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List of Soviet assassinations

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This is a list of people confirmed and alleged to have been assassinated by the government of the Soviet Union.[1] Some of the assassinations or targeted killings took place overseas.

Soviet assassinations

Assassinations confirmed or generally accepted to have been committed by the Soviet Union.

More information Target, Position ...
Target Position Date City Country Perpetrator Method
Fyodor Kokoshkin Member of the First Russian State Duma 1918-01-20 Leningrad Russian SFSR Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee Shot.
Nicholas II last Tsar of Russia 1918-07-17 Yekaterinburg Cheka Execution.[2]
Francis Cromie British naval attaché 1918-08-31 Petrograd Bolsheviks Killed in combat
Alexander Dutov Russian Cossacks 1921-02-07 Suiding China Bolsheviks Shot.[3][4]
Vladimir Nesterovich Defected Red Army commander and intelligence officer 1925-08-06 Mainz Germany GRU Poisoning.[5][6]
Pyotr Wrangel Russian White Army General 1928-04-25 Brussels Belgium Soviet agent Poisoning.
Alexander Kutepov White Army General 1930-01-26 Paris France OGPU Heart attack during kidnapping.[7]
Noe Ramishvili former Prime Minister of Georgia 1930-12-07 Paris France Shot.[8][9][10]
Sergey Kirov First Secretary of the Leningrad City Bolsheviks 1934-12-01 Leningrad Soviet Union NKVD Shot by revolver.
Faizal Maksum One of the leaders of the Basmachi movement 1935-??-?? Kashgar East Turkestan [11]
Nester Lakoba Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Abkhaz ASSR 1936-12-28 Tbilisi Georgian SSR Poisoned.[12][13]
Andreu Nin Leader of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) 1937-06-20 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid Second Spanish Republic Tortured to death.[14][15][16][17]
Aghasi Khanjian First Secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia 1937-07-09 Tbilisi Georgian SSR Shot.[18]
Georges Agabekov Defected OGPU agent 1937-08-?? Pyrenees Mountains Unsure French or Spanish side in the Pyrenees Mountains Unknown.
Ignace Reiss Soviet spy 1937-09-04 Lausanne  Switzerland Strangulation and/or machine gun.[19][20]
Kurt Landau Austrian communist, Member of the International Left Opposition 1937-09-23 Barcelona Second Spanish Republic Unknown.[20]
Yevhen Konovalets Leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists 1938-05-23 Rotterdam Netherlands Explosive hidden in box of chocolates.
Rudolf Klement Senior official in the Fourth International and longtime confidant of Trotsky 1938-07-13 Paris France Unknown. Possible beheading.[21]
Zinaida Reich Soviet actress 1939-07-15 Moscow Soviet Union Stabbing.
Jadwiga Szeptycka Archaeologist and ethnographer 1939-09-27 Prylbychi Second Polish Republic Shot.[22]
Leon Trotsky Soviet politician and Marxist revolutionary theorist 1940-08-21 Coyoacán Mexico Exsanguination from attack by ice pick[23]
Nikolai Koltsov Soviet biologist 1940-12-02 Leningrad Soviet Union Poisoning.[24]
Mairbek Sheripov Chechen nationalist 1942-11-07 Chechnya Soviet Union Soviet security force Soviet reprisal raid.
Wilhelm Kube Generalkommissar of Weissruthenien 1943-09-22 Minsk Soviet Union Yelena Mazanik Timed explosive.
Solomon Mikhoels Soviet actor and the artistic director of the Moscow State Jewish Theatre. 1948-01-13 MGB Death staged as traffic accident.[25]
Khasan Israilov Chechen nationalist 1944-12-29 Chechnya Soviet security force Unknown.
Yurii Lypa Ukrainian nationalist 1944-08-20 Shutova Ukrainian SSR NKVD Tortured to death.[26]
Konstantin Volkov Soviet diplomat and NKVD officer 1945-09-?? Istanbul Turkey Disappeared from his post.
Isaiah Oggins American-born spy for the Soviet secret police 1947-??-?? Norilsk Russian SFSR Poisoned with curare.[27][28]
Theodore Romzha Bishop of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo 1947-10-31 Uzhhorod Ukrainian SSR Poisoned with curare.[29][30]
Wolfgang Salus Czechoslovak Trotskyist 1953-03-05 Munich West Germany KGB Poisoned.[31][32]
Alexander Trushnovich Chairman of the Committee for Aid to Russian Refugees, leader of the National Alliance of Russian Solidarists 1954-04-13 West Berlin West Germany Choked to death during botched kidnapping.[33]
Danylo Skoropadskyi Leader of the Hetmanite movement 1957-02-23 London United Kingdom Poisoned with air gun.[34][35]
Lev Rebet Leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists 1957-10-10 Munich West Germany Poisoning with vapor gun.[36]
Imre Nagy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Hungary 1958-06-16 Budapest Hungary Soviet show trial Execution.
Stepan Bandera Leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists 1959-10-15 Munich West Germany KGB Poisoning by cyanide gas.[36]
Nicholas Shadrin Defected Soviet naval officer 1975-12-20 Vienna Austria KGB Accidental forced overdose during kidnapping.[37][38][39]
Mohammed Daoud Khan President of Afghanistan 1978-04-28 Kabul Afghanistan Afghanistan KGB / PDPA Shot.
Georgi Markov Bulgarian dissident journalist 1978-09-11 London United Kingdom KGB Poisoning by ricin-filled pellet by Bulgarian umbrella.[40]
Hafizullah Amin President of Afghanistan 1979-12-27 Kabul Afghanistan Afghanistan Targeted assault on the Tajbeg Palace (see: Operation Storm-333)[41][42]
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Alleged assassinations

Assassinations alleged or suspected to have been carried out by the Soviet Union.

More information Target, Position ...
Target Position Date City Country Perpetrator Method
Nikolay Vtorov Russian industrialist 1918-05-20 Moscow Russian SFSR Bolsheviks Unknown.[43]
Juliet Stuart Poyntz CPUSA member and soviet intelligence agent 1937-06-03 New York United States NKVD Possible execution.[44]
Lev Sedov Leon Trotsky's eldest son 1938-02-16 Paris France Shot.
Walter Krivitsky Defected Soviet intelligence officer 1941-02-10 Washington, D.C. United States Shot by revolver.[45]
Arkadi Maslow Leading figure in the Communist Party of Germany 1941-11-20 Havana Cuba Shot.[46]
Leonid Karas Belarusian writer and journalist for Radio Liberty 1954-09-?? Munich West Germany KGB Drowning.[47]
Abdurrahman Fatalibeyli Defected Soviet army major; CIA agent and later chief of the Azerbaijani desk for Radio Liberty 1954-11-22 Munich West Germany Strangulation.
Ilie Motrescu Romanian writer 1969-07-26 Near Krasnoilsk Ukrainian SSR Unknown.[48]
Alla Horska Ukrainian Soviet dissident 1970-11-28 Vasylkiv Shot and disguised as a murder-suicide.[49][50]
Sultan Ibraimov Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan 1980-12-04 Cholpon Ata Soviet Union Shot twice in the head.
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Attempted assassinations

More information Target, Position ...
Target Position Date City Country Killer Method
Indalecio Prieto Minister of the National Defence 1937 Bilbao Second Spanish Republic NKVD Unspecified.[17]
Georgiy Okolovich Anti-communist dissident 1954 Frankfurt West Germany KGB Cigarette case disguised poison gun.[51][52]
Nikolai Khokhlov Soviet defector 1957-09 Frankfurt West Germany Poisoning with thallium.[53][36]
Vladimir Kostov Bulgarian journalist 1978-08-26 Paris France Poisoning with Bulgarian umbrella.[54]
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