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Lev Shvartzman: Stalin's Torturer During the Great Purge in the Soviet Union
Lev Shvartzman was one of the most feared interrogators of Stalin’s Soviet secret police, becoming notorious for torture, forced confessions, and his role in the Great Purge. Born in 1907 in Shpola, in the Russian Empire, Shvartzman came from a family opposed to Bolshevik rule. Despite this background, he joined the Komsomol in 1925, worked as a journalist, and entered the NKVD in 1935 as Stalin’s campaign of repression intensified.
Under NKVD chiefs Genrikh Yagoda and Nikolai Yezhov, Shvartzman rose rapidly through the ranks. Initially considered ineffective, he found his place as an…
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