 In 1940, he took part in the killing of Polish prisoners of war – the Katyn massacre.In 1941, after the creation of the People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB), he became the head of the 2nd Directorate, responsible for counterintelligence.He personally signed a document of an interrogation on October 20, 1942 sending/placing in a gulag for 5 years a famous polish actor Eugene Bodo (Eugeniusz Junod) who died in Kotlas in 1943, due to poor conditions therein (Russian red cross document from 1992).