Aleksandr Langfang
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Aleksandr Ivanovich Langfang (Russian: Александр Иванович Лангфанг) (1907–1990) was a Soviet torturer, security officer and Lieutenant-General in the NKVD.
Langfang was born in Brest-Litovsk, into a family of a railroad worker. The Langfang family is French by origin: his ancestors presumably remained in Russia after Napoleon's campaigns, but by the 20th century the family had become completely Russified.
He began working as a concrete worker, then a spinner's apprentice and spinner while still a teenager. In 1924 he joined the Komsomol, becoming the secretary of the cell. In 1925 he was accepted as a candidate member, and later as a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
In 1929 he was drafted into the Red Army. For a year he studied at the school for junior command staff of a separate communications company of the 3rd Crimean Rifle Division, then served as a platoon commander in the same company.
