany KGB Poisoning by cyanide gas.[36]
Nicholas Shadrin Defected Soviet naval officer 1975-12-20 Vienna Austria KGB Accidental forced overdose during kidnapping.[37][38][39]
Mohammed Daoud Khan President of Afghanistan 1978-04-28 Kabul Afghanistan Afghanistan KGB / PDPA Shot.
Georgi Markov Bulgarian dissident journalist 1978-09-11 London United Kingdom KGB Poisoning by ricin-filled pellet by Bulgarian umbrella.[40]
Hafizullah Amin President of Afghanistan 1979-12-27 Kabul Afghanistan Afghanistan Targeted assault on the Tajbeg Palace (see: Operation Storm-333)[41][42]

Alleged assassinations

Assassinations alleged or suspected to have been carried out by the Soviet Union.

<tbody> </tbody>
Target Position Date City Country Perpetrator Method
Nikolay Vtorov Russian industrialist 1918-05-20 Moscow Russian SFSR Bolsheviks Unknown.[43]
Juliet Stuart Poyntz CPUSA member and soviet intelligence agent 1937-06-03 New York United States NKVD Possible execution.[44]
Lev Sedov Leon Trotsky's eldest son 1938-02-16 Paris France Shot.
Walter Krivitsky Defected Soviet intelligence officer 1941-02-10 Washington, D.C. United States Shot by revolver.[45]
Arkadi Maslow Leading figure in the Communist Party of Germany 1941-11-20 Havana Cuba Shot.[46]
Leonid Karas Belarusian writer and journalist for Radio Liberty 1954-09-?? Munich West Germany KGB Drowning.[47]
Abdurrahman Fatalibeyli Defected Soviet army major; CIA agent and later chief of the Azerbaijani desk for Radio Liberty 1954-11-22 Munich West Germany Strangulation.
Ilie Motrescu Romanian writer 1969-07-26 Near Krasnoilsk Ukrainian SSR Unknown.[48]
Alla Horska Ukrainian Soviet dissident 1970-11-28 Vasylkiv Shot and disguised as a murder-suicide.[49][50]
Sultan Ibraimov Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan 1980-12-04 Cholpon Ata Soviet Union Shot twice in the head.

Attempted assassinations

<tbody> </tbody>
Target Position Date City Country Killer Method
Indalecio Prieto Minister of the National Defence 1937 Bilbao Second Spanish Republic NKVD Unspecified.[17]
Georgiy Okolovich Anti-communist dissident 1954 Frankfurt West Germany KGB Cigarette case disguised poison gun.[51][52]
Nikolai Khokhlov Soviet defector 1957-09 Frankfurt West Germany Poisoning with thallium.[53][36]
Vladimir Kostov Bulgarian journalist 1978-08-26 Paris France Poisoning with Bulgarian umbrella.[54]

See also

References

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  4. ^ Ганин, Андрей Владиславович (2006). Атаман А.И. Дутов (in Russian). Центрполиграф. ISBN 978-5-9524-2447-0.
  5. ^ Starkov, B. A. (1998). "Советизация Балкан как попытка создания нового типа цивилизации — по новым документам российских архивов." [The Sovietization of the Balkans as an attempt to create a new type of civilization: based on new documents from Russian archives]. In Terzić, Slavenko; Bled, Jean-Paul (eds.). Сусрет или сукоб цивилизација на Балкану: међународни научни скуп 10-12. децембар 1997 [The Meeting or Clash of Civilizations in the Balkans: International Scientific Conference December 10-12, 1997] (in Serbian). Istorijski institut SANU. pp. 499–500. ISBN 978-86-7743-016-0.
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