Ivan Aleksandrovich SEROV. Said to be a close friend of Stalin, SEROV was a GPU/NKVD veteran who became Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs under Beria and was one of those few to survive the purge of Beria's adherents, becoming Chairman of the Committee of State Security. In the 1950s for a time SEROV was head of the KGB, and then moved to be head of Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU)