Serov, Ivan (1905–1990) joined the NKVD in 1939 in Moscow, then NKVD commissar of the Ukraine. First deputy NKGB commissar (1941), deputy commissar/minister of the NKVD/MVD (1941–1947), first deputy MVD minister (1947–1954), KGB chairman (1954–1958), then head of the Military Intelligence (GRU) (1958–1963). Unimportant high military positions (1963–1965) (Petrov, and Skorkin, Kto rukovodil NKVD, pp. 380–381).
Shalamov, Varlam (1907–1982), writer. A law student at Moscow University. Arrested in 1929, sentenced to 3 years in the infamous Solovki Camp. In 1937 arrested and sentenced again, spent 5 years in the most inhuman Kolyma camps. In 1943 received an additional 10-year term for “praising the efficiency of the German army” and describing the writer and Nobel laureate Ivan Bunin as a “classic of Russian literature.”
Shcherbakov, Aleksei (1901–1945), Party figure. Head of the Department of Culture and Education of the Central Committee (CC) (1935–1937), second secretary of Leningrad Regional Party Committee (1936–1937), first secretary in some regions of Siberia and the Ukraine (1937–1938), first secretary of the Moscow and Moscow Regional Committees and a secretary of the CC (1938–1945), head of the Sovinformburo and the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army (1941–1945), head of the Department of International Information of the CC (1943–1945), a candidate to the Politburo (1941–1945). According to the MGB-created version, was killed by the Jewish “doctors-killers” (Naumov and Sigachev, Lavrentii Beria, p. 498).
Shepilov, Dmitrii (1905–1995), jurist, economist, and Party figure. Party member from 1926. Graduated from Moscow University (1926) and from the Institute of Red Professors (1932). Deputy head (1935–1937), then head (1937–1940) of the Section of Agricultural Science in the Central Committee (CC), professor of Economics at the Higher Party School (a college for the Party elite) (1935–1941), head of the Directorate of Agitation and Propaganda of the CC (Agitprop) (1947–1953), member of the Presidium (i.e., the Politburo) and minister of foreign affairs (1956–1957). Dismissed from all posts by Nikita Khrushchev in 1957 (Krementsov, Stalinist Science, pp. 304–305).
Shirshov, Pyotr (1905–1953), oceanographer and state figure. From 1929, worked at the Academy Botanical Institute, then at the Academy Arctic Institute. Became famous in 1937–1938 after participating in the expedition of the drifting station Northen Pole. Awarded a Doctor of Sciences degree and a title of a Hero of the Soviet Union. Academician (1939). First deputy head of the Main North Marine Directorate (in charge of transportation of people and goods along the Arctic coast) (1939–1942), commissar/minister of the Marine Fleet (1942–1948). Personally responsible for transportation of prisoners by ships to the worst labor camp system, Dalstroi, in the Far East. In 1946, his own wife was arrested and perished in one of the Dalstroi camps. Director of the Academy Institute of Oceanology (1946–1953). After his death, this institute was named after him. A bay on Franz Josef Land and an underwater ridge in the Bering Sea also bear his name.
Shpigelglass (or Spigelglass), Sergei (1897–1939), incorrectly named in many sources as Mikhail (for instance, Andrew and Gordievsky, KGB, p. 138), joined the VCheKa Special Department approximately in 1920. From 1935, deputy head of the NKVD Foreign (Intelligence) Department within the Main State Security Directorate (GUGB). Organized many NKVD operations abroad, including assassinations in Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and in France. In February 1938, succeeded Slutsky as acting head of the NKVD Foreign Department (the GUGB Seventh Department). Arrested and shot in 1939.
Shumsky, Aleksandr (1890–1946), Party figure and Stalin’s victim. Joined the Ukrainian Bolshevik Party in 1920. Member of the Comintern Executive Committee, head of the Ukrainian Legation in Warsaw (Poland) (1922–1924), the Ukrainian commissar of Education (1924–1933). In January 1933, accused of Ukrainian nationalism and arrested. Exiled to Saratov, where he was killed in 1946 (Sudoplatov, A., Tainaya zhizn’, p. 550).
Sisakyan, Norair (1907–1966), biochemist and Lysenkoist. Corresponding member (1955), academician (1960). Secretary academician of the Academy Biology Division (1959), chief scientific secretary of the academy (1960–1966). In 1956, elected a member and vice president of the International Astronautical Academy. President of the Thirteenth UNESCO General Assembly (1964–1966).
Slutsky, Abram (1898–1938) joined the VCheKa in 1920 in Turkestan (Central Asia). At the Economic Directorate of the OGPU in Moscow in 1926. From 1929, at the Foreign (Intelligence) Department; head of this department from 1935. Was poisoned on February 17, 1938 (Petrov and Skorkin, Kto rukovodil NKVD, pp. 383–384).
Speransky, Aleksei (1888–1961), pathologist. Worked with Academician Pavlov (1923–1928). Head of the Experimental Department at the Institute of Surgical Neuropathy in Leningrad (1926–1928), the Department of Pathophysiology at the Leningrad Institute of Experimental Medicine (1928–1934), and the Department of General Pathology at the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine (VIEM) in Moscow (1934–1945). Director of the Academy Institute of General and Experimental Pathology (1945–1954), head of the Department of General Pathology of the Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology (1954–1961). Academician (1939), and member of the Medical Academy (1944). In 1950 was among those physiologists who were criticized by the Lysenkoists. However, supported Mairanovsky.
Stalin (pseudonym of Dzhugashvili), Joseph (1879–1953), secretary general of the Bolshevik Party (1922–1953), premier of the Soviet state (1941–1953), a ruthless dictator. From 1894–1899, in a theological school in Georgia. Joined the Party in 1898, and between 1902 and 1913 was arrested seven times for revolutionary activity, undergoing repeated imprisonment and exile. In 1907, participated in a robbery of a bank in Tiflis (Tbilisi) on order to “expropriate” funds for the Bolshevik Party. A Central Committee member (1912–1913, 1917–1953), and a Politburo member (1919–1953). From April 1922, general secretary of the Party, and succeeded Lenin in January 1924. Honorary academician (1939). In May 1941 appointed himself chairman of the Council of Commissars. During World War II, from June 1941 until May 1945, headed the State Defense Committee.
Steinberg, Matus (1904–?), NKVD/MGB agent. Born near Odessa (then Romanian territory) and from 1923, lived in Belgium and France. In 1924, joined the Belgian and then French Communist Parties. Served in the Red Army (1926–1927). From 1928, at the GPU, then NKVD Foreign Department. In 1957, he and his accomplice, Elsa Shukter (1904–?), were arrested in a Moscow hotel, the Balchug, in connection with the revolt in Hungary in 1956 (details are unknown). On March 14, 1958, they were sentenced to 10 and 5 years’ imprisonment, respectively. Kept in Vladimir Prison. Shukter was released in January 1961, and Steinberg, in January 1966 (Steinberg’s and Shukter’s prisoner cards in Vladimir Prison).
Stepanov, Mikhail (1900–1940) joined the VCheKa in 1920. Head of the Secret Department (1929–1931) and of the Special Department of the Leningrad Branch of the OGPU (1931–1933). Later held different regional positions. Arrested in 1938, condemned to 12 years of labor camps in 1940 and the same year died in a camp (Petrov and Skorkin, Kto rukovidil NKVD, pp. 395–396).