Genrikh Yagoda was a formidable leader of the Soviet Union’s secret police, the NKVD, under Josef Stalin, serving from 1934 to 1936. A committed member of the Communist Part, he was also well known for his ‘hobbies’. What were they?
Answer: Yagoda appreciated the ‘good life’: collecting fine wines, growing orchards, courting famous writer Maxim Gorky’s daughter-in-law, amassing ladies underwear, and buying German pornographic films and obscene cigarette holders.
Source: Stalin- The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore
