The story of Stalin’s executioner who shot more than 10,000 people
He can rightly be considered the “bloody executioner” of the Stalinist regime. For more than 20 years, Pyotr Ivanovich Maggo removed people who were inconvenient for the regime. During his “career” he destroyed more than 10,000 lives in the basements of the Lubyanka prison.
“Bloody Maggo” – this is how he was called in the inner circles of Stalin’s entourage. What awaited him before he died?
Pyotr Ivanovich Maggo was born in 1879 in the Latvian city of Dinaburg. The son of ordinary peasants graduated from only 2 grades, and then served in military service in Siberia. In 1905, he took an active part in suppressing the uprising against the monarchical regime.
He joined the Bolsheviks
The First World War began and Pyotr Ivanovich went to the volunteer front, and in 1919 he joined the Bolsheviks and began to work in the Cheka. The man was extremely balanced, introverted and did not like to talk about his work, and his stable psyche and special brutality made him a “good specialist”.
In the Cheka, he worked in a special team that found all the people who were inconvenient for the authorities and was engaged in their destruction. Some time passed, and Maggo was promoted, and now Pyotr became the warden of a special internal prison, which was located at the intersection of Bolshaya Lubyanka and Varsonofievsky Lane.
Piotr Maggo also worked as a warden for a short time, for his serious attitude to work and discipline he was promoted and became the head of the internal prison. It was there, in the building of the former insurance company, that all the terrible crimes of the bloody executioner were committed.
“He Liked the Torment of People”
The basement was almost underground, had no windows, and thick walls muffled all screams and gunshots. The execution room was almost empty, with only bunks and guards on the stairs.
People were shot by special people, but Pyotr Ivanovich took an active part in “regime measures”, and all because he liked it, he liked the torment and pain of people. Nothing was more satisfying than the suffering and screams of innocent people.
The cold-bloodedness and cruelty of this man is amazing, he taught novice shooters how and where to shoot so as not to get dirty with blood, and then went to celebrate the end of his work with a delicious lunch and plenty of alcohol.
“Record holder for the number of lives”
Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev were shot personally by Pyotr Maggo, and this is only a small part among all the crimes of the bloody executioner. He loved his job so much that he could work seven days a week and on holidays, shooting 10-15 people every day.
To understand the full status and importance of this man for the regime of that time, it is worth thinking about the figures: for 11 years of prison work, the executioner shot more than 10,000 people!
For “successful” work, the hero was entitled to awards, Pyotr Ivanovich had as many as several:
- Badge “Honorary Chekist”
- Order of Lenin
- 2 Orders of the Red Banner
One of the officers of that prison told in his diary:
To somehow drown out the smell of blood and gunpowder, I had to pour cologne on myself. The work was difficult, after the shift we could barely stand on our feet, so a large amount of alcohol was simply necessary.
The fate of the Bloody Maggo
Probably, for such merits, a minimum death sentence is due, but no. In the 1940s, Pyotr Maggo’s career was over, he was fired by Lavrentiy Beria.
A large amount of alcohol had a detrimental effect on his health, so in 1941 Peter Maggo died of cirrhosis of the liver. The bloody executioner was cremated, and the ashes of Stalin’s executioner were buried in one of the Moscow cemeteries.