Statesman.
The head of the NKVD. During his two years of “Yezhovshchina”, Stalin’s Great Terror reached its peak. Over million people were imprisoned, tortured and executed. Including Yezhov himself.
Background
Lived: 1895-1940.
Born in St. Petersburg, he became a factory worker after some years of elementary education.
With his height of 151 cm and the limping of one leg, he earned a nickname “Bloody Dwarf”. Another nickname is “The Vanishing Comissar” from the posthumous photo manipulations.
Career
He served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War and on several secretarial party positions. He was elected to the Central Committee in 1934 and became a devoted associate of Stalin.
Yezhovshchina (1936-38)
Yezhov was a newcomer in the NKVD circles. Therefore he proved very suitable for Stalin to execute Great Terror. Stalin entrusted him the task of persecuting potential opponents starting with Yagoda himself.
Yezhov was rude and merciless. He launched an unlimited terror campaign. Within just two years, over 1.3 million people were arrested. Nearly 700,000 were shot for “crimes against the state”. The number of people kept in Gulags trippled.
He personally tortured Tuchachevsky and Yagoda. He had Yagoda severely beaten and stripped naked before the execution. The same was done to himself by Beria two years later.
Death
Yezhov had done a good job in killing Stalin’s enemies. But he knew too much and he was gaining too much popularity. With the rise of Beria, Yezhov understood that his time was over. He began drinking heavily and was arrested in 1938. He was tried for spying and bisexuality (probably true) and was secretly shot in 1940 in a Lublanka cellar room that he himself had once planned. His face was erased from every photograph and forgotten.
Nikolay Yezhov
Statesman.
The head of the NKVD. During his two years of “Yezhovshchina”, Stalin’s Great Terror reached its peak. Over million people were imprisoned, tortured and executed. Including Yezhov himself.
Background
Lived: 1895-1940.
Born in St. Petersburg, he became a factory worker after some years of elementary education.
With his height of 151 cm and the limping of one leg, he earned a nickname “Bloody Dwarf”. Another nickname is “The Vanishing Comissar” from the posthumous photo manipulations.
Career
He served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War and on several secretarial party positions. He was elected to the Central Committee in 1934 and became a devoted associate of Stalin.
Yezhovshchina (1936-38)
Yezhov was a newcomer in the NKVD circles. Therefore he proved very suitable for Stalin to execute Great Terror. Stalin entrusted him the task of persecuting potential opponents starting with Yagoda himself.
Yezhov was rude and merciless. He launched an unlimited terror campaign. Within just two years, over 1.3 million people were arrested. Nearly 700,000 were shot for “crimes against the state”. The number of people kept in Gulags trippled.
He personally tortured Tuchachevsky and Yagoda. He had Yagoda severely beaten and stripped naked before the execution. The same was done to himself by Beria two years later.
Death
Yezhov had done a good job in killing Stalin’s enemies. But he knew too much and he was gaining too much popularity. With the rise of Beria, Yezhov understood that his time was over. He began drinking heavily and was arrested in 1938. He was tried for spying and bisexuality (probably true) and was secretly shot in 1940 in a Lublanka cellar room that he himself had once planned. His face was erased from every photograph and forgotten.
Lavrenty Beria