One evening in 1937, Henrishi Grigorievich Yagoda was walking anxiously around his cell. What was he talking about, to be left behind, this once prominent figure of real power would be treated as a holy will whenever he said anything, but now no one would care. Toward the end of the day's visit, Yagoda grabbed his old subordinate Slutsky and said, "In writing a report to Comrade Yezhov, can you give me a word?" ”
On July 26, 1926, the great Soviet leader Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky died of a sudden heart attack while speaking, an accident that had a great impact on the Soviet Union. In the early days of the establishment of Soviet power, Dzerzhinsky, along with Lenin and Sverdlov, was called the "Big Three", among which Dzerzhinsky was popular with the people for his lofty political ideals and virtues, and had an almost saintly status in the Soviet Union at that time. Without this solid heavyweight ally, the situation was naturally much more severe for Stalin. But it was precisely in this way that the Cheka, which had been in Dzerzhinsky's long-term possession, was vacated.
It is worth mentioning that Dzerzhinsky was a very great revolutionary, and after the establishment of the Cheka on December 20, 1917, even though Lenin tried every means to take this weapon for himself, Dzerzhinsky unswervingly insisted that the Cheka maintain its independence and justice. He attached great importance to the restraint of power, advocating that comrades who made mistakes should not be punished in a hurry, but that they should be given the opportunity to recognize their mistakes and reform themselves. Stalin had great respect for Dzerzhinsky and had always been bad at dealing with him; today the situation is very different.
In his early years, Yagoda was not interested in politics and loved literature. After completing secondary school, he took a job as a statistician and became acquainted with Sverdlov. In 1904, Yago reached work in an underground printing house, and from then on he became more and more involved in social democratic activities. In 1907, Yagoda joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, was arrested in 1911 for his participation in revolutionary activities, and was released two years later; in 1917, Yagoda joined the Bolsheviks while serving in the Russian army and participated in the great October Revolution.
During the Russian Civil War, Yagoda was active frequently on the Eastern and Southern Fronts as the Supreme Military Ombudsman, at a time when he entered a period of rapid ascension: he joined the Cheka on November 3, 1919, joined the Cheka Presidency at the end of July of the following year, and was appointed Vice-President of the Cheka on March 31, 1921. On September 18, 1922, Yagoda became Dzerzhinsky's deputy, and in 1923, the State Political Protection Bureau, which replaced the Cheka, was upgraded to the General Directorate of Political Protection of the State at the same level as the Ministry of the Interior, and Yagoda became the second deputy director of the department. After Dzerzhinsky's death, Vyacheslav Minzensky took over, and Yagoda became first deputy director.
Akihito is also a fierce character, who has long been heard by Dzerzhinsky, and his methods are also very decisive and clever. However, Akihito, who had actually been in power for a long time, was in worse and worse health and had to give more work to Yagoda. It didn't take long for the handover of power to be completed again quietly.
Throughout history, it is not difficult to find that compared with the sophisticated and meticulous strategists of the city government, Stalin liked to act decisively and dare to think and dare to do, and Yagoda was the latter. His actions have always been fierce, and the explanation to the leaders has been completed by all means, even in order to achieve a goal and reckless consequences. In 1932, when he was sent to Ukraine to oversee the grain purchase program and ensure that it was completed on time, Yagoda took some tough measures. Although this practice was criticized, he was appreciated by the top. On February 10, 1934, Yagoda was elected a member of the Central Committee, and on May 10 of the same year, Akihito died, and nearly two months later, Yagoda was personally appointed NKVD by Stalin. Yagoda's ascension to the throne marked the complete fall of the Cheka and the handover of two eras— the influence of older leaders such as Dzerzhinsky was fading.
Yagoda's "meticulousness" of his work made him look a little stupid. After a great famine in the Soviet Union, in which civilians could not eat and the streets were starving, Yagoda was ordered to preach that the famine was "the result of the surreptitious evil of class enemies and counter-revolutionary conspirators." Beginning in 1933, the Cheka began to attack the so-called "Lenin's Old Guard", and many old comrades were innocently implicated. But when it comes to this, Yagoda proudly believes that he is rooting out bureaucracy and corruption. Without prejudgment of the situation and the credulity of the situation, Yagoda was destined to become a high-ranking thug. In 1936, he was appointed head of the National Security Council, a position said to be equivalent to that of a Marshal of the Soviet Union, and Yagoda reached the pinnacle of his life. However, the pride came quickly, and frustration ensued.
In 1936, the Kirov case was retried, and a tsunami was set off. Although he personally beheaded Zinoviev and others, in the absence of sufficient evidence, Yagoda initially sentenced Zinoviev and Kamenev to 10 years in prison. In the initial period, he ordered the arrest of many people, including his own niece. But after confirming the lack of evidence, he released a considerable number of them, who expected that this move laid the groundwork for the tragic end of his life.
At a high-level meeting on September 25, 1936, Yagoda was criticized by name: "Comrade Yagoda has obviously failed to accomplish his task well in exposing the work of the Trotsky-I Noviev group. The General Directorate of Political Security of the State has been delayed in this work for 4 years..." Being criticized for "poor work" is an extremely dangerous signal, but Yagoda's slowness in political consciousness has tragically harmed him. After the meeting, Yagoda was transferred to head of the post and telecommunications department, and his position was replaced by Yezhov. On 29 January of the following year, Yagoda was again transferred to the reserves. Although he is still diligent in his work, this has not changed much. On 3 April 1937, Yagoda was dismissed from his post and arrested in May.
Yagoda, who had just been thrown into prison, was puzzled, he did not understand what he had done wrong, and he wanted to use others to help him tell him his grievances. Finding hopeless, Yagoda began to get restless, pacing back and forth in his cell all day until one evening when he asked his former subordinates to pass on the words to him. When his subordinates asked him why he had suddenly said this, Yagoda replied, "I have served faithfully, receiving only medals and commendations and nothing else; and when I broke the precepts, I was immediately punished by God in the most severe way." If you look at where I am now, a little thought will tell you whether God exists or not. ”