Ivan Ksenofontov

Ivan Ksenofontovich Ksenofontov (Russian: Иван Ксенофонтович Ксенофонтов; August 29, 1884 – March 23, 1926) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and one of the founders of the Soviet secret police and state security agency, the Cheka (later GPU and OGPU).

He gained notoriety as Chairman of the Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal and later as First Deputy Chairman of the Cheka, the agency's "number two" under Felix Dzerzhinsky, where he played a decisive role in crushing various anti-Bolshevik factions and the Kronstadt uprising.

Between 1921 and 1925 he was chargé d'affaires of the Central Committee of the Party and head of the OGPU Operations Department,[7] at the time heavily engaged against nationalist movements in the Caucasus and Muslim Basmachi guerrillas in Soviet Central Asia.

[8][9] Ksenofontov was often accused of torture, including hitting and raping women, although in other sources he was described as being polite and art-loving.

Suffering from stomach cancer which caused him excruciating pain, he died in 1926, aged 42.