Background
Semichastnyi, Vladimir was born in 1917.
Head of the Committee for State Security
Semichastnyi, Vladimir was born in 1917.
Started his career in the Komsomol. Close to Aleksandr Shelepin, and succeeded him as head of Komsomol, and later as head of the Committee for State Security, November 1961-April 1967. His agreement to the replacement of Khrushchev sealed the latter’s fate by depriving him of Committee for State Security support.
Replaced by Andropov. Responsible for the vilification campaign against Boris Pasternak, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel Doctor Zhivago. Later, appointed 1st Party Secretary of Azerbaidzhan, where he is remembered as a ruthless Stalinist.