Nikolai Yezhov

**Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov** (Russian : Николай Иванович Ежов : May 1, 1895 in St Petersburg, Russian Empire – February 4, 1940 in Moscow, RSFSR, Soviet Union) was the leader of the Soviet secret police (the NKVD). He worked for Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938, during the Great Purge.

Yezhov was born on May 1, 1895 in the Russian Empire. His exact birthplace is uncertain. It may have been in St Petersburg, Russia, or in the Lithuanian cities of Veiveriai, Marijampolė, or Kaunas in Imperial Russia.

## Career

Yezhov joined the Bolsheviks in April 1917, led by Vladimir Lenin a few months before the October Revolution. He was known as a determined loyalist of Joseph Stalin. In 1935 he wrote a paper in which he argued that political opposition must eventually lead to violence and terrorism. This became part of the ideology behind the Purges.

He became head of the NKVD in early 1937, after the dismissal of Genrikh Yagoda. Under Yezhov, the purges reached their worst. Around half of Soviet political and military leaders were exiled or shot, along with hundreds of thousands of others suspected of disloyalty or wrecking.

## Arrest & execution

Eventually, in November 1938, Stalin dismissed Yezhov from his post and demoted him to the post of Commissar of Water Transport.

Less than a year later, Yezhov was arrested and put on trial for excesses committed during the Purges. In his defence, Yezhov said that he regretted only that he had not punished enough counter-revolutionaries.

Yezhov was found guilty and was probably executed secretly in 1940.

## Infobox (officeholder)

- **name**: Nikolai Yezhov
- **native name**: Николай Иванович Ежов
- **native name lang**: ru
- **imagesize**: 199px
- **caption**: Yezhov in uniform
- **nickname**: (Blackberry)
Iron Hedgehog
- **order2**: People's Commissar for State Security
- **term start2**: 27 January 1937
- **term end2**: 25 November 1938
- **order1**: NKVD, People's Commissar for Internal Affairs
- **term start1**: 26 September 1936
- **term end1**: 25 November 1938
- **predecessor1**: Genrikh Yagoda
- **successor1**: Lavrentiy Beria
- **order**: People's Commissariat of Water Transport, People's Commissar for Water Transport
- **term start**: 8 April 1938
- **term end**: 9 April 1939
- **predecessor**: Nikolay Pakhomov
- **successor**: None (position abolished)
- **office3**: Candidate member of the 17th Politburo of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), 17th Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Politburo
- **term start3**: 12 October 1937
- **term end3**: 3 March 1939
- **birth name**: Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov
- **office4**: Member of the 17th Politburo and the 17th Secretariat of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), 17th Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Secretariat
- **term start4**: 1 February 1935
- **term end4**: 3 March 1939
- **birth place**: St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
- **death place**: Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
- **citizenship**: Soviet people, Soviet
- **party**: Communist Party of the Soviet Union
- **spouse**: Antonia Titova (1919-1930)
Yevgenia Feigenberg (1930-1938; her death; 1 child)
- **children**: Natalia Nikolaevna Yezhova, later Natalia Khayutina (adopted)
- **signature**: Nikolai Yezhov Signature 1938.png