The Role of Yezhov Flashcards
When was Yezhov appointed as head of the secret police?
1936
What was Yezhov called?
Why?
“bloody dwarf”
1.5m!!
Why did Stalin notice Yezhov?
Enthusiasm for personally torturing suspects
Under what leader of the NKVD was it most excessive?
Yezhov
What was Yezhov skilled at?
Framing purges in ideological terms
Those arrested — anti communist/ opponents
What did Yezhov speed up?
How?
The process of arrest —> trial —> imprisonment
Courts (troikas) of 3 people, one being a regional NKVD boss
Yezhov — court
Troika
TROIKAS
In what month of what year
Did what troika
Process how many prisoners each day
September 1937
Karelian Troika
231
Yezhov considered the gulag to be ________,
so the number of inmates (and camp deaths) ___________
Underused
Rose
When were quotas for camp executions introduced?
7/1937
Under Yezhov, what did NKVD officers who executed get?
And then what often happened to them a month or two after?
Medals
Killed too for quotas
Under Yezhov, surveillance of the general public increased/decreased?
Increased
What were used by Yezhov to help increase the surveillance of the general public?
PLAIN-CLOTHED police
INFORMERS to collect info on individuals
What was used (under Yezhov) to condemn people for ‘anti soviet’ activity?
Soviet Criminal code
Under Yezhov, what happened to the number of detectives?
It quadrupled
Under Yezhov, extra staff were employed for what task?
To torture suspects.
Under Yezhov, what was opponent criteria WIDENED to include?
Those not showing sufficient commitment to the Revolution’s cause.
Message is clear: stepping out of line = threat to freedom
What key organisation were purged under Yezhov to show that EVEN THEY are under threat?
The NKVD
Example of Yezhov being a bit of a crazy psycho?
Delighted in personally torturing suspects:
Once turned up to a politburo meeting with blood on his cuffs from torturing “enemies of the revolution”
By what year was Stalin concerned that terror was DEMORALISING THE POPULATION at time of looming WAR?
1938
Why did Yezhov’s health begin to suffer?
Frenetic work
Heavy drinking
When was Yezhov dismissed?
Why?
1938
Accused of being responsible for Purge excesses
When Yezhov was dismissed in 1938, he was accused of being responsible for the purges excesses.
1) any truth?
2) why might this be a useful claim to make?
1) some
2) scapegoat would be useful at this time— Stalin beginning to reduce terror
