Blokhin, who normally lived in the inner prison at the Lubyanka, where he was officially in charge with the rank of major-general, arrived in Poland at the Ostashkov Camp near the Katyn Forest. A specially built soundproof hut was built for him and his two assistants, the brothers Vasily and Ivan Zhigarev. To protect his uniform from the blood, he wore a leather butcher’s apron and a cap, and then proceeded to shoot Poles in the back of the head at the steady rate of 250 a night, for a month of nights—probably committing more individual killings than any other man in history.
