Volgin was born sometime between 1905 and 1914, and later became a boxing champion as a young adult.[2] During World War II, he served in the domestic branch of the Soviet Secret Police, NKVD, stationed at the rear of the Red Army, and charged with punishing deserters. During the war, Volgin gained a reputation as the most brutal and cold-blooded of the Soviet spymasters. He took part in the Katyn massacre, in which the NKVD murdered over 20,000 Polish officers, where he often removed the prisoners' blindfolds before beating them to death, placing the blame on a prisoner revolt to allay any fears. He was also implied to be involved in similar massacres in Ukraine and Belarus during anti-guerrilla operations, boasting afterwards that he had personally "disposed" of over 100,000 anti-communist activists. Volgin was later involved in putting down the unrest in East Germany in 1953 and Hungary in 1956. Volgin GRU. Volgin alongside some GRU soldiers. Prior to 1964, Volgin learned of the Philosophers' Legacy following his father's death, and illegally inherited a microfilm containing records of the enormous cache of funds.[4][5] After then-President John F. Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, and Khrushchev's resulting weakening, Volgin then conspired with the Brezhnev faction, anti-government groups, and the military to overthrow the Khruschev regime and seize power via installing Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin in his place. Volgin later used the Legacy, as well as the help of the anti-Khrushchev faction led by Brezhnev, to construct the Groznyj Grad-fortress in the mountains of Tselinoyarsk as well as convert an abandoned prison facility into the Granin Design Bureau, and presumably procured the blueprints for the Objekt 279 tank, after the project was shelved for being too costly. He used the Legacy to build at least eight of them.[6] He also hired Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin to develop his designs for a walking tank when Khrushchev sided with Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov's Shagohod. However, after it became apparent that Granin's idea was not producing the results he desired, Volgin was forced to turn to Sokolov's Shagohod idea, despite the latter being on Khrushchev's side.[7] At some point, Volgin became acquainted with GRU major Ivan Raidenovitch Raikov, who became his favorite soldier, as well as his lover. In large part because of this, he protected Raikov from the hands of the Soviet military tribunal, regarding the latter's frequent abuse of the soldiers under his command.