Nikolai Yezhov

Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov was a Soviet secret police official under Joseph Stalin who was head of the NKVD from 1936 to 1938, during the height of the Great Purge. Yezhov organized mass arrests, torture and executions during the Great Purge, but he fell from Stalin's favour and was arrested, subsequently admitting in a confession to a range of anti-Soviet activity including "unfounded arrests" during the Purge. He was executed in 1940 along with others who were blamed for the Purge.

1 May 1895

Born on the same birth date (1 May 1895): May Hollinworth

Born on the same birth day (1 May): Alexander Hleb • Ethan Albright • Herbert Backe • Hugo Alfvén • Jay Reatard • Peter Lax • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin • Romaine Brooks

Born in the same month (May 1895): Dorothea Lange • Douglas Lloyd Campbell • Fidél Pálffy • Frank Foss (athlete) • Jacques Brugnon • Júlio César de Mello e Souza • Lázaro Cárdenas • Maurice Tate • Paul Lukas • Prescott Bush • Richard Barthelmess • Rudolph Valentino • Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. • William D. Byron