Aleksandr Ivanovich Uspensky (Russian: Александр Иванович Успенский; 27 February 1902 – January 28, 1940) was a senior officer of the Cheka, the GPU and the NKVD.

[2] In this role, he impressed the head of the NKVD, Nikolay Yezhov with his zeal, by having 40,000 supposed 'enemies of the people' arrested.

[1] In June 1938, he declared that "I consider myself a pupil of Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov", and paid tribute to Nikita Khrushchev, then First Secretary of the Ukraine Communist Party, saying that "only after the faithful Stalinist Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev arrived in Ukraine did the smashing of the enemies of the people begin in earnest.

Soon afterwards, there came another phone call, from Yezhov's newly appointed deputy, Lavrentiy Beria, to say that Uspensky had disappeared.

[7] After faking his suicide, Uspensky went into hiding on 14 November – possibly having been warned by Yezhov of his impending arrest – and took refuge in the Ural Mountains.