1936-1938 - The Yezhovschina

• Yagoda had not shown much enthusiasm for the show trials and dismissed them as "nonsense".
• Stalin believed in the show trials and wanted an escalation in the level of state terror in order to consolidate his political control and Yezhov shared this vision.
• Yezhov had undermined Yagoda behind the scenes by cultivating a strong relationship with Stalin.

  • He was totally loyal to Stalin, who called Yezhov his "blackberry".
• Yezhov was a workaholic who was initially popular with the most of the leading Party members.
• Yezhov oversaw the most bloodthirsty period of the Terror, earning himself the nickname of the "poisoned dwarf" at 4ft 11 inches.
• The period of 1936-38 over which Yezhov lead the NKVD is known as the "Yezhovschina".
• Yezhov admitted that the wave of Terror about to be unleashed would result in many innocent victimes.

  • "We are launching a major attack on the enemy. Better than 10 innocent people should suffer than 1 spy get away."
• In July 1937, Yezhov drew up an arrest list of 250,000 "anti-Soviet elements" including scientists, writers, musicians, administrators and managers.
• Yezhov implemented the quota system whereby each region had to arrest a certain number of "enemies of the people".
• Yezhov even stated that 28% of those arrested should be shot while the remainder should be sentenced to 10 years hard labour.