Editing Soviet Union (section)

==== Yezhovshchina (Great Purge) ====
There were Trotskyist spy networks operating in the USSR, and backed by Britain, Nazi Germany, and Japan. The Moscow Trials had proven that. Tukhachevsky had threatened the USSR itself with a military coup.

In 1937, Stalin and the Politburo approved the use of torture in exceptional cases.<ref name=":4" /> It was not to extract confessions. It was only to reveal criminal associates before they carried out a crime. In other words, torture could only be used on those already proven guilty.

There were cases of Stalin personally approving the use of torture, such as on a man named Walter. In these cases, the victims had already been proven guilty, and were beaten to reveal other criminals. But what they said under torture was not to be used as solid evidence.

In July 1937, Yezhov met with the Politburo to gain approval for military tribunals to speed up executions of spies.<ref>Grover Furr, Stalin and the Struggle for Democratic Reform. https://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/clogic/article/download/191861/188830/218717</ref> This began the period known in Russia as Yezhovshchina, "the rule of Yezhov", or in the West as the "Great Purge". This lasted until the downfall of Yezhov in October 1938.

In those 15 months, Yezhov and his henchmen in the NKVD executed 680,000 people.

Stalin doubted they were all guilty. He initiated investigations into Yezhov and called him out in the Central Committee in January 1938. He sent Beria to watch over Yezhov in October 1938.

During the Yezhovshchina, the Central Committee repeatedly voted to purge itself of arrested members. As a result, most of its original members ended up dead.

Yezhov was fired from the NKVD in November 1938 and arrested in April 1939. He confessed to treason and framing thousands and was executed in 1940. His trial was in private, and many never even knew what happened to him. There is no evidence he was tortured.