Background

Nikolai Ivanovic Yezhov was the head of the NKVD and the right-hand man of Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge, the bloody campaign of Stalin to consolidate all power over Soviet Russia. During the purge, millions of political opponents, mainly Trotskyists, were summarily executed or sent to Gulags and death camps, and hundreds of thousands of political opponents were tortured or deported. The purge was mainly aimed at removing the influence of Leon Trotsky, one of the founders of the Soviet Union and communism in Russia. The main architect of this purge was a sickly man named Nikolai Yezhov, who was referred to as the “Bloody Dwarf” even by his fellow comrades. Nikolai Yezhov was only 151 cm in height (or 4 feet 9 inches) and a sadistic man so his comrades were spot on with their name calling.

Nikolai Yezhov’s Early Life

Nikolai Yezhov was born on 1st of May, 1895, into an affluent family in St. Petersburg to a Russian father and a Lithuanian mother. He did not finish his education and dropped out when he was in elementary school. Not much is known about his early life because he always kept it a secret, fearing discrimination since he hailed from a well-to-do background.

In his early years, he did a number of odd jobs, including as a musician and as a brothel worker, before finally joining the Bolsheviks in 1917. After joining the communist party, Yezhov would lie about his affluent background and claim that he belonged to a peasant family. He fought for the red army but due to poor health he started doing clerical jobs for the party.

Ascension to Power

Nikolai Yezhov would go on to rise through the ranks of Soviet bureaucracy due to his obsequious and sycophantic tendencies. His loyalty to the communist cause, coupled with his readiness to executing actions swiftly led to promotions in the party bureaucracy. Reportedly, he strictly believed in carrying out orders from above without raising any questions. He became Deputy People’s Commissar for Agriculture in 1929, the head of Special Affairs, and Department of Industry in 1930, and was elected to the Central Committee in 1934, where he climbed the ranks to become the secretary of the Central Committee. From 1935 to the year of his death, he also acted as the chairman of the Central Commission for Party control.

Head of NKVD

With the appointment as the People’s Commissar of Public Affairs, he effectively became the head of the NKVD. This appointment put him in charge of the Soviet Union’s entire security apparatus, including the secret police, the intelligence agencies, the law enforcement, and the prison authority.

Stalin reportedly handpicked Yezhov to lead the purge against his detractors, including Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev, who Stalin viewed as possible threats. During the Moscow Show Trials, Yezhov forced false confessions of spying for foreign powers and plotting to kill Stalin. Kamenev and Zinoviev were both confessed under duress and were found guilty. There were sentenced to death and executed by gunshots to the back of the head.

The first task Yezhov did after that was to persecute his mentor and predecessor in office, Genrikh Yagoda, and he did it with enthusiasm, without showing even a modicum of remorse. As head of NKVD he became famous for his philosophy which he described as: “Better that ten innocent people should suffer than one spy get away.”

Better that ten innocent people should suffer than one spy get away.

Nikolai Yezhov

The Great Purge

He subsequently led the bloodiest chapter of the great purges, latter called the Yezhovshchina. Yezhov played a key role in the Great Purge, and spearheaded the mass arrests, executions, and forced labor at death camps and Gulags. He went on a zealous pursuit of Stalin’s enemies, real or imagined, and became notorious for the ruthless elimination and repression of people he arbitrarily deemed enemies of the state.

At the time of the Great Purge, Yezhov was second only to Stalin in the hierarchy of Soviet politics. He was only accountable to Stalin and committed great atrocities at the behest of the Soviet dictator. At the height of the Great Purge in 1937–1938, almost 70 percent of the high ranking officers of a number of departments were stripped of their positions and were either sent to prison or summarily executed.

Additionally, innumerable ordinary Soviet citizens were either exiled to Gulags in Siberia, executed, or tortured, usually on flimsy or non-existent evidence. During this time, thousands of innocent people were punished just to meet Stalin and Yezhov’s arbitrary quota of arrests and executions.

Mass Repression

In the two years between 1936 and 1939, approximately 1.3 million people were arrested and close to 700,000 were executed by Yezhov’s NKVD for “crimes against the Soviet Union”. The Gulags increased three times in total population during the tenure of NKVD, and hundreds of thousands of these political prisoners died due to malnutrition, diseases, and exhaustion. Commenting on this alarming number of convictions he would say: “If during this operation an extra thousand people will be shot, that is not such a big deal.”

If during this operation an extra thousand people will be shot, that is not such a big deal.

Nikolai Yezhov

Little did he know that the fate head condemned thousands of people to awaited him at the end of the road.

The Downfall of Nikolai Yezhov

Despite his unwavering loyalty to Stalin and his cult of personality, Stalin soon turned on Nikolai Yezhov and he would fall victim to the same purges he helped to orchestrate for Stalin. His downfall can be traced backed to a seemingly uneventful party meeting in 1937 when Nikolai Bukharin proclaimed that the country was not governed by the party but by the dyad of Stalin and Yezhov. This was, of course, far from the truth; only Stalin ruled the country and he chose people to assist him when circumstances suited. And when circumstances did not suit? Well, the answer lies in the fate of Yezhov.

The paranoid Stalin, nevertheless, grew suspicious of Yezhov or maybe just decided that the commissar had over-lasted his usefulness and he was forced to step down as the head of NKVD and appointed as the head of water transport. A man named Lavrentiy Beria replaced him as the head of the NKVD.

In 1938, Yezhov was accused of conspiracy against the Soviet Union, being a traitor, engaging in espionage at the behest of Poland, Germany, and Japan was subsequently and arrested. He was further accused of conspiring to organizing a coup against Stalin. While awaiting trial, he was incarcerated in the Sukhanovka Prison, an NKVD facility especially designed for the dangerous enemies of the state.

Charges Brought Against Nikolai Yezhov

He was accused of spying on behalf of Poland, Germany, Japan, and England, brewing a conspiracy within the NKVD, organizing a coup, carrying out a number of extra-judicial murders, and engaging in sodomy. The crime of homosexuality which was punishable according to Soviet law and Yezhov was guilty at least on this count as he was a known promiscuous bisexual.

While denying the charges he warned against traitors and enemies of people, stating, “I purged 14,000 Chekists, but my enormous guilt lies in the fact that I purged so few of them. All around me were enemies of the people, my enemies.

He consulted with Stalin on every detail and had a servile devotion to him so almost all of the charges were baseless. He did commit a lot of atrocities but nothing without the approval of Stalin.

I purged 14,000 Chekists, but my enormous guilt lies in the fact that I purged so few of them. All around me were enemies of the people, my enemies.

Nikolai Yezhov

Sentence

He was told that if he confessed to the crime and accepted admission of guilt, he would be spared the bullet, but Yezhov knew the game too well; he was an old NKVD dog after all. Dozens of “informants” whom Yezhov had irked with his brutal repression back during his NKVD days testified that he was a foreign agent and an enemy of the people.

Yezhov refused to confess but after going through brutal torture – an old NKVD trick he himself had used on thousands of people – he “confessed” to everything. Yezhov was found guilty of organizing a number of unlawful murders of several persons, including his wife. He was sentenced to “the highest measure of criminal punishment, to be shot, with confiscation of his personal belongings”. Upon hearing the sentence, he started trembling and falling sideways. He appealed to Stalin for mercy but his request was shot down by his former comrade and boss.

Final Statement of Nikolai Yezhov

Yezhov knew his fate was sealed and did not expect to be spared so he made his final statement. Reportedly, he made five requests before his execution: to be shot peacefully, without torture or suffering; not to prosecute his nephews; to take care of his mother and daughter; and lastly, to tell Stalin that he loved him. His last statement was specifically for Stalin and it vowed his devotion to still even in death. His last statement read: “Let Stalin know that I am a victim of circumstances and that it is not impossible that enemies of the people I have overlooked have had a hand in this. Let Stalin know that I shall die with his name on my lips.”

Tell Stalin that I will die with his name on my lips.

Nikolai Yezhov’s final statement

Execution

Nikolai Yezhov was executed on February 4, 1940, in a special execution room in the NKVD headquarters. The execution room where he would be shot to death had a slanting floor with walls of logs to stop bullets from ricocheting, a work of a sadistic man; it was designed by Yezhov himself while he was the head of NKVD. He would die falling into the pit he had dug for others – quite literally, in a sense. But instead of a pit, it was an execution room.

According to witnesses, Nikolai Yezhov died a cowardly death. Upon hearing that his appeal had been rejected, he became hysterical and started weeping, hiccuping, and trembling. He had to be dragged along the floor by his hands and then forcibly positioned against the wall. Apparently, the man who was infamous for his cruelty and was nicknamed “Bloody Dwarf” did not like it when he had to reap what he had sown.

He was shot in the back of the head as it was the manner of execution in the Soviet Union. His body was encased in an iron case and was then taken to a crematorium where he was cremated. The remains were thrown into a mass grave at the Donskoi Cemetery in Moscow. Neither the newspapers nor the radio would announce the death of Nikolai Yezhov; even his pictures were sent to the dustbins of history. His death went almost unnoticed and his name only started appearing after the De-Stalinization reforms of the 50s.

Conclusion

Yezhov was an archetype of mediocrity with an aggravated case of inferiority who always needed flattery and who had a sadistic inclination towards people around him. He was also a product of a system where murder and torture had become the norm.

Today, Nikolai Yezhov lives in infamy for his roles in the communist regime and his actions in the Great Purges during which millions of people suffered. His case was reexamined in the 90s as part of a De-Stalinization program that aimed to rehabilitate the images of people who were wrongfully accused and executed. He was found guilty and was not exonerated. He was unquestionably a vile man who inflicted torture and death upon innumerable people with relish, and the type of person who would go to any lengths to get their way. However, his guilt toward humanity was not greater than that of Stalin and his other comrades.