Yezhov. Homosexuality, drunkenness, drug addiction, mass murder. Nikolai Yezhov: what the “bloody dwarf” really was

((All are quotes from other sites. There is unverified data.))

Climbing
Yezhov Nikolai Ivanovich. In his profiles and autobiographies, Yezhov claimed that he was born in 1895 in St. Petersburg into the family of a foundry worker. At the time of Nikolai Yezhov’s birth, the family, apparently, lived in the village of Veivery, Mariampolsky district... ...In 1906, Nikolai Yezhov went to St. Petersburg to apprentice with a tailor, a relative. The father drank himself to death and died, nothing is known about the mother. Yezhov was half Russian, half Lithuanian. As a child, according to some sources, he lived in an orphanage. In 1917 he joined the Bolshevik Party.

Height - 151 (154?) cm. Subsequently nicknamed the “bloody dwarf”.

The famous writer Lev Razgon later recalled: “A couple of times I had to sit at the table and drink vodka with the future “Iron Commissar,” whose name soon began to scare children and adults. Yezhov did not look like a ghoul at all. He was a small, thin man, always dressed in a wrinkled cheap suit and a blue satin shirt. He sat at the table, quiet, taciturn, slightly shy, drank little, did not get involved in the conversation, but only listened, slightly bowing his head.”

Dear Nikolai Ivanovich! Yesterday we read in the newspapers the verdict against a pack of right-wing Trotskyist spies and murderers. We would like to say a big pioneering thank you to you and all the vigilant People's Commissars for Internal Affairs. Thank you, Comrade Yezhov, for catching a gang of hidden fascists who wanted to take away our happy childhood. Thank you for smashing and destroying these snake nests. We kindly ask you to take care of yourself. After all, the snake-Yagoda tried to bite you. Our country and we, the Soviet guys, need your life and health. We strive to be as brave, vigilant, and irreconcilable towards all enemies of the working people as you, dear comrade Yezhov!

From a poem by Dzhambul (1846-1945), the Kazakh national poet-akyn:

I remember the past. In crimson sunsets
I see Commissar Yezhov through the smoke.
Flashing his damask steel, he boldly leads
People dressed in greatcoats attack

...
He is gentle with fighters, harsh with enemies,
Battle-hardened, brave Yezhov.

I consider it necessary to bring to the attention of the investigative authorities a number of facts characterizing my moral and everyday decay. It's about about my old vice - pederasty. Further, Yezhov writes that he became addicted to " interactive connections“With men even in his early youth, when he was in the service of a tailor, he names their surnames.

At the trial he admitted to homosexuality, but denied all other charges at the trial.

In addition to my long-term personal friendship with KONSTANTINOV and DEMENTIEV, I was connected with them by physical proximity. As I already reported in my statement addressed to the investigation, I was connected with KONSTANTINOV and DEMENTIEV in a vicious relationship, i.e. pederasty.

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, by 1938 he had become a complete drug addict.

From Yezhov’s last words at trial:

I don’t deny that I was drunk, but I worked like an ox...

Execution
On February 4, 1940, Yezhov was shot. Yezhov died with the words: “ Long live Stalin!»

Stalin: "Yezhov is a bastard! He ruined our best cadres. He is a decomposed man. You call him at the People's Commissariat - they say: he has left for the Central Committee. You call the Central Committee - they say: he has left for work. You send him to his house - it turns out that he is lying on his bed, dead drunk. A lot He killed innocent people. We shot him for it.”

Someone Ukolov: If I didn’t know that Nikolai Ivanovich had an incomplete lower education behind him, I might have thought that a well-educated person writes so smoothly and has such a dexterous command of words.

era

Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov was the most terrible figure of all during the leadership of the NKVD people's commissars, and his activities became firmly established in bloody history NKVD.

Son of a peasant woman

Kolya’s childhood was difficult. The future head of the NKVD was born in May 1895, in St. Petersburg, into a poor family. His father was a former military man from the Tula province, and his mother was from a family of peasants from Lithuania. Yezhov graduated from three classes in Mariampol and at the age of 11, his parents sent Nikolai to study a craft in the capital. According to one version, he worked at a factory, and according to another, he was an apprentice to a tailor and shoemaker. He volunteered in the First World War, where he was slightly wounded. In March (according to other sources - in August) 1917, Yezhov managed to join the Bolshevik Party and become a participant in the subsequent October coup in Petrograd.

Base Commissioner

In 1919, he was drafted into the Red Army and was assigned to a radio regiment in the Saratov region, where he began serving as a soldier and then as a clerk for the commissar. In March 1921, Nikolai Ivanovich received the position of base commissar and began to make a career.

Moving to the capital

Having successfully married Antonina Titova in 1921, Yezhov started a family. The wife is sent to Moscow for work, and Yezhov follows his wife and moves to the capital. Diligence and diligence helped to prove himself, and young Yezhov began to be sent to work for leadership positions in district and regional committees of the CPSU (b). During the XIV Party Congress, Nikolai Yezhov met Ivan Moskvin. Moskvin, who occupies a high position, noticed a hardworking fellow party member and in 1927, being the head of the Distribution Department and the Personnel Department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, invited Nikolai to take the vacant position of instructor. In 1930, Moskvin earned a promotion, and Nikolai Yezhov was appointed to manage the Organizational Distribution Department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and thanks to this he became acquainted with the leader. In 1933–1934, Nikolai Yezhov was accepted into the ranks of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) to “cleanse” party cadres. In February 1935, Yezhov received a promotion and became chairman of the CPC under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. This department was responsible for checking the activities of party workers and deciding whether they had the right to bear the high title of communist.

"Yezhovshchina"

Joseph Stalin entrusted the investigation into the murder of Kirov to Yezhov. Nikolai carried out this investigation with his usual zeal. The “Kirov Stream”, which consisted of Zinoviev, Kamenev and their associates accused of treason, led to the death of thousands of former party members. Subsequently, what everyone calls the “great terror” was launched. It is believed that over the next 1937-1938 more than 1 million people were convicted in political cases, and almost 700 thousand were given death sentences.

Yezhov's lists

Joseph Stalin, satisfied with the defeat of the opposition, decided in August 1936 that the NKVD needed a tough leader and appointed Nikolai Yezhov people's commissar. On May 1, 1937, at the May Day parade, Yezhov was on the podium on Red Square (together with people who had already had criminal cases filed against them).

At the beginning of 1938, the verdict was announced in the case of Rykov, Yagoda, Bukharin and other conspirators - execution. Yagoda himself was the last of a long list to be shot. An interesting fact is that Nikolai Yezhov kept Yagoda’s things until his death. The “Yagodinsky set” consisted of several dozen photographs of pornographic content, bullets taken from the corpses of Zinoviev and Kamenev, pornographic films, as well as rubber dildos.

Yezhov and Sholokhov

Nikolai Ivanovich was known as an extremely cruel, but very cowardly person. Sending undesirables into exile in train cars and shooting thousands, he could fawn over those to whom Stalin was not indifferent. It is known that in 1938, Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov had an intimate relationship with Yezhov’s second wife, Evgenia Khayutina (Feigenberg). Their intimate meetings took place in Moscow apartments, where wiretapping was carried out special equipment. After each meeting, the notes in detail went to the People's Commissar's desk. It is believed that Yezhov ordered his wife to be poisoned, staging a suicide. But it is possible that it really was suicide. Nikolai Yezhov decided not to get involved with Sholokhov.

Taking into custody

Having virtually unlimited power, Yezhov became more and more cruel and merciless, he personally supervised the interrogations and torture of those under arrest. Those close to Stalin began to openly fear Yezhov, rumors appeared that very soon the NKVD would shift the levers of power.

On April 10, 1939, Nikolai Yezhov was arrested. They also personally participated in the arrest. Judging by Sudoplatov’s notes, Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov’s personal file was under the personal supervision of Beria. The former People's Commissar of the NKVD was accused of conspiracy and preparation for a coup. During judicial trial Yezhov stated that he had killed fourteen thousand security officers, and said that he carried out the cleansing effort poorly. On February 4, 1940, shots rang out - Yezhov was shot

Cleaning history

Nothing was reported anywhere about the fact of the detention and execution of Nikolai Yezhov - he simply disappeared. About the fact that he disappeared and is not a Hero Soviet republic, it became clear when they began to change the names associated with his name settlements and streets. It was rumored that he fled to the Germans and became an adviser to the Fuhrer. After the death of the People's Commissar, all photographs in which he was present and posters with his image began to be retouched, and any mention of him was punished.

Nikolai Yezhov, thanks to his zeal, hard work and toughness, rose from an ordinary shoemaker's apprentice to the head of the NKVD. But this is what destroyed him. People's Commissar Nikolai Yezhov is firmly inscribed in Soviet history, as a vile and bloody executor of Stalin’s will.

Who is this? Of course you recognized him.

One of the most odious and sinister Stalinist people's commissars, all-powerful, all-powerful, 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. We are talking 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 was renewed 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 a sedentary lifestyle.

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...

People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR (1936-1938), General Commissioner of State Security (1937). One of the main organizers of mass repressions in the USSR. The year during which Yezhov was in office - 1937 - became a symbolic symbol of repression; This period itself began to be called the Yezhovshchina very early on.

Carier start

From the workers. In 1917 he joined the Bolshevik Party.

In the years Civil War- Military commissar of a number of Red Army units, where he served until 1921. After the end of the Civil War, he left for Turkestan for party work.

In 1922 - executive secretary of the regional party committee of the Mari Autonomous Region, secretary of the Semipalatinsk provincial committee, then of the Kazakh regional party committee.

Since 1927 - on responsible work in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. He was distinguished, in the opinion of some, by his blind faith in Stalin; in the opinion of others, faith in Stalin was only a mask to gain the trust of the country's leadership, and to pursue his goals in higher positions. In addition, he was distinguished by his toughness of character. In 1930-1934, he headed the Distribution Department and the Personnel Department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, that is, he implements in practice personnel policy Stalin. Since 1934, Yezhov has been the chairman of the Party Control Committee under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Head of the NKVD

On October 1, 1936, Yezhov signed the first order from the NKVD on his assumption of duties as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR.

Like his predecessor G. G. Yagoda, state security agencies (General Directorate of the GB - GUGB NKVD of the USSR), the police, and auxiliary services such as the highway department and fire department were subordinate to Yezhov.

In this post, Yezhov, in active collaboration with Stalin and usually on his direct instructions, 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 social expulsions. , organizational, and then national characteristics. These campaigns took on a systematic nature in the summer of 1937; they were preceded by preparatory repressions in the state security agencies themselves, which were “cleansed” of Yagoda’s employees. During this period, extrajudicial repressive bodies were used extremely widely: the so-called “special meetings (OSO)” and “NKVD troikas”). Under Yezhov, the state security organs began to depend on the party leadership much more than under Yagoda.

The wife of People's Commissar Yezhov was Evgenia (Sulamith) Solomonovna Khayutina. It is assumed that Mikhail Koltsov and Isaac Babel were lovers of Evgenia Solomonovna. Shortly before Yezhov's arrest, Khayutina committed suicide (poisoned herself). The adopted daughter of Yezhov and Khayutina, Natalia, after being placed in an orphanage in 1939, received her mother’s surname, under which she subsequently lived.

Under Yezhov, a series of high-profile trials against the former leadership of the country, ending in death sentences, especially the Second Moscow Trial (1937), the Military Case (1937) and the Third Moscow Trial (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.

Data on Yezhov’s activities in the field of intelligence and counterintelligence proper are ambiguous. According to many intelligence veterans, Yezhov was absolutely incompetent in these matters and devoted all his energy to identifying internal “enemies of the people.” On the other hand, under him, the NKVD authorities kidnapped General E.K. Miller in Paris (1937) and carried out a number of operations against Japan. In 1938, the head of the Far Eastern NKVD, Lyushkov, fled to Japan (this became one of the pretexts for Yezhov’s resignation).

Yezhov was considered one of the main “leaders”; his portraits were published in newspapers and were present at rallies. Boris Efimov’s poster “Hedgehog Gauntlets” became widely known, where the People’s Commissar takes a multi-headed snake, symbolizing the Trotskyists and Bukharinites, into his hedgehog mittens. “The Ballad of People’s Commissar Yezhov” was published, signed in the name of the Kazakh akyn Dzhambul Dzhabayev (according to some sources, written by the “translator” Mark Tarlovsky).

Like Yagoda, Yezhov, shortly before his arrest, was removed from the NKVD for less important post. Initially, he was appointed part-time People's Commissar of Water Transport (NKVT): this position was related to his previous activities, since the canal network served as an important means of internal communication for the country, providing state security, and was often erected by prisoners. After on November 19, 1938, the Politburo discussed a denunciation against Yezhov, filed by the head of the NKVD of the Ivanovo region, Zhuravlev, on November 23, Yezhov wrote to the Politburo and personally to Stalin his resignation. In the petition, Yezhov took responsibility for the activities of various enemies of the people who inadvertently infiltrated the authorities, as well as for the flight of a number of intelligence officers abroad, admitted that he “took a businesslike approach to the placement of personnel,” etc. Anticipating an imminent arrest, Yezhov asked Stalin “don’t 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, Pravda and Izvestia published the following message: “Comrade. Yezhov N.I. was relieved, according to his request, from his duties as People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, leaving him as People's Commissar of Water Transport." His successor was L.P. Beria, who somewhat moderated the repressions (there was a temporary abandonment of “list” campaigns, the use of special meetings and troikas) and rehabilitated some of those repressed in 1936-1938. (as part of the so-called “smear campaign”).

Arrest and death

On April 10, 1939, People's Commissar of Water Transport Yezhov was arrested on charges of “leading a conspiratorial organization in the troops and bodies of the NKVD of the USSR, conducting espionage in favor of foreign intelligence services, preparing terrorist acts against the leaders of the party and state and an armed uprising against Soviet power.” He was held in the Sukhanovskaya special prison of the NKVD of the USSR.

According to the indictment, “Preparing coup d'etat, Yezhov, through his like-minded people in the conspiracy, was preparing terrorist personnel, intending to put them into action at the first opportunity. Yezhov and his accomplices Frinovsky, Evdokimov and Dagin practically prepared a putsch for November 7, 1938, which, according to the plans of its inspirers, was to be expressed in the commission of terrorist acts against the leaders of the party and government during a demonstration on Red Square in Moscow.” In addition, Yezhov was accused of sodomy, which was already prosecuted under Soviet laws (which, however, he also committed allegedly “acting for anti-Soviet and selfish purposes”).

During the investigation and trial, Yezhov rejected all accusations and admitted that his only mistake was that he “didn’t do enough to cleanse” the state security agencies of enemies of the people. IN last word At the trial, Yezhov stated: “During the preliminary investigation, I said that I was not a spy, I was not a terrorist, but they did not believe me and severely beat me. During the twenty-five years of my party life I honestly fought with enemies and destroyed enemies. I also have crimes for which I can be shot, and I will talk about them later, but I did not commit those crimes that were charged to me by the indictment in my case and I am not guilty of them... I do not deny that drunk, but I worked like an ox... If I wanted to produce terrorist attack over any member of the government, I would not recruit anyone for this purpose, but, using technology, I would commit this vile deed at any moment...” On February 3, 1940, Ezhov N.I., the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR was sentenced to an exceptional punishment - execution; the sentence was carried out the next day, February 4 of the same year.

From the memoirs of one of the executors of the sentence: “And now, in a half-asleep, or rather, half-fainting, state, Yezhov wandered towards that special room where Stalin’s “First Category” (execution) was carried out. ...He was told to take everything off. He didn't understand at first. Then he turned pale. He muttered something like: “But what about...” ... He hastily pulled off his tunic... to do this, he had to take his hands out of his trouser pockets, and his People's Commissar's riding breeches - without a belt and buttons - fell off... When one of the investigators swung at him, in order to hit, he plaintively asked: “Don’t!” Then many remembered how he tortured those under investigation in their offices, especially Satan at the sight of powerful, tall men (Yezhov’s height was 151 cm). The guard couldn't resist - he hit me with the butt of his gun. Yezhov collapsed... From his scream, everyone seemed to have broken free. He could not resist, and when he stood up, a trickle of blood flowed from his mouth. And he no longer resembled a living creature.”

There were no publications in Soviet newspapers about the arrest and execution of Yezhov - he “disappeared” without explanation to the people. The only external sign of Yezhov’s fall was the renaming of the newly named city of Yezhov-Cherkessk to Cherkessk in 1939.

In 1998, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court Russian Federation recognized N.I. Ezhov as not subject to rehabilitation.

However, the leader was not completely confident that his dominant position was finally secured. Therefore, it was urgent to do something that could establish absolute power, for example, speed up the thesis class struggle. The head of the NKVD Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov instantly acquired the nickname Bloody Commissar, because from his light hand many people were doomed to death.

Childhood and youth

Biographical information about Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov is extremely contradictory. What is known for certain is that the future People's Commissar was born on April 9 (May 1), 1895 in an ordinary family, in which he was raised with his brother and sister.

There is no reliable information about the parents of “Stalin’s pet”. According to one version, the father of the party leader Ivan Yezhov was a foundry worker, according to another, the head of the family served in Lithuania, where he married a local girl, and then, having found his feet, got a job in the zemstvo guard. But, according to some information, Nikolai Ivanovich’s father was a janitor who cleaned the owner’s house.

Kolya visited secondary school, but only managed to study for two or three years. Subsequently, Nikolai Ivanovich wrote “incomplete lower” in the “education” column. But, despite this, Nikolai was a literate person and rarely made spelling and punctuation errors in his letters.

After school, in 1910, Yezhov went to a relative in the city on the Neva to learn tailoring. Nikolai Ivanovich did not like this craft, but he recalled how, as a 15-year-old teenager, he became addicted to homosexual pleasures, but Yezhov also caroused with the ladies.

A year later, the young man gave up sewing and got a job as a mechanic's apprentice. In the summer of 1915, Yezhov voluntarily joined the Russian Imperial Army. During his service, Nikolai Ivanovich did not distinguish himself with any merits, because he was transferred to a non-combatant battalion due to his height of 152 cm. Thanks to this physique, the dwarf Yezhov looked ridiculous even from the left flank.

Policy

In May 1917, Yezhov received a party card for the RCP (b). The biographers know nothing about the further revolutionary activities of the People's Commissar. Two years after the Bolshevik coup, Nikolai Ivanovich was drafted into the Red Army, where he served as a census taker at the radio formation base.

During his service, Yezhov showed himself to be an activist and quickly rose through the ranks: within six months, Nikolai Ivanovich rose to the rank of commissar of the radio school. Before becoming the Bloody Commissar, Yezhov went from secretary of the regional committee to head of the organizational and distribution department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

In the winter of 1925, Nikolai Ivanovich met party apparatchik Ivan Moskvin, who in 1927 invited Yezhov to join his department as an instructor. Ivan Mikhailovich gave positive characterization to his subordinate.

Indeed, Yezhov had a phenomenal memory, and the expressed wishes of the leadership never went unnoticed. Nikolai Ivanovich obeyed unquestioningly, but he had significant drawback- the politician did not know how to stop.

“Sometimes there are situations when it is impossible to do something, you have to stop. Yezhov doesn’t stop. And sometimes you have to keep an eye on him in order to stop him in time...”, Moskvitin shared his memories.

In November 1930, Nikolai Ivanovich met his master, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin.

NKVD

Until 1934, Nikolai Ivanovich was in charge of the organizational distribution department, and in 1933–1934 Yezhov was a member of the Central Commission of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) for the “cleansing” of the party. He also held the positions of Chairman of the CPC and Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In 1934–1935, the politician, at the instigation of his master, participated in a murder case. It was no coincidence that Stalin sent Comrade Yezhov to Leningrad to understand the history of the death of Sergei Mironovich, because he no longer trusted his comrade.

Kirov's death was an occasion that Nikolai Yezhov and the leadership took advantage of: without any evidence, he declared Zinoviev and Kamenev criminals. This gave impetus to the “Kirov Stream” - a rehearsal for large-scale Stalinist repressions.

The fact is that after what happened to Sergei Mironovich, the government announced the “final eradication of all enemies of the working class,” which resulted in mass political arrests.

Yezhov worked as the leader needed. Therefore, it is not surprising that on September 25, 1936, while on vacation in Sochi, Stalin sent an urgent telegram to the Central Committee with a request to appoint Yezhov to the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs.

Here, Nikolai Yezhov’s short stature came in handy, because Stalin surrounded himself with people whom he could look down on. If you believe the visitor log, then Yezhov appeared in the Secretary General’s office every day, and was only ahead of him in terms of frequency of visits.

According to rumors, Nikolai Ivanovich brought lists of people doomed to death to Stalin’s office, and the leader only checked the boxes next to familiar names. Consequently, the deaths of hundreds and tens of thousands of people were on the conscience of the People's Commissar.

It is known that Nikolai Ivanovich personally observed the execution of Zinoviev and Kamenev. And then he pulled out bullets from the corpses, which he signed with the names of those killed and kept them on his table as a trophy.

The years 1937–1938 saw the so-called Great Terror- the time when Stalin's repressions reached its apogee. This time is also called the “Yezhovshchina” thanks to the work of Stakhanov’s People’s Commissar, who replaced Genrikh Yagoda.

Supporters of Kamenev and Zinoviev, as well as “socially harmful elements” and criminals, were shot, but denunciations, contrary to popular belief, did not play a big role. Torture was also common, in which the People's Commissar personally participated.

Personal life

Yezhov was a secretive man, and many who knew about his character were afraid to establish close relationships with him, because Nikolai Ivanovich did not spare anyone - neither friends nor relatives. Even he fell into disgrace former bosses who gave Yezhov positive recommendations.

He also organized drinking parties and orgies, in which both men and women participated. Therefore, it is believed that Nikolai Ivanovich was not gay, but bisexual. Often, Yezhov’s former drinking buddies were later “declassified” as “enemies of the people.” Among other things, the People's Commissar sang well, but was unable to establish himself on the opera stage due to his physical disability.

As for his personal life, Nikolai Ivanovich’s first chosen one was Antonina Alekseevna Titova, and the second was Evgenia Solomonovna Yezhova, who allegedly committed suicide before her husband’s arrest. But, according to unconfirmed information, Nikolai Ivanovich himself poisoned his wife, fearing that her connection with the Trotskyists would be revealed. The People's Commissar did not have his own children. The Yezhov family raised an adopted daughter, Natalya Khayutina, who, after the death of her parents, was sent to an orphanage.

Death

The death of Nikolai Ivanovich was preceded by disgrace: after the denunciation (allegedly he was preparing a coup d'etat) against the People's Commissar was discussed by the government, Nikolai Ivanovich asked for resignation, blaming himself for having “cleaned up” an insufficient number of security officers, only 14 thousand people.

During the interrogation, Yezhov was beaten almost to death. Nikolai Ivanovich was arrested and...

“I also have crimes for which I can be shot, and I will talk about them later, but I did not commit the crimes that were charged to me by the indictment in my case and I am not guilty of them ...,” said Nikolai Ivanovich in the last word at the trial.

On February 3, 1940, Yezhov was sentenced to death. Before his execution, the former People's Commissar sang “The Internationale” and, according to the recollections of the Lubyanka executioner Pyotr Frolov, cried. Streets, cities and villages were named in honor of Nikolai Ivanovich, removed documentaries. True, populated areas bore the name of the People's Commissar only from 1937 to 1939.