Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence

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YAGODA, GENRYKH GRIGOREVICH (1891–1938).The chief in-

stigator of the purges of the 1930s, Yagoda was eventually replaced

for ideological and operational failures. Yagoda grew up in a family

of radicals; his father manufactured documents for left-wing parties.

Yagoda joined the anarchists at age 16 and was a member of several

anarchist “fighting commands.” He joined the Bolsheviksin the

summer of 1917 and served in the Red Army for the next two years.

Yagoda joined the Chekain 1919 and proved to be a merciless ad-

ministrator of the Red Terror. In 1920–1921 he took part in crush-

ing a mass peasant revolt in Tambov. Ten years later, he played a crit-

ical role in collectivization, again employing troops against peasant

rebels. Yagoda also established the forced labor empire for building

the Belomor Canaland other projects. In 1931 he was appointed

deputy chief of the service, and in July 1934 he replacedVyacheslav

Menzhinskyas head of the NKVD. Joseph Stalinapparently had a

low personal opinion of Yagoda, who had repeatedly been charged

with corruption during his years in the security service. But Stalin ap-

parently believed he could control and manipulate Yagoda as he be-

gan his purge of the Communist Party.

During the next two years, Yagoda at Stalin’s behest moved against

dissidentsin the party. Many scholars believe he took an active part

in organizing the assassination of Sergei Kirovon 1 December 1934,

which set off the purges. Following Kirov’s death, the NKVD was

given power to arrest, try, and execute enemies of the people. Yagoda

took advantage of the law to order the arrest and executionof thou-

sands of men and women. Yagoda, however, was far too slow in pur-

suing enemies of the regime for Stalin, who demanded that Yagoda

provide confessions from Old Bolsheviks that they were spies and

terrorists. In the summer of 1936, Stalin in a public note to the Cen-

tral Committee called for Yagoda’s replacement and an intensifica-

tion of the purge.

Yagoda was transferred to a minor post and became people’s com-

missar of communications in September 1936. When Stalin saw him

at a social function in late 1936, he reportedly asked why “that crea-

ture was hanging around.” Six months later, in March 1937, Yagoda

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