User:Paris1127/Murder of Vyacheslav Afanasyev

The murder of Vyacheslav Afanasyev, also known as the Murder at Zhdanovskaya (Убийство на «Ждановской»), refers to the robbery and assault of KGB Major Vyacheslav Afanasyev in a Moscow Metro station by members of the Soviet Militsiya on 26 December 1980 and his death in a hospital on 1 January 1981. The investigation of Afanasyev's death caused conflict between the Militia (under the MVD of General Nikolai Shchelokov) and KGB (under Chairman Yuri Andropov), itself a proxy war for who would succeed Leonid Brezhnev as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Victim
The victim, Major Vyacheslav Vasilievich Afanasyev (Вячеслав Васильевич Афанасьев), was born in Ryazan, Ryazan Oblast, on 26 December 1940. Major Afanasyev was a veteran of the Kremlin Regiment and a graduate of the Dzerzhinsky Higher School of the KGB. Though officially he worked for the KGB's 4th Main Directorate, he held a high position in its 8th Main Directorate, which focused on overseas communication and cryptography. He was married and had a daughter.

Encounter
26 December 1980 was Major Afanasyev's 40th birthday, and he had celebrated with friends. He boarded the Metro's Tagansko–Krasnopresnenskaya line at Ploshchad Nogina station (now Kitay-gorod), traveling in the direction of Zhdanovskaya (now known as Vykhino, at the time the terminus of the line). Afanasyev, who was inebriated, was carrying food rations that included a smoked sausage, Bulgarian tomatoes, cognac, and vodka.