Silhouette as a way of organizing an artistic whole. Silhouette - what is it? Paintings with hidden silhouettes

As we know from history, most of those who sent nobles and members to France royal family to the guillotine during the Great Terror in the 18th century, and were subsequently executed themselves. There was even catchphrase, voiced by the Minister of Justice Danton, which he said before he was beheaded: "The revolution devours its children."

History repeated itself in the years when, with one stroke of the pen, yesterday's executioner could end up on the same prison bunks or be shot without trial, like those whom he himself sent to death.

A striking example of this is Nikolai Yezhov, Commissioner of Internal Affairs of the USSR. The reliability of many pages of his biography is questioned by historians, because there are many dark spots in it.

Parents

By official version, Nikolai Yezhov was born in 1895 in St. Petersburg, into a working-class family.

At the same time, there is an opinion that the father of the People's Commissar was Ivan Yezhov, who was a native of the village. Volkhonshchino (Tula province) and served his military service in Lithuania. There he met a local girl, whom he soon married, deciding not to return to his homeland. After demobilization, the Yezhov family moved to the Suwalki province, and Ivan got a job in the police.

Childhood

At the time of Kolya’s birth, his parents most likely lived in one of the villages of Mariampolsky district (now the territory of Lithuania). Three years later, the boy’s father was appointed zemstvo guard of the district city district. This circumstance was the reason that the family moved to Mariampol, where Kolya studied for 3 years at primary school.

Considering their son sufficiently educated, in 1906 his parents sent him to a relative in St. Petersburg, where he was supposed to master the tailoring craft.

Youth

Although the biography of Nikolai Yezhov states that until 1911 he worked as a mechanic's apprentice. However archival documents this is not confirmed. What is known for certain is that in 1913 the young man returned to his parents in the Suwalki province, and then wandered around in search of work. At the same time, he even lived in Tilsit (Germany) for some time.

In the summer of 1915, Nikolai Yezhov volunteered to join the army. After training in the 76th Infantry Battalion, he was sent to the Northwestern Front.

Two months later, after suffering a serious illness and a slight injury, he was sent to the rear, and at the beginning of the summer of 1916, Nikolai Yezhov, whose height was only 1 m 51 cm, was declared unfit for combat service. For this reason, he was sent to the rear workshop in Vitebsk, where he served on guards and detachments, and soon, as the most literate of the soldiers, he was appointed clerk.

In the fall of 1917, Nikolai Yezhov was hospitalized, and returning to his unit only at the beginning of 1918, he was dismissed due to illness for 6 months. He again went to his parents, who at that time lived in the Tver province. Since August of the same year, Yezhov began working for glass factory, which was located in Vyshny Volochyok.

Beginning of party career

In a questionnaire filled out by Yezhov himself in the early 1920s, he indicated that he joined the RSDLP in May 1917. However, after some time he began to claim that he had done this back in March 1917. At the same time, according to the testimony of some members of the Vitebsk city organization of the RSDLP, Yezhov joined its ranks only on August 3.

In April 1919, he was drafted into the Red Army and sent to the radio formation base in Saratov. There he first served as a private, and then as a scribe under the command. In October of the same year, Nikolai Yezhov took the position of commissar of the base where radio specialists were trained, and in the spring of 1921 he was appointed commissar of the base and elected deputy head of the propaganda department of the Tatar regional committee of the RCP.

At party work in the capital

In July 1921, Nikolai Yezhov registered his marriage with A. Titova. Soon after the wedding, the newlywed went to Moscow and managed to get her husband transferred there as well.

In the capital, Yezhov began to quickly advance in his career. In particular, after a few months he was sent to the Mari regional party committee as an executive secretary.

• executive secretary of the Semipalatinsk provincial committee;
• head of the organizational department of the Kyrgyz regional committee;
• Deputy Executive Secretary of the Kazak Regional Committee;
• instructor of the organizational department of the Central Committee.

According to management, Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov was an ideal performer, but had a significant drawback - he did not know how to stop, even in situations where nothing could be done.

Having worked in the Central Committee until 1929, he held the post of Deputy People's Commissar of Agriculture of the USSR for 12 months, and then returned to the organizational distribution department as head.

"Purges"

Nikolai Yezhov was in charge of the organizational distribution department until 1934. At the same time, he was included in the Central Commission of the All-Union Communist Party, which was supposed to carry out the “cleansing” of the party, and from February 1935 he was elected chairman of the CPC and secretary of the Central Committee.

From 1934 to 1935, Yezhov, on behalf of Stalin, headed the commission on the Kremlin case and the investigation into the murder of Kirov. It was he who linked them with the activities of Zinoviev, Trotsky and Kamenev, actually entering into a conspiracy with Agranov against the chief of the last People's Commissar of the NKVD, Yagoda.

New appointment

In September 1936, I. Stalin and who were on vacation at that time sent a coded telegram to the capital addressed to Molotov, Kaganovich and the rest of the members of the Politburo of the Central Committee. In it, they demanded that Yezhov be appointed to the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, leaving him with Agranov as his deputy.

Of course, the order was carried out immediately, and already at the beginning of October 1936, Nikolai Yezhov signed the first order for his department about taking office.

Yezhov Nikolai - People's Commissar of Internal Affairs

Like G. Yagoda, state security agencies and the police, as well as auxiliary services, for example, fire departments and highways, were subordinate to him.

In his new post, Nikolai Yezhov was involved in organizing repressions against persons suspected of espionage or anti-Soviet activities, “purges” in the party, mass arrests, and expulsions on social, national and organizational grounds.

In particular, after the plenum of the Central Committee in March 1937 instructed him to restore order in the NKVD, 2,273 employees of this department were arrested. In addition, it was under Yezhov that orders began to be issued to local NKVD bodies, indicating the number of unreliable citizens subject to arrest, execution, deportation or imprisonment in prisons and camps.

For these “exploits” Yezhov was awarded. Also, one of his merits can be attributed to the destruction of the old guard of revolutionaries, who knew the unsightly details of the biographies of many of the top officials of the state.

On April 8, 1938, Yezhov was appointed concurrently People's Commissar of Water Transport, and a few months later the posts of first deputy for the NKVD and head of the Main Directorate of State Security were taken by Lavrentiy Beria.

Opal

In November, the Politburo of the Communist Party discussed a denunciation against Nikolai Yezhov, which was signed by the head of the Ivanovo department of the NKVD. A few days later, the People's Commissar submitted his resignation, in which he admitted his responsibility for the sabotage activities of the “enemies” who, through his oversight, penetrated the prosecutor’s office and the NKVD.

Anticipating his imminent arrest, in a letter to the leader of the peoples, he asked not to touch his “seventy-year-old old mother” and concluded his message with the words that he “rubbed the enemies great.”

In December 1938, Izvestia and Pravda published a report that Yezhov, in accordance with his request, was relieved of his duties as head of the NKVD, but retained the post of People's Commissar of Water Transport. His successor was Lavrentiy Beria, who began his activities at new position from the arrests of people close to Yezhov in the NKVD, courts and prosecutor's office.

On the day of the 15th anniversary of the death of V.I. Lenin, N. Ezhov in last time attended an important event of national importance- a solemn meeting dedicated to this sad anniversary. However, then an event followed that directly indicated that the clouds of anger of the leader of the people were gathering over him even more than before - he was not elected as a delegate to the XVIII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.

Arrest

In April 1939, Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov, whose biography until that moment was a story about the incredible career rise of a man who had barely graduated primary school, was taken into custody. The arrest took place in Malenkov’s office, with the participation of Beria, who was appointed to lead the investigation into his case. From there he was sent to the Sukhanovsky special prison of the NKVD of the USSR.

After 2 weeks, Yezhov wrote a note in which he admitted that he was homosexual. Subsequently, it was used as evidence that he committed unnatural things for selfish and anti-Soviet purposes.

However, the main thing that was blamed on him was the preparation of a coup d'etat and terrorist cadres, which were supposed to be used to commit assassinations on members of the party and government on November 7 on Red Square, during a workers' demonstration.

Sentence and execution

Nikolai Yezhov, whose photo is presented in the article, denied all the charges brought against him and called his only mistake his insufficient zeal in “cleansing” the state security agencies.

In his last word at the trial, Yezhov stated that he was beaten during the investigation, although he had honestly fought and destroyed the enemies of the people for 25 years. In addition, he said that if he wanted to carry out a terrorist attack against one of the government members, he did not need to recruit anyone, he could simply use the appropriate equipment.

On February 3, 1940, the former People's Commissar was sentenced to death. The execution took place the next day. According to the testimony of those who accompanied him on last minutes life, before execution he sang “Internationale”. Nikolai Yezhov's death occurred instantly. In order to destroy even the memory of his former comrade-in-arms, the party leadership decided to cremate his corpse.

After death

Nothing was reported about Yezhov’s trial or his execution. The only thing that the ordinary citizen of the Land of Soviets noticed was the return former name the city of Cherkessk, as well as the disappearance of images of the former People's Commissar from group photographs.

In 1998, Nikolai Yezhov was declared not subject to rehabilitation by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. The following facts were cited as arguments:

• Yezhov organized a series of murders of persons who were displeasing to him personally;
• he took the life of his wife because she could expose his illegal activities, and did everything to pass off this crime as an act of suicide;
• As a result of operations carried out in accordance with the orders of Nikolai Yezhov, over one and a half million citizens were repressed.

Yezhov Nikolai Ivanovich: personal life

As already mentioned, the first wife of the executed People's Commissar was Antonina Titova (1897-1988). The couple divorced in 1930 and had no children.

Yezhov met his second wife, Evgenia (Sulamith) Solomonovna, when she was still married to diplomat and journalist Alexei Gladun. The young woman soon divorced and became the wife of a promising party functionary.

The couple failed to produce their own child, but they adopted an orphan. The girl's name was Natalya, and after the suicide of her adoptive mother, which occurred shortly before Yezhov's arrest and execution, she ended up in an orphanage.

Now you know who Nikolai Yezhov was, whose biography was quite typical for many employees of the state apparatus of those years, who rose to power in the first years of the formation of the USSR and ended their lives in the same way as their victims.

People's Commissar Yezhov - biography. NKVD - "Yezhovshchina"
Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov (born April 19 (May 1), 1895 - February 4, 1940) - Soviet statesman and party leader, head of the Stalinist NKVD, member of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, candidate for members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, People's Commissar of Water Transport of the USSR. The era of his leadership of the punitive authorities went down in history under the name “Yezhovshchina.”
Origin. early years
Nikolai - was born in St. Petersburg in the family of a foundry worker in 1895. His father came from Tula province(Volokhonshchino village near Plavsk), but having reached military service to Lithuania, married a Lithuanian woman and stayed there. According to the official Soviet biography, N.I. Yezhov was born in St. Petersburg, but, according to archival data, it is more likely that his place of birth was the Suwalki province (on the border of Lithuania and Poland).
He graduated from the 1st grade of primary school, later, in 1927, he attended courses in Marxism-Leninism at the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and from the age of 14 he worked as a tailor's apprentice, mechanic, and worker at a bed factory and at the Putilov plant.
Service. Party career
1915 - Yezhov was drafted into the army, and a year later he was fired due to injury. At the end of 1916, he returned to the front, serving in the 3rd reserve infantry regiment and in the 5th artillery workshops of the Northern Front. 1917, May - joined the RSDLP (b) (Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party).
1917, November - Yezhov commands a Red Guard detachment, and in 1918 - 1919 heads the communist club at the Volotin plant. Also in 1919, he joined the Red Army and served as secretary of the party committee of the military subdistrict in Saratov. During Civil War Yezhov was a military commissar of several Red Army units.
1921 - Ezhoav is transferred to party work. 1921, July - Nikolai Ivanovich married Marxist Antonina Titova. For his “intransigence” towards the party opposition, he was quickly promoted through the ranks.
1922, March - he holds the position of secretary of the Mari regional committee of the RCP (b), and from October he becomes secretary of the Semipalatinsk provincial committee, then head of the department of the Tatar regional committee, secretary of the Kazakh regional committee of the CPSU (b).
Meanwhile in the area Central Asia Basmachi arose - a national movement that opposed Soviet power. Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov led the suppression of the Basmachi movement in Kazakhstan.

Transfer to Moscow
1927 - Nikolai Yezhov is transferred to Moscow. During the internal party struggle of the 1920s and 1930s, he always supported Stalin and was now rewarded for this. He rose rather quickly: 1927 - became deputy head of the accounting and distribution department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, in 1929 - 1930 - People's Commissar of Agriculture Soviet Union, takes part in collectivization and dispossession. 1930, November - he is the head of the distribution department, the personnel department, and the industrial department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
1934 - Stalin appoints Yezhov chairman of the Central Commission for Cleansing the Party, and in 1935 he becomes secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
In the “Letter of an Old Bolshevik” (1936), written by Boris Nikolaevsky, there is a description of Yezhov as he was in those days:
For all my long life, I have never met such a repulsive person as Yezhov. When I look at him, I remember the nasty boys from Rasteryaeva Street, whose favorite pastime was to tie a piece of paper soaked in kerosene to the tail of a cat, set it on fire, and then watch with delight as the terror-stricken animal rushed down the street, desperately but in vain trying to escape the approaching fire. I have no doubt that Yezhov amused himself in this way as a child, and that he continues to do something similar now.
Yezhov was vertically challenged(151 cm.) Those who knew about his sadistic tendencies called him among themselves the Poison Dwarf or the Bloody Dwarf.

"Yezhovshchina"
The turning point in the life of Nikolai Ivanovich was the murder of the communist governor of Leningrad, Kirov. Stalin used this murder as a pretext to strengthen political repression, and he made Yezhov their main guide. Nikolai Ivanovich actually began to head the investigation into the murder of Kirov and helped to fabricate charges of involvement in it former leaders party opposition - Kamenev, Zinoviev and others. The Bloody Dwarf was present at the execution of Zinoviev and Kamenev and he kept the bullets with which they were shot as souvenirs.
When Yezhov was able to brilliantly cope with this task, Stalin elevated him even more.
1936, September 26 - after the removal of Genrikh Grigorievich Yagoda from his post, Yezhov becomes head of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) and a member of the Central Committee. Such an appointment, at first glance, could not imply an increase in terror: unlike Yagoda, Yezhov was not closely connected with the “authorities.” Yagoda fell out of favor because he was slow in repressing the old Bolsheviks, whom the leader wanted to strengthen. But for Yezhov, who had only recently risen, the defeat of the old Bolshevik cadres and the destruction of Yagoda himself - potential or imaginary enemies of Stalin - did not present any personal difficulties. Nikolai Ivanovich was personally devoted to the Leader of the People, and not to Bolshevism and not to the NKVD. It was just such a candidate that Stalin needed at that time.

At the direction of Stalin, the new People's Commissar carried out a purge of Yagoda's henchmen - almost all of them were arrested and shot. During the years when Yezhov headed the NKVD (1936-1938), Stalin's Great Purge reached its climax. 50-75% of members of the Supreme Council and officers Soviet army were removed from their posts, ended up in prisons, Gulag camps, or were executed. “Enemies of the people,” suspected of counter-revolutionary activities, and people simply “inconvenient” for the leader were mercilessly destroyed. In order to impose a death sentence, the corresponding record of the investigator was sufficient.
As a result of the purges, people who had considerable work experience were shot or put in camps - those who could at least slightly normalize the situation in the state. For example, repressions among the military were very painful during the Great Patriotic War: among the high military command there were almost no people left who had practical experience in organizing and conducting combat operations.
Under the tireless leadership of N.I. Yezhov, many cases were fabricated, the largest falsified show political trials were held.
Many ordinary Soviet citizens were accused (usually based on flimsy and non-existent “evidence”) of treason or “sabotage.” The “troika” who passed sentences on the ground followed the arbitrary numbers of executions and imprisonments that were handed down from above by Stalin and Yezhov. The People's Commissar knew that most of the accusations against his victims were false, but human life had no value for him. The Bloody Dwarf spoke openly:
In this fight against fascist agents there will be innocent victims. We are conducting a major offensive against the enemy, and let them not be offended if we hit someone with our elbow. It is better to let dozens of innocents suffer than to miss one spy. The forest is being cut down and the chips are flying.

Arrest
Yezhov faced the same fate as his predecessor Yagoda. 1939 - he was arrested following a denunciation by the head of the NKVD department for the Ivanovo region V.P. Zhuravleva. The charges against him included preparing terrorist attacks against Stalin and homosexuality. Fearing torture, during interrogation the former People's Commissar pleaded guilty to all counts.
1940, February 2 - the former People's Commissar was tried in a closed session by the Military Board chaired by Vasily Ulrich. Yezhov, like his predecessor, Yagoda, swore his love for Stalin to the end. He denied being a spy, terrorist or conspirator, saying he "preferred death to lies." He began to claim that his previous confessions were extracted by torture (“they used severe beatings on me”). He admitted that his only mistake was that he did not “cleanse” the state security agencies enough of “enemies of the people”:
I cleared out 14 thousand security officers, but my huge fault is that I didn’t clear them enough... I won’t deny that I was drunk, but I worked like an ox... If I wanted to produce terrorist attack over one of the members of the government, I would not recruit anyone for this purpose, but, using technology, I would commit this vile deed at any moment.
In conclusion, he said that he would die with the name of Stalin on his lips.
After the court hearing, Yezhov was taken to his cell, and half an hour later he was called again to announce his death sentence. Hearing him, Yezhov went limp and fainted, but the guards managed to catch him and took him out of the room. The request for clemency was rejected, and the Poison Dwarf became hysterical and crying. As he was led out of the room again, he struggled against the guards' hands and screamed.

Execution
1940, February 4 - Yezhov was shot by the future KGB chairman Ivan Serov (according to another version, security officer Blokhin). They were shot in the basement of a small NKVD station in Varsonofevsky Lane (Moscow). This basement had sloping floors to allow blood to drain and wash away. Such floors were made in accordance with the previous instructions of the Bloody Dwarf himself. For the execution of the former People's Commissar, they did not use the main death chamber of the NKVD in the basements of the Lubyanka, to guarantee complete secrecy.
According to the statements of the prominent security officer P. Sudoplatov, when Yezhov was led to execution, he sang “The Internationale”.
Yezhov’s body was immediately cremated, and the ashes were thrown into a common grave at the Moscow Donskoye Cemetery. The shooting was not officially reported. The People's Commissar simply quietly disappeared. Even in the late 1940s, some believed that the former People's Commissar was in a madhouse.
After death
The ruling in the case of Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR (1998) stated that “as a result of the operations that were carried out by NKVD officers in accordance with Yezhov’s orders, more than 1.5 million citizens, about half of them were shot.” The number of Gulag prisoners increased almost threefold during the 2 years of the Yezhovshchina. At least 140 thousand of them (and possibly much more) died over the years from hunger, cold and overwork in the camps or on the way to them.
Having attached the label “Yezhovshchina” to the repressions, propagandists tried to shift the blame for them entirely from Stalin to Yezhov. But, according to the memoirs of contemporaries, the Bloody Dwarf was, rather, a doll, an executor of Stalin’s will, and it simply could not have been any other way.

Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov(April 19 ( 1st of May) - February 4) - Soviet statesman and political figure, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR (-), Commissioner General of State Security(). The year during which Yezhov was in office became a symbolic symbol of repression; this period itself very soon began to be called Yezhovshchina. Due to his short stature (151 cm), he was popularly nicknamed the “Bloody Dwarf”.

Childhood and youth

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(now Lithuania) Suwalki province (the city of Suwalki is now part of Poland), and three years later, when his father Ivan Yezhov, born in the Tula province, received a promotion and was appointed zemstvo guard of the Mariampol city district, he moved to Mariampol. His mother, Anna Antonovna, was Lithuanian.

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. As a child, according to some sources, he lived in an orphanage. IN 1917 He joined Bolshevik party.

Carier start

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, during his time the NKVD organs kidnapped General E. K. Miller() and a number of operations were carried out against Japan, a number of murders of undesirables were organized abroad Stalin persons

Yezhov was considered one of the main “leaders”; his portraits were published in newspapers and were present at rallies. The poster became widely known Boris Efimov"Hedgehog Gauntlets", where the People's Commissar takes hedgehog gloves multi-headed snake, symbolizing Trotskyists And Bukharinites. “The Ballad of People’s Commissar Yezhov” was published, signed with the name of the Kazakh akyna Dzhambula Dzhabayeva(according to some sources, composed by a “translator” Mark Tarlovsky). Constant epithets- “Stalin’s People’s Commissar”, “favorite of the people”.

I remember when I was studying Yezhov’s [rehabilitation] case, I was struck by the style of his written explanations. If I didn’t know that Nikolai Ivanovich had an incomplete lower education behind him, I might have thought that he writes so smoothly, has such a dexterous command of words educated person. The scale of his activities is also striking. After all, it was this nondescript, uneducated man who organized the construction of the White Sea Canal (his predecessor Yagoda began this “work”), the Northern Route, and the BAM.

Like Yagoda, Yezhov, shortly before his arrest (December 9), was removed from the NKVD to a less important post, which is a sign of his disgrace. Initially, he was appointed part-time People's Commissar of Water Transport (NKVT): this position was related to his previous activities, since the network of canals served as an important means of internal communication for the country, ensuring state security, and was often built by prisoners. After November 19 1938 the Politburo discussed a denunciation against Yezhov, filed by the head of the NKVD of the Ivanovo region, Zhuravlev (who was soon moved to the post of head of the NKVD for Moscow and the Moscow region, and on December 31, 1938, was arrested and soon executed), November 23 Yezhov wrote a resignation letter to the Politburo and personally to Stalin. In the petition, Yezhov took responsibility for the sabotage activities of various "enemies of the people", who inadvertently infiltrated the NKVD and the prosecutor's office, as well as for the flight of a number of intelligence officers and simply NKVD employees abroad (in 1937, the NKVD plenipotentiary representative for the Far Eastern region Lyushkov fled to Japan, at the same time, the NKVD employee of the Ukrainian SSR Uspensky disappeared in an unknown direction, etc. .), admitted that he “took a businesslike approach to the placement of personnel,” etc. Anticipating an imminent arrest, Yezhov asked Stalin “not to 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...”

Arrest and death

Sources

• Alexey Pavlyukov Yezhov. Biography. - M.: “Zakharov”, 2007. - 576 p. - ISBN 978-5-8159-0686-0
• N. Petrov, M. Jansen "Stalin's Pet" - Nikolai Yezhov, trans. from English N. Balashov, T. Nikitina - M.: ROSSPEN, Foundation of the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, 2008. 447 p. - (History of Stalinism). ISBN 978-5-8243-0919-5

Links

((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 from us 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), 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 back in early youth, when he was in the service of a tailor, he names names.

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 last word Yezhov on 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.

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