August 1937 and September 1938 at Butovo. A survey by the Memo-
rialorganization found that 24–28 percent of those executed were
manual workers and peasants, while 12 percent were professional
workers. Especially vulnerable were men and women who had been
previous targets of repression, kulaks (rich peasants), and Russian
Orthodox clergy. Moreover, 18,000 wives of enemies of the people
were imprisoned and 25,000 children dispatched to orphanages.
Yezhov also purged the army and the police, sending 34,000 mili-
tary officers to the camps or the firing squad. The military leader
Mikhail Tukhachevskiyand other senior officers were tried by a
special military court and then shot. Several thousand NKVD officers
were arrested, as officers in Moscow and the provinces followed their
victims to Siberia and execution cellars. In 1938 Leningrad had six
different NKVD chiefs. The NKVD’s foreign intelligence section was
particularly devastated, and five men served as its chief in less than
18 months. The purges ravished the corps of people serving overseas
under diplomatic cover and as illegals. The rezidenturasin both Lon-
don and Berlin suspended operations for several months. Theodore
Mallywas recalled from England, arrested, tortured, and shot.
A major target of the NKVD was the leadership of foreign com-
munist parties and the Comintern. In 1938 the Polish Communist
Party was liquidated. All 12 members of its Central Committee liv-
ing in exilein Moscow were shot. The Hungarian and German par-
ties were also purged: Bela Kun, the leader of the Hungarian party
since 1919, was shot after a 15-minute trial, as were many members
of the German communist leadership. The only communists who
were safe in Moscow were those from the Western democracies.
There is no consensus as to why Stalin gave Yezhov his head to ter-
rorize Soviet society. Was it to cleanse society of potential traitors; a
political inquisition driven by popular demand for scapegoats or per-
sonal vengeance; or did it have more to do with Stalin’s personality?
Speaking to Comintern leaders in late 1937, Stalin threatened: “We
shall destroy every enemy, even an Old Bolshevik, we shall annihi-
late his kith and kin.” Revisionist scholars believe that the purge took
on a life of its own—much like the witch hunts of the 16th century.
Whatever the root cause, the Yezhovshchinatraumatized Soviet soci-
ety, and it stripped the society, party, and Red Army of many of the
leaders who would have made defeating Adolf Hitler less costly.YEZHOVSHCHINA(THE TIME OF YEZHOV)• 29506-313 P-Z.qxd 7/27/06 7:57 AM Page 295