Yezhov was born in
Saint Petersburg according to his official Soviet biography. While under interrogation after being arrested though he stated he was born in Mariiampole, Lithuania. He completed only elementary education. From 1909 to 1915, he worked as a tailor's assistant and factory worker. From 1915 to 1917, Yezhov served in the Tsarist Russian army. He joined the
Bolsheviks on
May 5, 1917 in
Vitebsk, a few months before the
October Revolution. During the
Russian Civil War 1919–1921 he fought in the
Red Army. After February 1922, he worked in the political system, mostly as a secretary of various regional committees of the
Communist Party. In 1927, he was transferred to the Accounting and Distribution Department of the Communist Party where he worked as an instructor and acting head of the department. From 1929 to 1930, he was the Deputy of the
People's Commissar for Agriculture. In November 1930 he was appointed to the Head of several departments of the Communist Party: department of special affairs, department of personnel and department of industry. In 1934, he was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party; in the next year he became a secretary of the Central Committee. From February 1935 to March 1939, he was also the Chairman of the Central Commission for Party Control.
In the "Letter of an Old Bolshevik" (1936), which is purported to be the musings of
Nikolai Bukharin, there is this contemporary description of Yezhov: "In the whole of my long life, I have never met a more repellent personality than Yezhov's. When I look at him I am reminded irresistibly of the wicked urchins of the courts in Rasterayeva Street, whose favorite occupation was to tie a piece of paper dipped in paraffin to a cat's tail, set fire to it, and then watch with delight how the terrified animal would tear down the street, trying desperately but in vain to escape the approaching flames. I do not doubt that in his childhood Yezhov amused himself in just such a manner and that he is now continuing to do so in different forms." Physically, Yezhov was very short in stature - and that, combined with his sadistic personality led to his nickname 'The Poisoned Dwarf' or 'The Bloody Dwarf'.
He was known as a determined loyalist of
Joseph Stalin, and in 1935 he wrote a paper in which he argued that political opposition must eventually lead to violence and terrorism; this became in part the ideological basis of the Purges. He became
People's Commissar for Internal Affairs (head of the NKVD) and a member of the
Presidium Central Executive Committee on
September 26, 1936, following the dismissal of
Genrikh Yagoda. Under Yezhov, the purges reached their height, with roughly half of the Soviet political and military establishment being imprisoned or shot, along with hundreds of thousands of others, suspected of disloyalty or "
wrecking". Yezhov also conducted a thorough purge of the security organs, both NKVD and
GRU, removing and shooting many officials who had been appointed by his predecessors Yagoda and Menzhinsky, but even his own appointees as well. He maintained that it was worth having ten innocent people suffer rather than letting one spy get away.
The apex of Yezhov's ascendancy was reached on
20 December 1937, when the party hosted a giant gala to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the NKVD at the
Bolshoi Theater. Enormous banners with portraits of Stalin hung side-by-side with those of Yezhov. On a stage crowded with flowers,
Anastas Mikoyan, dressed in a dark caucasian tunic and belt, praised Yezhov for his tireless work. "Learn the Stalin way to work", he said, "from Comrade Yezhov, just as he learned and will continue to learn from Comrade Stalin himself". When presented, Yezhov received an "uproarious greeting". He stood, one observer wrote, "eyes cast down and a sheepish grin on his face, as if he wasn't sure he deserved such a rapturous reception". Stalin himself observed the scene from his private box.
Although he was also appointed to the post of People's Commissar for Water Transport on
April 8, 1938, maintaining his other posts, his role was gradually diminishing. On
August 22, 1938, Lavrenty Beria became the deputy and partner to Yezhov and took over the governance of the Commissariat. When Stalin and
Vyacheslav Molotov criticized heavily the work and methods of the NKVD in their writing of
November 11, 1938, he was relieved of his post as the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs at his own request on
November 25, 1938, and Beria succeeded him.
On
March 3, 1939 Yezhov was relieved of all his posts in the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. On
April 10, 1939 he was arrested and imprisoned at the
Sukhanovka prison. On
February 3, 1940 the Soviet judge
Vasili Ulrikh tried him in Beria's office. Yezhov refused Beria's suggestion that he confess to a plot to kill Stalin saying "it is better to leave this earth as an honorable man". Yezhov was sentenced to death and immediately after trial, on
February 4, 1940 he was shot. According to a witness, just before the execution Yezhov was ordered to undress himself and then was beaten by guards. His ashes were dumped in a
common grave at
Donskoi Cemetery.
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