Vitaly Vasilyevich Fedorchuk (russian: Виталий Васильевич Федорчук; uk, Віталій Васильович Федорчук, translit=Vitalii Vasylovych Fedorchuk; 27 December 1918 – 29 February 2008) was a Ukrainian

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

security and intelligence officer and politician.

Early life and education

Born in 1918 to a poor Ukrainian peasant family in the village of Ogievka, located in the Zhitomir region of

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, Fedorchuk started working at a local newspaper at the age of 16. He was called up for military service in 1936 and graduated from the Military Signals and Communications School in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

. Initially a signals officer in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

, in 1939 he was recruited by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

as a full-time operative.

Security and intelligence officer

At the beginning of his career as a state security officer, Fedorchuk was assigned to the People's Republic of Mongolia, where he fought in the victorious

Battle of Khalkhin Gol The Battles of Khalkhin Gol (russian: Бои на Халхин-Голе; mn, Халхын голын байлдаан) were the decisive engagements of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts involving the Soviet Union, Mongolia, ...

against the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. He then served as special assistant to the operational commissar of the Special Department of the

of the

Urals Military District The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

. After the start of the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sou ...

, he became deputy chief of the Special Department of the NKVD attached to the 82nd Motorized Rifle Division of the

and then, from 1942 to 1943, he was chief of the Special Department of the NKVD attached to the Armor Brigades on the

North Caucasus Front The North Caucasian Front or North Caucasus Front was a major formation of the Red Army during the Second World War. The North Caucasus Front describes either of two distinct organizations during the war. First Creation The first formation wa ...

. Between 1943 and 1949 he served as deputy chief of military counterintelligence (

SMERSH SMERSH (russian: СМЕРШ) was an umbrella organization for three independent counter-intelligence agencies in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially announced only on 14 April 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Josep ...

) in

Yaroslavl Yaroslavl ( rus, Ярослáвль, p=jɪrɐˈsɫavlʲ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluenc ...

. In 1949 he was assigned as a military counterintelligence officer on the Central Group of Forces in Soviet-occupied

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. Then he worked in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

and again in Austria (since 1955 free from military occupation), in the Soviet Embassy in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, until 1967, under diplomatic cover. In 1967, he was appointed Director of the Third Directorate (military counterintelligence) of the

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

where he served until 1970. For a period of 12 years, between 18 July 1970 and 26 May 1982, Fedorchuk served as Chairman of the Ukrainian KGB. In this capacity, he led a fierce suppression of Ukrainian nationalism. He was appointed Chairman of the KGB on 26 May 1982, replacing

Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the p ...

, and served for seven months until 17 December 1982. He then became the Soviet Interior Minister in December 1982, replacing

Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and 198 ...

's man Nikolai Shchelokov. His term ended in January 1986 ( Mikhail Gorbachev had him replaced due to his opposition to the policies of the new Soviet leadership) and he was succeeded by Alexander V. Vlasov. After leaving the Interior Ministry, Fedorchuk became an Inspector at the Ministry of Defense, a largely honorary post, and then, he retired.

Death and burial

Fedorchuk died in Moscow on 29 February 2008 at the age of 89. His body was buried at

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

's Troyekurovskoye cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fedorchuk, Vitaly Vasilyevich 1918 births 2008 deaths People from Zhytomyr Oblast Soviet politicians Soviet Ministers of Internal Affairs Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1944–1989) KGB chairmen Burials in Troyekurovskoye Cemetery Republican KGB chairmen (Ukraine)