Mikhail Petrovich Frinovsky (; 7 February 1898 – 4 February 1940) served as a deputy head of the NKVD in the years of the Great Purge and, along with Nikolai Yezhov, was responsible for setting in motion the Great Purge. Biography Mikhail Petrovich Frinovsky was born in 1898 to a teacher in the village of Narovchat in the Penza Governorate of the Russian Empire. He was of Russian ethnicity. Prior to World War I, he studied in a religious Orthodox school. In January 1916, Frinovsky volunteered for the army. He served as a sergeant in the cavalry until his desertion in August the same year. He joined an anarchist group and took part in assassination of Major-General M. A Bem in 1917. In March 1917, Frinovsky began working as an accountant in Moscow. In September, he volunteered for the Red Guard. The unit under his command participated in storming of the Kremlin, during which Frinovsky was severely wounded. Between March and July 1918, Frinovsky again returned to civilian life and worked as a deputy administrator of the Hodynskaya Clinic. In July 1918, he joined the Russian Communist Party (b) and volunteered for the Red Army. Frinovsky was made a commissar of a combat unit and also head of the Special Section (the political supervisor and representative of the secret police, ChK) of the 1st Cavalry Army. In 1919, Frinovsky was transferred to the VChK. Later in the year, he became a deputy of the Special Section for the Moscow ChK. In this capacity, he participated in many operations most vital for survival of the Bolshevik regime, including actions against anarchists, as well as destruction of anarchist and rebel militias in the Ukraine. From December 1919 until April 1920, Frinovsky served in the Special Section for the Southern Front. In 1920, he was transferred to the South-Western Front, where he served as chief of the Special Section, and as deputy to the Chief of the Special Section of the 1st Cavalry Army. Between 1921–1922, he was the deputy to the Chief of the Ukrainian ChK. From 1922 to 1923, Frinovsky headed the administrative division of the Kiev GPU. From 23 June he was also head of the OGPU of the South-East. In November 1923, Mikhail Frinovsky was transferred to the Northern Caucasus and given command of the Special Section for the region. In January 1926, he became head of GPU forces.