Yezhov Nikolai Ivanovich. Iron Commissars. Yezhov

- (April 19, 1895 - February 4, 1940, Moscow, USSR) - Soviet party and statesman, General Commissioner of State Security (since January 28, 1937, January 24, 1941, stripped of his title).

In 1911, Nikolai Yezhov worked as a mechanic's apprentice at the Putilov plant in St. Petersburg. In 1913, he left St. Petersburg and spent some time with his parents in the Suwalki province, and then, in search of work, lived in other places, and even abroad, in Tilsit ( East Prussia). In June 1915, he volunteered to join the army. On August 14, Yezhov, ill and also slightly wounded, was sent to the rear. At the beginning of June 1916, Yezhov, declared unfit for military service due to very vertically challenged(151 cm), sent to the rear artillery workshop in Vitebsk.

EZHOV N. (right) Vitebsk 1916. RGASPI.

From August 1918 he worked at a glass factory in Vyshny Volochyok. In April 1919, he was called up to serve in the Red Army and was sent to the Saratov radio base (later the 2nd Kazan base), where he first served as a private and then as a census taker under the commissar of the base administration. In October 1919, he took the position of commissar of the school where radio specialists were trained, in April 1921 he became commissar of the base, and at the same time was elected deputy head of the propaganda department of the Tatar regional committee of the RCP (b).

EZHOV N.I. On right. KAZAN. 1921 RGASPI.

In July 1921 he married Antonina Titova.

On February 10, 1922, he was appointed executive secretary of the Mari Regional Party Committee. From March 1923 to 1924 - executive secretary of the Semipalatinsk Provincial Committee of the RCP(b). From 1924 to 1925 - head of the organizational department of the Kyrgyz regional committee of the CPSU (b). 1925-1926 - Deputy Executive Secretary of the Kazak Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Delegate to the XIV Party Congress (December 1925). In February 1926, he became the head of the Organizational and Preparatory Department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. From February 1927, he was an instructor in the Orgration Department until 1929. From 1929 to 1930 - Deputy People's Commissar of Agriculture of the USSR. From November 1930 to 1934, head of the Organizational and Preparatory Department. In November 1930, Yezhov met Stalin. In 1933-1934. Member of the Central Commission of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) for the “cleansing” of the party. In January-February 1934, at the 17th Party Congress, Yezhov headed the credentials committee. In February 1934, he was elected a member of the Central Committee, the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee and deputy chairman of the Party Control Commission under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. From February 1935 - Chairman of the CPC, Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Yezhov, Voroshilov, Kaganovich and Stalin go to the parade of athletes on Red Square. June 30, 1935 (RGAKFD)

In 1934-1935, Yezhov, at the instigation of Stalin, actually headed the investigation into the murder of Kirov and the Kremlin case, linking them with the activities of former oppositionists - Zinoviev, Kamenev and Trotsky. As historian O.V. Khlevnyuk testifies, on this basis Yezhov actually entered into a conspiracy against the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the NKVD Yagoda and his supporters with one of Yagoda's deputies Ya. S. Agranov, so in 1936 Agranov reported at a meeting in the NKVD:

 “Yezhov called me to his dacha. It must be said that this meeting was of a conspiratorial nature. Yezhov conveyed Stalin’s instructions on the mistakes made by the investigation in the case of the Trotskyist center, and ordered measures to be taken to open the Trotskyist center, to reveal the clearly undiscovered terrorist gang and Trotsky’s personal role in this case. Yezhov posed the question in such a way that either he himself would convene an operational meeting, or I should intervene in this matter. Yezhov’s instructions were specific and provided the correct starting point for solving the case.”

On September 26, 1936, he was appointed People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, replacing Genrikh Yagoda in this post. On October 1, 1936, Yezhov signed the first order from the NKVD on his assumption of duties as People's Commissar. The state security bodies (GUGB NKVD USSR), the police, and auxiliary services, such as departments, were subordinate to Yezhov. highways and fire department. In his new post, Yezhov was involved in coordinating and carrying out repressions against persons suspected of anti-Soviet activities, espionage (Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR), “purges” in the party, mass arrests and expulsions for social, organizational, and then on a national basis. These campaigns took on a systematic nature in the summer of 1937; they were preceded by preparatory repressions within the state security agencies themselves, which were “cleansed” of Yagoda’s employees.

Shkiryatov, Yezhov and Frinovsky on the way to Red Square. May 1, 1938 (RGAKFD)
Voroshilov, Molotov, Stalin and Yezhov on the Moscow - Volga, Yakhroma canal. April 22, 1937 (RGAKFD)

On March 2, 1937, in a report at the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, he sharply criticized his subordinates, pointing out failures in intelligence and investigative work. The Plenum approved the report and instructed Yezhov to restore order in the NKVD. Of the state security employees, from October 1, 1936 to August 15, 1938, 2,273 people were arrested, of which 1,862 were arrested for “counter-revolutionary crimes.” On July 17, 1937, Yezhov was awarded the Order of Lenin “for outstanding success in leading the NKVD bodies in carrying out government tasks »

Presentation of the Order of Lenin to Yezhov. July 27, 1937 (Pravda. 1937. July 28)

On July 30, 1937, NKVD Order No. 00447 “On the operation to repress former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements” was signed.

PERSONAL SIGNATURE OF THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSAR OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS N.I. EZHOV

To expedite the consideration of thousands of cases, extrajudicial repressive bodies, the so-called, were used. “Commission of the NKVD of the USSR and the prosecutor of the USSR” (it included Yezhov himself) and the troika of the NKVD of the USSR at the level of republics and regions.
From January 1937 to August 1938, Yezhov sent Stalin about 15,000 special messages with reports of arrests, punitive operations, requests for authorization of certain repressive actions, and interrogation reports. Thus, he sent more than 20 documents a day, in many cases quite extensive. As follows from the log of visitors to Stalin’s office, in 1937-1938 Yezhov visited the leader almost 290 times and spent a total of more than 850 hours with him. This was a kind of record: only Molotov appeared in Stalin’s office more often than Yezhov.

Yezhov played important role in the political and physical destruction of the so-called. "Leninist Guard". Under him, former members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Jan Rudzutak, Stanislav Kosior, Vlas Chubar, Pavel Postyshev, Robert Eiche, were repressed; a number of high-profile trials were carried out against former members of the country's leadership, ending in death sentences, especially the Second Moscow Trial (January 1937 ), the Military Case (June 1937) and the Third Moscow Trial (March 1938). In his desk, Yezhov kept the bullets with which Zinoviev, Kamenev and others were shot; these bullets were subsequently seized during a search of his place. During the repressions, he personally took part in torture.

A kind of cult of Yezhov as a man who mercilessly destroys “enemies” has become widespread. In 1937--1938 Yezhov is one of the most powerful Soviet leaders, in fact the fourth person in the country after Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov. Portraits of Yezhov were published in newspapers and were present at rallies. Poems were composed and posters with “iron gloves” were drawn.

Variant of the poster by B. Efimov “Yezhov’s Mittens”. July 1937 Yezhov on the podium of the Lenin Mausoleum. May 1, 1938 (Archive of the NIPC “Memorial”)

In August 1938, Lavrentiy Beria was appointed Yezhov's first deputy in the NKVD and head of the Main Directorate of State Security.

On November 19, 1938, the Politburo received a denunciation against Yezhov, filed by the head of the NKVD department for Ivanovo region V. P. Zhuravlev. On November 23, Yezhov wrote a resignation letter to the Politburo and personally to Stalin, in which he admitted himself to be responsible for the sabotage activities of various “enemies of the people” who had inadvertently infiltrated the NKVD and the prosecutor’s office. He took the blame for the flight of a number of intelligence officers and simply NKVD employees abroad (in 1938, the NKVD plenipotentiary representative for the Far Eastern Territory, Genrikh Lyushkov, fled to Japan, at the same time, the head of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR, A.I. Uspensky, disappeared in an unknown direction, etc. d.); admitted that he “took a businesslike approach to the placement of personnel,” etc. Anticipating an imminent arrest, Yezhov asked Stalin “not to touch my 70-year-old mother.” At the same time, Yezhov summed up his activities as follows: “Despite all these great shortcomings and blunders in my work, I must say that under the daily leadership of the NKVD Central Committee I crushed the enemies great...”. On December 9, 1938, Yezhov N.I. was relieved of his duties as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs and left as People's Commissar water transport. On January 21, 1939, Yezhov attended a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 15th anniversary of Lenin’s death, but was not elected as a delegate to the XVIII Congress of the CPSU(b). On April 10, 1939, Yezhov was arrested with the participation of Beria and Malenkov in the latter’s office. He was held in the Sukhanovskaya special prison of the NKVD of the USSR.

On April 24, 1939, Yezhov wrote a statement admitting his homosexual relationships. According to the statement, he treated these relationships as a vice.

On February 3, 1940, Nikolai Yezhov was sentenced by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR to an “exceptional measure of punishment” - execution; the sentence was carried out the next day, February 4, in the building of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.

In 1988, the Military Collegium Supreme Court The USSR refused to rehabilitate Yezhov

Order of Lenin - “for outstanding success in leading the NKVD bodies in carrying out government tasks” (July 1937)
Jubilee medal "XX years of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army" (02/22/1938)
Badge "Honorary Security Officer".
Order of the Red Banner (Mongolia).
By Decree of the Presidium Supreme Council On January 24, 1941, the USSR was deprived of USSR state awards and special ranks

EVIDENCE OF GUILTY :

Protocol of the NKVD Commission of the USSR No. 49 dated January 14, 1938, based on documents provided from the NKVD Novosibirsk region— 234 people were convicted, 232 of them were shot, two were sentenced to 10 years in labor camps. Of these, 31 people are residents of the Talovsky village council.

Who is this? Of course you recognized him.

One of the most odious and sinister Stalin's people's commissars, omnipotent, omnipotent, terrible and cruel. Uncompromising and consistent. Faithful Leninist and Stalinist!

In the flash of lightning you became familiar to us,
Yezhov, a keen-eyed and intelligent People's Commissar.
Great Lenin's words of wisdom
Raised the hero Yezhov for battle.
Great Stalin's fiery call
Yezhov heard with all his heart, with all his blood!

Thank you, Yezhov, for raising the alarm,
You stand guard over the country and the leader.

(Dzhambul Dzhabayev, translation from Kyrgyz)

Let's not retell the biography of this man, let's talk about his... wife.

Evgenia Solomonovna Ezhova (née Feigenberg (Faigenberg); Khayutina by her first husband, was born into the family of a rabbi.
In September 1929, in Sochi, she met N.I. Yezhov. In 1931 she married him.

Beautiful Shulamith)) Oh, how many people wanted to hug and kiss her...

Here she is with her daughter.

But is it really possible to imagine this??? Wife of the People's Commissar of the NKVD!!!
With his name, children learned to read and write...

It's scary! But it turns out not everyone... It turns out many famous people visited her bed. Writers Babel, Koltsov, polar explorer Schmidt, pilot Chkalov, writer Sholokhov.

Reports on this topic have been preserved. For example, this one

People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR
Commissioner of State
first rank security
Comrade Beria

In accordance with your order to control the writer Sholokhov under the letter “N”, I report: in the last days of May, an order was received to take control of Sholokhov, who had arrived in Moscow, and who was staying with his family at the National Hotel in room 215. Control at the specified facility lasted from 3.06. to 06/11/38. Copies of reports are available.
Around mid-August, Sholokhov again arrived in Moscow and stayed at the same hotel. Since there was an order to enter the hotel rooms on your own in your free time and, if there is an interesting conversation, accept necessary measures, the stenographer Korolev switched on to Sholokhov’s number and, recognizing his voice, told me whether it was necessary to control it. I immediately reported this to Alekhine, who ordered that control be continued. Having appreciated Koroleva’s initiative, he ordered her to receive a bonus, for which a draft order was drawn up. On the second day, stenographer Yurevich took up duty, taking notes on the stay of comrade’s wife. Yezhov at Sholokhov.
Control over Sholokhov’s number continued for over ten more days, until his departure, and during the control, an intimate relationship between Sholokhov and the wife of Comrade was recorded. Yezhova.

Deputy head of the first department of the 2nd special department of the NKVD, state security lieutenant (Kuzmin)
December 12, 1938

How so? Why? Could the bloody People's Commissar endure such humiliation? Or maybe you weren’t particularly worried about this? It is difficult to imagine that such a person could forgive such a thing. He was a typical evil dwarf. His height is, as they say, a meter with a cap. And without a cap, to be precise - 151 cm. Even against the background of not tall Stalin and Molotov, whose height was 166 cm, he looked like a midget

But, powerful midget!

There may actually be one answer. He wasn't interested in his wife! So what was the all-powerful People's Commissar interested in?

Statement from the arrested N.I. Ezhov to the Investigative Unit of the NKVD of the USSR

I consider it necessary to bring to the attention of the investigative authorities a number of new facts characterizing my moral and everyday decomposition. It's about about my old vice - pederasty.

This began in my early youth when I was apprenticed to a tailor. From about the age of 15 to 16, I had several cases of perverted sexual acts with my peers, students of the same tailoring workshop. This vice has resumed in the old tsarist army in a front-line situation. In addition to one chance connection with one of the soldiers of our company, I had a connection with a certain Filatov, my friend in Leningrad with whom we served in the same regiment. The relationship was mutually active, that is, the “woman” was either one side or the other. Subsequently, Filatov was killed at the front.

Twenty-year-old Nikolai Yezhov with an army colleague (Yezhov is on the right).

In 1919, I was appointed commissar of the 2nd base of radiotelegraph formations. My secretary was a certain Antoshin. I know that in 1937 he was still in Moscow and worked somewhere as the head of a radio station. He himself is a radio engineer. In 1919, I had a mutually active pederastic relationship with this same Antoshin.

In 1924 I worked in Semipalatinsk. My old friend Dementyev went there with me. With him, in 1924, I also had several cases of active pederasty only on my part.

In 1925, in the city of Orenburg, I established a pederastic relationship with a certain Boyarsky, then the chairman of the Kazakh regional trade union council. Now, as far as I know, he works as a director art theater in Moscow. The connection was mutually active.

Then he and I had just arrived in Orenburg and lived in the same hotel. The connection was short, until the arrival of his wife, who arrived soon after.

In the same 1925, the capital of Kazakhstan was transferred from Orenburg to Kzyl-Orda, where I also went to work. Soon F.I. Goloshchekin arrived there as secretary of the regional committee (now he works as the Head of the Warbiter). He arrived as a bachelor, without a wife, and I also lived as a bachelor. Before I left for Moscow (about 2 months), I actually moved into his apartment and often spent the night there. I also soon established a pederastic relationship with him, which continued periodically until my departure. The connection with him was, like the previous ones, mutually active.

(Goloshchekin??? And he? Philip Isaevich Goloshchekin. In publications about the execution royal family he is often mentioned: being the Ural regional military commissar, he was actually the main organizer of both the execution and the hiding of the bodies of the dead. In principle, before becoming a Bolshevik, he worked as a dental technician in Vitebsk. Since 1905 - already in the capitals, forging a revolution. Was familiar with V.I. Lenin. After the liquidation of the royal family, he was promoted: first he was the chairman of the Samara provincial executive committee, then the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, where, with fire and sword, he achieved the transfer of nomads to sedentary image life.

He ended his career as the Chief State Arbiter of the USSR. In this position, he was arrested by Beria, placed in a pre-trial detention center, where he spent two years, and during the German offensive on Moscow in 1941, along with other VIP prisoners, he was evacuated to Kuibyshev and only shot there.)

In 1938, there were two cases of pederastic connections with Dementyev, with whom I had this connection, as I said above, back in 1924. The connection was in Moscow in the fall of 1938 in my apartment after I was removed from the post of People's Commissar for Internal Affairs. Dementyev lived with me then for about two months.

Somewhat later, also in 1938, there were two cases of pederasty between me and Konstantinov. I have known Konstantinov since 1918 in the army. He worked with me until 1921. After 1921, we almost never met. In 1938, at my invitation, he began to often visit my apartment and was at the dacha two or three times. I came twice with my wife, the rest of the visits were without wives. He often stayed overnight with me. As I said above, at the same time I had two cases of pederasty with him. The connection was mutually active. It should also be said that during one of his visits to my apartment, together with my wife, I had sexual intercourse with her.

All this was usually accompanied by drinking.

I give this information to the investigative authorities as an additional touch characterizing my moral and everyday decomposition.

Central Election Commission FSB. F. 3-os. Op.6. D.3. L.420-423.

That's what he was, the glorious head of the NKVD, Stalin's eagle!
What’s interesting is that, in addition to accusations of preparing a coup and terrorist attacks against the country’s top leadership, there was also an accusation of sodomy, and it sounded like this:
“Yezhov committed acts of sodomy “acting for anti-Soviet and selfish purposes””

This is how they were, the all-powerful People's Commissars...

Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov (1895-1940). Soviet political and party leader, served as General Commissioner of State Security (1937).
He grew up in the family of a foundry worker. Got what's called "unfinished inferior" elementary education. Fluent in Lithuanian and Polish languages. Member since 1913 as part of the 172nd Lida Infantry Regiment with the rank of private. He took part in hostilities and was wounded. Demobilized in 1916, he returned as a worker to the Putilov plant. He was again drafted into the army at the end of 1916 into the 3rd reserve infantry regiment of the Northern Front. Immediately after he joined the party.
Assistant Commissioner since October 1917 In the period from November 1917 to January 1918, he served as commissar of the Vitebsk station, and also in November 1917 commanded a detachment of Red Guards. In 1919 he joined the Red Army and became secretary of the party committee in Saratov. In 1919-1921 he alternately held the positions of political instructor, commissar of the radiotelegraph school, and commissar of the radio base. In February 1922 he was transferred to the Mari Regional Committee of the RCP(b). In October 1922 he was transferred to the position of secretary of the Semipalatinsk provincial committee, later head of the regional committee department, secretary of the regional committee of the Kazakh CPSU(b). Directly under his leadership the suppression of the Basmachi rebellion in Kazakhstan took place.
Since 1927, instructor and then deputy of the accounting and distribution department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. He took an active part in the popularization of collectivization and dispossession. From 1930 he held positions in the distribution department, personnel department, and industrial department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In 1933, Yezhov received the appointment of chairman of the Central Commission for cleansing the ranks of the party. Head of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee and the Party Control Commission since February 1934. From February 1935 to March 1939 he was chairman of the Commission of the so-called party control under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. He took part in the preparation of the execution of L.B. Kameneva, G.E. Zinoviev and other prominent party figures. It is significant that Yezhov later kept the bullets from which they were killed as souvenirs.
09.26.1936 confirmed as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR. It was then that one of the most terrible periods in the so-called “Yezhovshchina” period began. By order of Stalin, Yezhov from the end of 1937. unfolds mass repressions, primarily affecting the leading economic, administrative, party and military personnel, as well as against “class aliens”.
The numbers of those repressed during this period look truly terrifying: in 1937, more than 936 thousand people were arrested and illegally convicted (about 353 thousand were shot), and in 1938 - about 630 thousand (more than 320 thousand were shot). Also, more than 1.35 million people were imprisoned in the Gulags. He supervised the purge of the ranks of the army's senior commanders.
But on November 17, 1938, a resolution was issued by the Council of People's Commissars V.M. Molotov and, in which the perversions in the work of the NKVD were noted. Yezhov, writes a letter addressed to Stalin with a request to relieve him of his duties as People's Commissar, which on November 25, 1938. was satisfied. From this period to April 1939. Yezhov is one by one deprived of all party positions. According to the denunciation of the head of the NKVD Department V.P. Zhuravlev in the Ivanovo region 04/10/1939. was arrested. He was accused of preparing a terrorist attack against Stalin and being prone to homosexuality. The verdict was the death penalty and execution. Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR for military cases in 1988. Yezhov's rehabilitation was denied.

The “Iron Commissar” was sentenced to death at the time of his appointment to a high position

“Yezhovshchina” is a biting Soviet word that appeared in the domestic press in 1939. The same people who two years earlier sang the praises of the “Iron Commissar” began to hoot contemptuously as they escorted him to trial and execution. The best of the bunch Nikolai Yezhov, personally tortured the former boss, extracting confessions of treason from him.

What happened? Why Joseph Stalin(and without him such decisions were not made) gave the order to destroy a man who fought his enemies more fiercely than anyone else?

Executioner instead of a businessman

To understand why Stalin needed Yezhov at all, it is necessary to understand who was the predecessor Nikolai Ivanovich and where did this predecessor go?

Genrikh Grigorievich Yagoda headed the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs from the creation of the department in 1934, and before that for several years he was the de facto head of the OGPU (the formal head of the Department Vyacheslav Menzhinsky last years I practically never got out of bed in my life). Member of the RSDLP since 1907, faithful comrade, unbending revolutionary, friend Dzerzhinsky and Menzhinsky, it was he who stood at the beginning of what is now called mass repression. No, even before that the times were by no means vegetarian, but Yagoda put the fight against objectionable elements not only on a mass basis, but also on a commercial basis. The Main Directorate of Camps, the Gulag, is Yagoda's masterpiece of thought: out of ordinary penal colonies and death camps, he built an elaborate production system that became a vital part of the Soviet economy.

Yagoda’s methods of work did not suit many party members; they objected to his appointment to the highest police position, but the murder Sergei Kirov in December 1934 everything was written off: the flywheel of repression was launched. The most high-profile case Yagoda’s time was the defeat of the “opposition Zinoviev - Kameneva": the bullets that were used to shoot these former leaders of the Soviet state, Yagoda kept as a souvenir. Subsequently, Yagoda took on the “criminal group Bukharin - Rykova”, but only managed to start the case: a little later he would be shot as a member of the same “criminal group”.

At the same time, Yagoda himself was opposed to executions: he treated those arrested with diligence good owner. In his view, the punitive and correctional system should have worked for the good of the country, and not wasted human material. The White Sea Canal, for the construction of which Yagoda received the Order of Lenin with the help of prisoners, was distinguished by a relatively soft (by Soviet standards) regime; there were still methods of encouraging prisoners, preferential credits for the term; the convict workers who performed best even received state awards. There is no doubt that in the West Yagoda would have become a major businessman; even from the USSR, according to some sources, he managed to arrange an illegal supply of timber to the USA with payment credited to his Swiss account.

Of course, the businessman could not complete Stalin's task - the liquidation of an entire generation of Bolsheviks in order to begin building a system with clean slate. Therefore, the executioner came to replace him.

Great Terror

Almost all members of the Stalinist elite were people of extremely short stature (the 165-centimeter Yagoda remained one of the tallest in that government), but Yezhov stood out even among them: 151 centimeters! The lack of physical data, however, did not prevent him from having incredible performance. One of the leaders of the young Yezhov wrote in the early 1930s:

“I don’t know a more ideal worker than Yezhov. Or rather, not a worker, but a performer. Having entrusted him with something, you don’t have to check it and be sure that he will do everything. Yezhov has only one, albeit significant, drawback: he does not know how to stop. Sometimes there are situations when it is impossible to do something, you need to stop. Yezhov doesn’t stop. And sometimes you have to keep an eye on him in order to stop him in time.”

In 1936, Yagoda was transferred to the People's Commissariat of Communications. Stalin then wrote to his Politburo comrades:

“We consider it absolutely necessary and urgent to appoint Comrade. Yezhov was appointed to the post of People's Commissar. Yagoda clearly was not up to the task of exposing the Trotskyist-Zinovievist bloc of the OGPU; he was 4 years late in this matter. All party workers and most regional representatives of the People’s Commissar for Internal Affairs talk about this.”

The most terrible years in the history of the USSR. Unlike Yagoda, who, apparently, did not even personally participate in the torture, Nikolai Yezhov put the beatings on stream; investigators who were not diligent enough became victims themselves. Mass repressions took place from September 1936 to October 1938.

Getting comfortable in new position Yezhov became man No. 3 in the Soviet hierarchy - he was only closer to the leader Vyacheslav Molotov. For 1937-1938 Yezhov entered Stalin's office 290 times - and average duration The meeting lasted almost three hours. This, by the way, is the answer to those who believe that Stalin “knew nothing” about torture and repression. It was impossible not to know: for example, at the beginning of 1935, 37 people in the USSR had the title of state security commissars - they occupied high positions, they were feared and considered omnipotent, the appointment of each of them was personally approved by Stalin. Of these 37, two survived until the spring of 1940.

At the same time, a second wave of repressions took place against the kulaks (by that time they had long since existed), as well as purges in national republics and autonomy. In general, during Yezhov’s work at the head of the People’s Commissariat, 681,692 people were shot on political charges alone, and even more were sentenced to long prison terms.

The most known victims of this period (in addition to the security officers themselves, among whom the most brutal purges took place) - military leaders Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Jonah Yakir, Vasily Blucher, Pavel Dybenko, physicist, economist Nikolay Kondratyev, poets Sergey Klychkov, Osip Mandelstam, Pavel Vasiliev, Vladimir Narbut, director Vsevolod Meyerhold and many, many others. Miraculously, those who would become the pride of the nation survived: Sergey Korolev, Lev Gumilev, Nikolay Zabolotsky… The absolute uselessness of these victims and the inadequacy of the initiators of terror today do not raise any doubts. Normal person I simply wouldn’t, and wouldn’t be able to, organize something like this: that’s where it came in handy.” perfect performer» Yezhov.

A real personality cult of Yezhov was organized in the USSR. They wrote about him school essays and ceremonial portraits, labor feats and ceremonial feasts were dedicated to him. Kazakh poet Dzhambul wrote:

... The enemy snake breed has been revealed
Through the eyes of Yezhov - through the eyes of the people.
Yezhov waylaid all the poisonous snakes
And smoked the reptiles out of their holes and dens.
The entire scorpion breed was destroyed
By the hands of Yezhov - by the hands of the people.
And Lenin's order, burning with fire,
Was given to you, Stalin's faithful People's Commissar.
You are a sword, drawn calmly and menacingly,
The fire that scorched the nests of snakes,
You are a bullet for all scorpions and snakes,
You are the eye of a country that is clearer than a diamond...

In April 1938, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yezhov received the post of People's Commissar of Water Transport, which, as in the case of "People's Commissar of Communications" Yagoda, became a signal of imminent disgrace.

Scapegoat

What happened, why did Stalin lose faith in the “eye clearer than a diamond”? In 1941, a year after the execution of the “iron commissar”, the “father of nations” said:

“Yezhov is a scoundrel! A decomposed man. You call him at the People's Commissariat - they say: he left for the Central Committee. You call the Central Committee and they say: he left for work. You send him to his house - it turns out he’s lying dead drunk on his bed. He killed many innocents. We shot him for this."

Of course, Stalin was cunning, and 850 hours of his meetings with Yezhov over a year and a half are true evidence of this. Stalin did not have any sudden disappointment in Yezhov. Nikolai Ivanovich was initially chosen as a disposable tool for the dirtiest work, for which other figures of that time were of little use.

Overwhelmed by complexes, envious of all men of normal height, Yezhov became exactly the person Stalin needed to first carry out repressions and then shift all responsibility for them. It seems that already at the time of Yezhov’s appointment, Stalin knew that after the “acute phase” of repressions he would be replaced Lavrenty Beria, who will work with a pacified, submissive contingent.

In November 1938, Nikolai Yezhov, who was still at large and even headed two people's commissariats, wrote a denunciation against himself to the Politburo, where he admitted responsibility for sabotage activities in the NKVD and the prosecutor's office, and his inability to interfere. Two days later, this peculiar resignation letter was accepted: just as Yezhov had baited Yagoda, Beria organized an attack on Yezhov himself. Yezhov remained People's Commissar of Water Transport, but everything was already clear: on April 10 he was arrested in his office Georgy Malenkov- by an interesting coincidence, the most good-natured, liberal member of the Stalinist guard.

Revelations of “excesses” appeared in the Soviet press - Yezhov was declared a member of a Trotskyist group that destroyed the old Bolsheviks and prepared terrorist acts.

As was expected at that time, sexual motives were added to the accusations of sabotage and espionage: Yagoda was found with a rubber phallus and pornographic cards, and Yezhov committed, as they now say, coming out: he admitted his non-traditional orientation.

And their last words at the trial were somewhat similar. When the prosecutor Andrey Vyshinsky asked: “What do you regret, spy and criminal Yagoda?”, he replied: “I’m very sorry... I’m very sorry that when I could have done it, I didn’t shoot you all.” And Yezhov bitterly stated: “I cleaned up 14,000 security officers, but my great fault is that I didn’t clean up enough of them.”

In 1937 Soviet Union literally overwhelmed by repression. The 20th anniversary of the punitive authorities was celebrated - after all, on December 20, 1917, the Russian Extraordinary Commission was formed. A report on this matter was made at the Bolshoi Theater by the future Kremlin centenarian Anastas Mikoyan. The report was unforgettably titled: “Every citizen is an employee of the NKVD.” The practice of everyday denunciation was introduced into the minds and consciousness. Denunciation was considered the norm. And Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov, who became the helm of the NKVD, is just a pawn in that terrible game for absolute power that Stalin was then leading.

Biography and activities of Nikolai Yezhov

Nikolai Yezhov was born on April 19, 1895, old style. According to some reports, his father was a janitor for the homeowner. He studied at school for only two or three years. Subsequently, when filling out questionnaires, Yezhov wrote in the “education” column - “incomplete lower.” In 1910, the teenager was sent to be trained by a tailor. He did not like the craft, but from the age of fifteen, as Yezhov himself admitted in the dungeons of the institution that he himself had recently headed, he became addicted to sodomy. Yezhov paid tribute to this hobby until the end of his life. At the same time, he showed interest in female. One did not interfere with the other. There was something to repent of, as well as something to be proud of.

A year later, the boy broke up with the tailor and entered the factory as a mechanic's apprentice. Later, like many of his peers, he was drafted into the Russian Imperial Army. First World War I found him in provincial provincial Vitebsk. It seemed that fate itself was giving the little ambitious man a chance to distinguish himself. However, Yezhov is very soon transferred from the reserve battalion to a non-combatant team. The reason is banal and simple - with his height of 151 cm, he looks bad even on the left flank.

Yezhov worked in artillery workshops, where his revolutionary activity, which official biographers loved to write about. However, historians have not been able to find any clear evidence of this activity. Yezhov joined the Bolshevik Party in May 1917. So what if it's early? He did not wait and was not cautious, like others - he accepted the new power immediately and unconditionally. After spontaneous demobilization from the tsarist army, traces of Yezhov were lost for some time.

A year and a half of his biography - “ dark time"for historians. In April 1919, he was drafted again - this time into the Red Army. But again he ends up not at the front or even in an artillery unit, but to the position of census taker under the commissar. Despite his illiteracy, he managed to establish himself as an activist, and soon received a promotion. Six months later, Yezhov became commissar of the radio school. Nothing heroic about civil war, thus, fate did not have in store for him.

His short stature did not allow him to become a real soldier. He also became an obstacle to an opera career, although Yezhov sang beautifully. Nikolai Ivanovich had a phenomenal memory - he remembered a lot by heart and firmly. Stalin's entourage was dominated by short people (how can one not recall known string Mandelstam: “And around him is a rabble of thin-necked leaders”) and Yezhov, as they say, came to court. At a certain period, Yezhov became the closest person to Stalin. He visited the Master's office every day and for a long time.

Stalin needed a man without merit to the revolution and not associated with the highest echelon of power. Yezhov was perfect. It was tested back in history with the death of Kirov in December 1934. With the hands of Yezhov, Stalin dealt with Zinoviev and Kamenev. This was a rehearsal for future great repressions. Yezhov replaced Genrikh Yagoda as Minister of Internal Affairs. He's at the peak of his career. In his hands are the fates of hundreds of thousands of those sentenced to death. The army was beheaded. Many famous military leaders led by .

Everything human gradually burned out in Yezhov. He never tried to protect anyone. Soon this man turned into a heavy alcoholic and pederast. At the same time, he knew how to be charming and to please women; after the flow of blood, he easily switched to everyday life. He and his wife, Evgenia Ivanovna Khayutina, did not have children, so they adopted three-year-old Natasha. There was an art salon in the Yezhov house; Babel, Koltsov, singers and musicians often visited.

In the end, Yezhov was appointed People's Commissar of Water Transport, and he was replaced by. On April 10, 1939, Yezhov was arrested. Shortly before this, Yezhov’s wife shot herself, probably in anticipation of the inevitable outcome. Yezhov was accused of both abuse of official position and immoral lifestyle. He himself, while admitting all the charges, regretted that he was not merciless enough towards the enemies of the people and could have shot several times more than he was allowed. Executed on February 4, 1940 by the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.

• They say that before his death, Yezhov was stripped naked and beaten mercilessly, and then shot at his lifeless body. He was surrounded in those last minutes by investigators and supervisors - those who were in awe of him when Yezhov was the all-powerful People's Commissar. A terrible and inglorious end...