May 1, 1895 - Nikolai Yezhov
As head of the NKVD during the bloodiest years of Stalin's Great Purge, Yezhov oversaw a machinery of mass detention, coerced confession, and execution that consumed hundreds of thousands of lives — a period so defined by his methods that it came to be called the Yezhovshchina. His administrative efficiency in directing the terror made him both indispensable and, ultimately, expendable; Stalin dissolved the apparatus around him and had him arrested on the same grounds used against countless victims before him.
From Wikipedia
Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov (Russian: Николай Иванович Ежов, IPA: [nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ (j)ɪˈʐof]; 1 May 1895 – 4 February 1940), also spelt Ezhov, was a Soviet secret police official, who served under Joseph Stalin as head of the NKVD from 1936 to 1938, at the height of the Great Purge. He is believed to have had mixed Lithuanian and Russian ancestry. Yezhov organized mass arrests, torture, and executions during the Great Purge. However, he later fell out of favor with Joseph Stalin and was arrested. During his interrogation, Yezhov confessed to various alleged anti-Soviet activities, including making "unfounded arrests" during the Great Purge. He was executed in 1940 shortly after his arrest and conviction, and was later blamed for many of the excesses committed during the Great Purge.
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