nkvd men

Question 1

Summary of NKVD men dates

Answer 1

YAGODA - July 1928 - September 1936
YEZHOV - Sep 1936 - Nov 1938
BERIA - Nov 1938 - Dec 1945

Question 2

Yagoda (background)

Answer 2

• Initially friend of Stalin
• Part of OGPU (forerunner of NKVD)
• Had secret poison lab. Murdered boss Menzhinsky - got his assistants to poison him
• Blamed for: collectivisation / famine in Ukraine - let people starve

Question 3

Yagoda’s Downfall 1936:

Answer 3

1936. Told Stalin that general pop didn’t like purges / trials. Stalin enraged
      Also blamed for not hunting down Bukharin quickly enough
      Demoted to Commissariat for Communication, 1937
      Shot in 1938, wife also killed

Question 4

YEZHOV “The Bloody Dwarf”

Answer 4

• remorseless. Took over from Yagoda, not ‘thorough’ enough
• 1st task from Stalin - investigate Yezhov. Ordered NKVD to sprinkle poison on his office curtains - which could be collected as evidence of his attempts / plotting to assassinate Yezhov & Stalin as a German spy & restore capitalism
• Yezhovshchina, most active/violent part of purges

Question 5

Order 00447 -

When was it issued? What did it do?

Answer 5

July 30th 1937

• classified enemies / anti-soviet elements / former tsarist officials & political party members / ex-kulaks as:
  Category I - shot
  Category II - gulags (free manual labour) e.g. on White Sea Canal / Dnieprostroi Dam

Question 6

Consequences of Order 00447?

Answer 6

“REVOLUTIONARY JUSTICE” - an efficient form of ‘justice’. EXECUTIONS CARRIED OUT IMMEDIATELY, IN BATCHES OF 100

Gulags expanded by over 685,000 under Yezhov. 1/5 of these people died. Malnutrition / exhaustion. NEARLY TRIPLED IN SIZE IN JUST 2 YEARS.

Over 50% of Supreme Soviet members (parliament) stripped of their positions / imprisoned / executed / gulags. Yezhov admitted that innocents were being falsely accused, but dismissed this as unimportant, as long as purges were successful.

Question 7

IN THE SHOW TRIALS:

Answer 7

Soviet military officers & ordinary citizens were wrongly accused of disloyalty / ‘wrecking’ by local NKVD men

PARTY LEADERS & MILITARY MEN HUMILIATED e.g. TUKHACHEVSKY - ‘trotskyist’ & ‘german spy’ - 11th June 1937. His death possible scared Stalin, only person above Tuk was Stalin