Nikolai Yezhov

Nikolai Yezhov
Николай Ежов
Yezhov in 1938
People's Commissar for Internal Affairs
In office 26 September 1936 – 25 November 1938[1]
Premier	Vyacheslav Molotov
Preceded by	Genrikh Yagoda
Succeeded by	Lavrentiy Beria
Chairman of the Party Control Commission of the Central Committee
In office 1935–1939
Preceded by	Lazar Kaganovich
Succeeded by	Andrey Andreyev
People's Commissar for Water Transport (NKVT)
In office 8 April 1938 – 9 April 1939
Premier	Vyacheslav Molotov
Preceded by	Nikolay Pakhomov
Succeeded by	None (position abolished)
Full member of the 17th Central Committee
In office 10 February 1934 – 3 March 1939
Candidate member of the 17th Politburo
In office 12 October 1937 – 3 March 1939
Member of the 17th Secretariat
In office 1 February 1935 – 3 March 1939
Personal details
Born	Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov (1895-05-01)1 May 1895 St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	4 February 1940(1940-02-04) (aged 44) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Cause of death	Execution by shooting
Citizenship	Soviet
Political party	Russian/All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (1917–1939)
Spouses	Antonia Titova ​ ​ (m. 1919; div. 1930)​ Yevgenia Feigenberg ​ ​ (m. 1930; died 1938)​
Children	1 (adopted)
Signature
Nickname(s)	Ежевика (Yezhevika; "Blackberry")[2] Iron Hedgehog[3] The Bloody Dwarf[4] The Red Dwarf[4]

Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov (Russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Ежо́в, IPA: [nʲɪkɐˈɫaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪt͡ɕ (j)ɪˈʐof]; 1 May 1895 – 4 February 1940) was a Soviet secret police official under Joseph Stalin who was head of the NKVD from 1936 to 1938, during the height of the Great Purge. Yezhov organized mass arrests, torture and executions during the Great Purge, but he fell from Stalin's favour and was arrested, subsequently admitting in a confession to a range of anti-Soviet activity including "unfounded arrests" during the Purge. He was executed in 1940 along with others who were blamed for the Purge.