Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov (24 April 1908, Moscow – 19 December 1954, Moscow; Colonel General), was a high level Soviet security organs official, from 1943 to 1946 the head of SMERSH in the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense, and from 1946 to 1951 Minister of State Security or MGB (ex-NKGB). Abakumov was a notoriously brutal official who was known to torture prisoners personally.