Interesting thinking. This is an account of "the world's most prolific executioner"
Blokhin's most notable performance was the April 1940 mass execution by shooting of 6,000 Polish officers, captured following the Soviet invasion of Poland, from the Ostashkov POW camp, during the Katyn massacre.[4] Based on the April 4 secret order from Stalin to NKVD Chief Lavrenti Beria (as well as NKVD Order �?00485, which still applied)[5] the executions were carried out in 28 consecutive nights at the specially-constructed basement execution chamber at the NKVD headquarters in Kalinin (now Tver).
Blokhin initially decided on an ambitious quota of 300 executions per night, and engineered an efficient system in which the prisoners were individually led to a small ante-room for a brief and cursory positive identification, before being led into the execution room next door. The room was specially designed with padded walls for soundproofing, a sloping concrete floor with a drain and hose, and a log wall for the prisoners to stand against. Blokhin—outfitted in a leather butcher's apron, cap, and shoulder-length gloves to protect his General's uniform—then pushed the prisoner against the log wall and shot him once in the base of the skull with a German Walther Model 2 .25 ACP pistol.[4] He had brought a briefcase full of his own Walther pistols, since he did not trust the reliability of the standard-issue Soviet TT-30 for the frequent, heavy use he intended. The use of a German pocket pistol, which was commonly carried by Nazi intelligence agents, also provided plausible deniability of the executions if the bodies were discovered later.[5]
Between 20 to 30 local NKVD agents, guards and drivers were pressed into service to escort prisoners to the basement, confirm identification, then remove the bodies and hose down the blood after each execution; Blokhin, true to his reputation, liked to work continuously and rapidly without interruption. In keeping with NKVD policy and the overall "black" nature of the operation, the executions were conducted at night, starting at dark and continuing until just prior to dawn. The initial quota of 300 was lowered by Blokhin to 250 after the first night, when it was decided that all further executions should take place in total darkness.[3] The bodies were continuously loaded onto covered flat-bed trucks through a back door in the execution chamber and trucked to Mednoye, where Blokhin had arranged for a bulldozer and two NKVD drivers. Each night, an eight to ten meter trench was dug to hold the night's corpses, and each trench was covered up before dawn. Blokhin and his team worked without pause for ten hours each night, with Blokhin executing an average of one prisoner every three minutes.[2]
On April 27, 1940, Blokhin secretly received the Order of the Red Banner and a modest cash bonus as a reward from Joseph Stalin for his "skill and organization in the effective carrying out of special tasks".[1][5] His count of 6,000 shot in 28 days remains one of the most organized and protracted serial killings by a single individual on record.[1]
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