Encyclopedia of Russian History

In April 1937, Yezhov was included in the leading five who in practice had taken over the leading role from the Politburo, and in October of that same year he was made a Politburo candidate member. In April 1938, the leadership of the People’s Commissariat of Water Transportation was added to his functions. But in fact, it was the beginning of his decline. In August, Stalin appointed Lavrenty Beria as his deputy and intended successor. After sharp criticism, on November 23, 1938, Yezhov resigned from his function as NKVD chief, though for the time being he stayed on as People’s Commissar of

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

YUDENICH, NIKOLAI NIKOLAYEVICH

Water Transportation. People close to him were arrested, and under these conditions his wife, Yevge-nia, committed suicide; Yezhov abandoned himself to even more drinking than he was accustomed to.

On April 10, 1939, he was arrested. He could not bear torture and during interrogation confessed everything: spying, wrecking, conspiring, terrorism, and sodomy (apparently, he had maintained frequent homosexual contacts). On February 2, 1940, he was tried behind closed doors and sentenced to death, to be shot the following night.

His fall was given almost no publicity, and during the ensuing months and years he was practically forgotten. Only since the 1990s have details about his life, death, and activities become known. In spite of this, during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s, he was brought up as nearly the only person responsible for the terror; the term Yezhovshchina, or the time of Yezhov, was brought into use. Some historians of the Stalin period indeed tend to stress Yezhov’s personal contribution to the terror, relating his dismissal to his over-zealousness. As a matter of fact, Stalin suspected him of disloyal conduct and of collecting evidence against prominent party people, including even Stalin himself. Others believe that he obediently executed Stalin’s instructions, and that Stalin dismissed him when he thought it expedient. See also: GULAG; PURGES, THE GREAT; STALIN, JOSEF VIS-SARIONOVICH; STATE SECURITY, ORGANS OF

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Conquest, Robert. (1990). The Great Terror: A Reassessment. London: Hutchinson. Getty, J. Arch, and Naumov, Oleg V. (1999). The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939, tr. Benjamin Sher. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Jansen, Marc, and Petrov, Nikita. (2002). Stalin’s Loyal Executioner: People’s Commissar Nikolai Ezhov, 1895-1940. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press. Khlevnyuk, Oleg (1995). “The Objectives of the Great Terror, 1937-1938.” In Soviet History, 1917-53: Essays in Honour of R.W. Davies, ed. Julian Cooper et al. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan. Medvedev, Roy. (1989). Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism, rev. and expanded ed., tr. George Shriver. New York: Columbia University Press. Starkov, Boris A. (1993). “Narkom Ezhov.” In Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives, eds. J. Arch Getty and

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

Roberta T. Manning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

MARC JANSEN

YUDENICH, NIKOLAI NIKOLAYEVICH

(1862-1933), general in the Imperial Russian Army, hero of World War I, and anti-Bolshevik leader.