Nkvd recruitment
- •
(3 of 3)
Murder by Medicine. The Kremlin itself now insisted—seven years after one death, four after the other—that both Shcherbakov and Zhdanov were murdered. Russian history is speckled with incidents of murder by medicine, like the recurring poison theme in Oriental history and Renaissance Italy. It has a more recent parallel in the great Soviet purges of 1936-38, a reign of terror so vast that its full extent is still not clear. In the late '20s and early '30s, under Viacheslav Menzhinsky, the OGPU did Stalin's dirty work; suddenly Menzhinsky was dead and Genrikh Yagoda, his deputy, took over, to push the purge through the first of the three great "show trials." Yagoda's turn came next; he was replaced by Nikolai I. Yezhov, one of the 20th century's leading madmen, and Yagoda stood in the dock himself in March of 1938 as the alleged ringleader of the original Case of the Doctors (he was shot later in 1938 after the third show trial). When it was all over, Yezhov in turn disappeared, and his entire staff with him.
No Poisonous Substan
- •
Vyacheslav Menzhinsky (19 August 1874-10 May 1934) was the Director of the State Political Directorate of the Soviet Union from 30 July 1926 to 10 May 1934, succeeding Felix Dzerzhinsky and preceding Genrikh Yagoda.
Biography[]
Vyacheslav Menzhinsky was born on 19 August 1874 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire to a Polish-Russian aristocratic family, and he graduated from the St. Petersburg University Faculty of Law in 1898. He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in 1902, and he went into exile after the 1905 Russian Revolution. In 1917, Menzhinsky returned to Russia after the Russian Revolution, and he conducted the wrecking of Russia's banks to deprive the White Army of its financial means of warfare. In 1926, he took over the NKVD and State Political Directorate after the death of Felix Dzerzhinsky, and he took part in several important purges in 1930 and 1931. Menzhinsky died in 1934, and his deputy Genrikh Yagoda would be forced to "confess" that he had "poisoned" Menzhinsky while he stood trial during the Great Purge.
- •
Joseph Stalin
Leader of the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1953
"Stalin" redirects here. For the Indian politician, see M. K. Stalin. For other uses, see Stalin (disambiguation).
In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Vissarionovich and the family name is Stalin.
Joseph Stalin | |
|---|---|
Stalin at the Tehran Conference, 1943 | |
| In office 3 April 1922 – 16 October 1952[a] | |
| Preceded by | Vyacheslav Molotov(as Responsible Secretary) |
| Succeeded by | Nikita Khrushchev(as First Secretary) |
| In office 6 May 1941 – 5 March 1953 | |
| First Deputy | |
| Preceded by | Vyacheslav Molotov |
| Succeeded by | Georgy Malenkov |
| In office 19 July 1941 – 3 March 1947 | |
| Premier | Himself |
| Preceded by | Semyon Timoshenko |
| Succeeded by | Nikolai Bulganin |
| In office 8 November 1917 – 7 July 1923 | |
| Premier | Vladimir Lenin |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Born | Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili 18 December [O.S. 6 December] 1878 Gori, Rus Copyright ©momitem.pages.dev 2025 |