Yezhov Quotes

In the terrible years of the Yezhov terror I spent seventeen months waiting in line outside the prison in Leningrad. One day somebody in the crowd identified me. Standing behind me was a woman, with lips blue from the cold, who had, of course, never heard me called by name before. Now she started out of the torpor common to us all and asked me in a whisper (everyone whispered there): “Can you describe this?” And I said: “I can.” Then something like a smile passed fleetingly over what had once been her face . . . —Anna Akhmatova, “Instead of a Preface: Requiem 1935–1940

By 1937 Stalin had reached the stage when murder had become as habitual as shaving or eating. Three or four times a week the death lists compiled by Yezhov at his orders would be presented to him, he would read through the lists casually, add his initials, and then forget about them. These lists did not comprise the names of a small number of high officials, but included hundreds and sometimes thousands of obscure people working inside and outside the government. In many cases the lists were mere formalities: the people had already been shot. These drab pages filled with names represented the only currency he recognized: they were his bills of trading in the endless terror he was visiting upon Russia. There

By 1937 Stalin had reached the stage when murder had become as habitual as shaving or eating. Three or four times a week the death lists compiled by Yezhov at his orders would be presented to him, he would read through the lists casually, add his initials, and then forget about them. These lists did not comprise the names of a small number of high officials, but included hundreds and sometimes thousands of obscure people working inside and outside the government. In many cases the lists were mere formalities: the people had already been shot. These drab pages filled with names represented the only currency he recognized: they were his bills of trading in the endless terror he was visiting upon Russia. There is not the least doubt

According to Conquest, two days after Sofia was executed, on December 12, 1937, Stalin and his premier, Vyacheslav Molotov, approved 3,167 death sentences—and then went to watch a movie. Not all the executions were approved at such a high level; on a day in October, the secret police chief, Nikolai Yezhov, and another official considered 551 names and sentenced every one of them to be shot.

In the terrible years of the Yezhov terror I spent seventeen months waiting in line outside the prison in Leningrad . . .

In the terrible years of the Yezhov terror I spent seventeen months waiting in line outside the prison in Leningrad . . . Standing behind me was a woman, with lips blue from cold . . . Now she started out of the torpor common to us all and asked me in a whisper (everyone whispered there): “Can you describe this?” And I said: “I can.” Then something like a smile passed fleetingly over what had once been her face. • Anna Akhmatova, “Requiem, 1935–1940