Savchenko, Ivan

Ivan Tikhonovich Savchenko was a Soviet Communist Party and KGB executive. Savchenko made a career as a political officer in the Red Army during World War II. A protégé of Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev, Savchenko transferred to the Ministry of State Security in 1951. In 1952 he was promoted to the chief of the Special Services Department, in 1953 to the Chief of the KGB's Eighth Chief Directorate. His record at the national Party and KGB levels was lackluster, and 1959 he was transferred from Moscow to Chişinău as the head of the Moldavian SSR KGB. In 1967–1979 Savchenko represented the KGB in Romania and Bulgaria.