Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him

Promises to spare family members were broken. Within days Kamenev’s wife, who was also Trotsky’s sister, was in the Lubianka. The worst fears of the right wing were confirmed. Piatakov, Orjonikidze’s right-hand man in the Commissariat for Heavy Industry, was, at Stalin’s insistence, moved to the Urals, a prelude to arrest. Bukharin and Rykov were told that “the investigation had not found a legal basis for holding them criminally responsible,” a hint to both of them that this basis would soon be found. Within days of the executions, Kaganovich told Stalin, “I have the impression that perhaps Bukharin and Rykov did not maintain a direct organizational link with the Trotsky–Zinoviev bloc, but in 1932–3 and perhaps afterward they were informed of Trotskyist business. The right clearly had its own organization.” Kaganovich claimed that in purging Trotskyists from the railways, his remit as commissar for transport, he had uncovered right-wing saboteurs, too.

On September 25, 1936, Stalin finally pounced on Genrikh Iagoda. Together with Andrei Zhdanov, in whose hand the directive was written, and using a channel closed to the NKVD, Stalin telegraphed Kaganovich, Molotov, and the rest of the Politburo:

One. We deem it absolutely essential and urgent to appoint Comrade Ezhov to the post of commissar of internal affairs. Iagoda [not Comrade Iagoda] has blatantly shown himself not to be on top of his job in exposing the Trotsky-Zinoviev bloc. OGPU is four years late in this business. All the party workers and most of the provincial representatives of the NKVD are saying this. Agranov can stay as Ezhov’s deputy in the NKVD. Two. We deem it essential and urgent to remove Rykov from the Commissariat of Communications and to appoint Iagoda to the post. We think this needs no explaining since it is clear as it is.

Four. As for the Party Control Commission, Ezhov can be left concurrently as its chairman, providing he gives nine tenths of his time to the NKVD. . . .

Five. Ezhov agrees to our proposals.

The Politburo was overjoyed: Kaganovich wrote immediately from his spa to Orjonikidze: “Our latest main news is Ezhov’s appointment. This the remarkably wise decision of our Parent [as Kaganovich now called Stalin] has come to fruition and has had an excellent reception in the party and country.”⁴⁷ The coup was carefully prepared: Ezhov had talked to Agranov, whose loyalty to his chief Iagoda was frayed. Agranov later reported, “Ezhov summoned me to his dacha. I must say that this meeting was conspiratorial. Ezhov passed on Stalin’s remarks about faults which the investigation had allowed to happen with the Trotskyist center case and instructed me to take measures....”⁴⁸

Stalin sent Iagoda a separate telegram. Iagoda was too clever a rat not to smell the poison in the sweet:

To Comrade Iagoda. The Commissariat of Communications is a very important business. This commissariat has defense significance. I don’t doubt you will be able to put it on its feet. I ask you particularly to agree to work in the Commissariat of Communications. Without a good commissariat we feel helpless. It can’t be left in its present state. It has to be put on its feet urgently. I. Stalin.

For a little while Iagoda kept his rank of general commissar of state security and Kaganovich was worried that the NKVD might remain loyal to him. Kaganovich told Stalin on October 14, on the eve of the latter’s return to Moscow: