Nikolai Yezhov and Soviet special services

Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov (1895-1940) - Soviet state and politician. People"s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, General Commissioner of State Security.
One of the worst pages in domestic history is associated with his name - “Big Terror”. In this post, Yezhov was engaged in coordination and implementation of repressions against persons suspected of anti -Soviet activities, espionage, “cleaning” in the party, mass arrests and expulsions on social, organizational, and then a national basis. These campaigns have been systematic in the summer of 1937, they were preceded by preparatory repressions in the state security bodies themselves, which “cleaned” the employees of the former People"s Commissar of the Interior G.G. Berries. During this period, extrajudicial repressive organs were extremely widely used - the so -called. “Special meetings” and “Troika of the NKVD”. The determination of the military collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 1998 states that as a result of operations carried out by the NKVD officers in accordance with the orders of Yezhov, only in 1937-1938. More than 1.5 million citizens were subjected to repression, of which about half were shot.
About the life and activity of N.I. Yezhova at the head of the Soviet special services tells the next book of the series