Ryumin was born in a peasant village in the Kuban area . Reputedly , his family were wealthy farmers , his brother and sister were convicted thieves , and his father in law fought against the Bolsheviks in the White Army commanded by Admiral Kolchak . Despite his background , he survived the wholesale arrests of ' kulaks ' instigated by Josif Stalin , and by about 1931 was working as bookkeeper on a collective farm in the Urals . His next break came after Nikolai Yezhov ordered the mass arrest of NKVD officers suspected of loyalty to his predecessor , Genrikh Yagoda in 1937 , when Ryumin joined the NKVD as a bookkeeper . He worked for SMERSH during the war , and in 1948 was transferred to the Department for Specially Important Cases , within the MGB
wholesale arrests
Dekulakization
Mikhail Ryumin