Genrikh Yagoda

Genrikh Yagoda (1891-1938) was chief of the Soviet NKVD secret police at the beginning of the Great Terror, serving from 1934 to 1936. He was purged by Josef Stalin and succeeded by Nikolai Yezhov. Yagoda was transferred to become Commissar for Communications, but arrested in 1937 and, after a show trial, executed in 1938.

While in the NKVD, he supervised foreign clandestine human-source intelligence.