Alexander Shelepin

Alexander Nikolayevich Shelepin was a Soviet politician and intelligence officer. A long-time member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Shelepin served as a First Deputy Premier, a full member of the Politburo and as the chairman of the KGB from December 1958 to November 1961. Even after ostensibly leaving the KGB, he continued to hold considerable influence over the agency well until 1967 through his protégé, Vladimir Semichastny, who succeeded him as KGB Chairman.