A vile Soviet state killer with the blood of more than 10,000 people on his hands has been unmasked by a Russian researcher.

Trained locksmith Ivan Nagorny - known as the Kiev Butcher - personally shot or ordered the executions in an 18-month period during Stalin's notorious purges.

Among those he himself slaughtered in a single day were 37 professors and tutors from Ukrainian universities who were sentenced to death as 'enemies of the people' on September 22 1936.

The 'trusted' Stalinist executioner was honoured two months later for his industrial-scale mass killing with a Red Star order.

The Kiev Butcher, locksmith Ivan Nagorny, who personally shot or ordered the executions of 10,000 people

Joseph Stalin (right) with Nikolay Yezhov (centre), honoured the executioner with a Red Star order

This cited his 'special services in establishing the socialist way of life'.

His personal toll of death in less than two years was higher than the total executed by the United States in the entire 20th century, it is claimed.

The butcher stripped his helpless victims of political repression before they were shot - and told his team tasked with clearing up their corpses to dress in their clothes.

This was so their own outfits were not 'soiled with the blood' of the executed.

More than 80 years after Nagorny's bloodthirsty killings, his file has emerged from Soviet secret police archives held in Ukraine.

But researchers say the details of the grisly work of a host of other savage executioners - now held in Russian archives - are being blocked by the Russian FSB.

October Palace, above, was used by the forerunner of the KGB and FSB, the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del (NKVD), as an executive prison

Nagorny was not punished by secret police chief Nikolai Yezhov (above) or his deputy, Lavrenti Beria for stripping his victims. Yezhov was later shot on Stalin's orders in 1940

This includes up to 17 other barbaric state killers deployed by Stalin.

Researcher Konstantin Boguslavsky, from St Petersburg, located the details of the cruel secret police senior lieutenant Nagorny who was born in 1902.

He was described as an 'elite butcher' and 'the main liquidator in Kiev', according to Svoboda news outlet.

'I have looked through about 100 episodes of shooting in Kiev and its region,' said Boguslavsky.

'Each contained dozens and even hundreds of people – and at least three quarters of them were signed by Nagorny.

Knowing that more than 20,000 people were shot in Kiev, I can deduce that at least 10,000 were shot either by Nagorny in person or at least he took part in shooting them.'

Boguslavsky added: 'These figures are outrageous. A smaller number of people were executed in the USA during the whole 20th century than shot by locksmith Nagorny within 18 months.'

Nagorny is on record as admitting: 'There were cases when I personally gave clothes …. to employees … for the time they were dealing with the executed.

'I allowed them to wear clothes of other people so (their own) were not soiled with blood.'

But some of his underlings secretly sold clothes of the dead at pawn shops.

This came to light when a woman found clothes of her husband on sale. She knew he had been arrested but was unaware he had been executed.

Nagorny was not punished by his secret police chiefs Nikolai Yezhov and Lavrenti Beria.

Joseph Stalin and Lavrenti Beria, right, who led the Soviet network of slave-labour camps, and was one of the most hated officials during the dictator's Great Purge of the Thirties

Secret police chief Lavrenti Beria, originally from Georgia, succeeded Nikolai Yezhov. He was renowned for his sadistic enjoyment of torture

The researcher believes Nagorny's toll may be even higher, with a total of 20,000 shot by the NKVD secret police between 1936-38 in Kiev and the surrounding region.

'It is hard to count all people shot by Nagorny,' he said.

His personal testimonial said he was a 'good manager' who knew how to 'educate people'.

He performed his 'special work' in the 'internal jail' of the secret police in Kiev.

Nagorny, the son of peasants, died before his 40th birthday in disputed circumstances in 1941. One theory is that he shot himself.

His macabre file - number 3852 - was found in the archives of the SBU secret service.

The FSB has declined to supply similar details of other Soviet killers whose files are held in secret vaults in Moscow.

The agency claimed modern-day relatives of these executions could be harmed.

Release of such files would also disrupt 'the unbiased evaluation of the historic period 1937-1953'.

Researcher Konstantin Boguslavsky, from St Petersburg, located the details of the cruel secret police senior lieutenant Nagorny

Above: One of thousands of death sentences executed by Ivan Nagorny during Stalin's time in power

An attestation sheet, above, that was unearthed during the author's research into the Kiev Butcher

Ivan Nagorny also features in this document, where he served as a witness at a court hearing