Zelman Isaevich Passov (; 1905 – 15 February 1940) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

security officer who headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service, then part of the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

from June to November 1938. In October 1938, he was arrested on charges of "participating in an anti-Soviet conspiracy". He was shot on the night of 15 February 1940. He was executed a year and a half later. Passov originally joined the secret police, the

GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed for digital image processing and to accelerate computer graphics, being present either as a discrete video card or embedded on motherboards, mobile phones, personal ...

, in 1922. He received the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

in 1937.

Early life

In the OGPU

Promotion and Downfall

Awards

(1937)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Passov, Zelman 1905 births 1940 deaths Recipients of the Order of Lenin NKVD officers Jews executed by the Soviet Union People executed by the Soviet Union by firing squad Great Purge victims from Russia Soviet Jews in the military