Editing Vasily Blokhin (section)

== Early career ==
Blokhin served in [[World War I]] in the Imperial Russian Army. In March 1921 he joined the [[Cheka]] and quickly drew the attention of Russian leader [[Joseph Stalin]] for his skill at carrying out executions, assassinations and interrogations, as well as [[Torture|torturing]] and intimidating suspects. Having gained Stalin's favor, Blokhin was quickly promoted and within six years he was head of the Kommandatura Branch of the Administrative Executive Department of the [[NKVD]]. During his time in this position, he served under three different NKVD chiefs: [[Genrikh Yagoda]], [[Nikolai Yezhov]] and [[Lavrentiy Beria]], two of whom he would later personally execute under Stalin's orders in addition to overseeing all mass executions undertaken by the NKVD.

As senior executioner, Blokhin had the official title of commandant of the internal prison at the Lubyanka, which allowed him to carry out his duties with a minimum of scrutiny and no official paperwork. Although most of the estimated 828,000 NKVD executions conducted in Stalin's lifetime were performed by local Chekists in concert with NKVD troikas, mass executions were overseen by specialist executioners from the Kommandantura. 

In addition to overseeing the mass executions, Blokhin personally pulled the trigger in all of the individual high-profile executions conducted in the Soviet Union during his tenure, including those of the Old Bolsheviks convicted at the Moscow Show Trials; Marshal of the Soviet Union Mikhail Tukhachevsky (convicted at a secret trial); and two of the three fallen NKVD Chiefs (Genrikh Yagoda in 1938 and Nikolai Yezhov in 1940) he had once served. He was awarded the Badge of Honor for his service in 1937.