@Sorghagtani Beki I've read that source before, actually

The idea that Stalin intended for Yezhov to arbitrarily arrest and execute thousands just because of two specific comments about two specific prisoners is ridiculous, first of all

second of all I have something for you

In addition to authorizing torture, Stalin also signed 357 lists in 1937 and 1938 authorizing executions of some 40,000 people, and about 90% of these are confirmed to have been shot.[94] While reviewing one such list, Stalin reportedly muttered to no one in particular: "Who's going to remember all this riff-raff in ten or twenty years time? No one. Who remembers the names now of the boyars Ivan the Terrible got rid of? No one."[95] Stalin's alleged remark may be compared with Hitler's famous admonition to his generals in 1939: "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"[96]

Michael Ellman, Stalin and the Soviet Famine of 1932–33 Revisited Europe-Asia Studies, Routledge. Vol. 59, No. 4, June 2007, 663–693. PDF file

Quoted in Dmitri Volkogonov, Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy (New York, 1991), pg 210.

Richard J. Evans (4 November 2010). "Who remembers the Poles?". London Review of Books. 32 (21). Retrieved 4 February 2012.

>implying they'd waste at least 40,000 cartridges on shooting people

smh

Again, common anti-Stalin quote, no evidence to back up the claims of the statement, and the lists were generally signed off with the acceptance of the entire politburo, not just Stalin, meaning they must have thought whoever was being executed was guilty.

"Stalin reportedly muttered to no one in particular"

😂

Let me give it a try

also, here's a good source

https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/beria_andreev_malenkov012939eng.html

A letter from Beria to Stalin explaining how Yezhov had been executing and arresting thousands of innocent people.

A letter never intended for the public to see.

Did Stalin give a response?

@OF-8 Then you based your criticism on individual realisation, and yet have no stake in it yourself, so why is individual realisation important?

Well, the executions post-Yezhov died down to barely any from the previous thousands, so you tell me.

"The leadership of the NKVD in the person of com. Ezhov not only did not put a stop to this kind of arbitrariness and extremism in arrests and in the conduct of investigations, but sometimes itself abetted it." "2. Enemies of the people who penetrated the organs of the NKVD have consciously distorted the punitive policy of Soviet power, have carried out massive, unfounded arrests of completely innocent persons, while at the same time covering up real enemies of the people."

It is known that, after Beria was put in place, the NKVD radically changed its ways

I am asking if Stalin even tolerated Yezhov's atrocities

Do you have anything that would imply that Stalin was critical of Yezhov?

"Com. Ezhov concealed in every way from the Central Committee of the ACP(b) the situation of the work in the NKVD organs. Besides that he hid from the CC ACP(b) materials that compromised leading NKVD workers."

That's the main reason why Beria was given that charge in the first place

and attempted to prevent the massacres?

IIRC

Um, probably his arrest and subsequent execution for exactly that

Yezhov's refusal to admit to a conspiracy against Stalin's life and his long, verifiable history as Stalin's primary inquisitor during the Great Purge made him too dangerous to risk at a public show trial where he might betray Stalin's secrets or successfully expose Stalin's orchestration of the Purge.

Sebag-Montefiore, 203.

lmfao

well that's one certainly biased interpretation of events

>I can click on wikipedia citations everyone

Holy fuck it's literally from wikipedia 😂

From Yezhov's article

individual realization is an individual choice.

an individual path, it is not communal

@Deleted User https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aeQ3DmKU7A

"Ezhov: Yes, I talked to him. There were two variants of our plans. The first variant: in the case of war, when we proposed to carry out the arrests of the members of the government and their physical removal. And the second variant: if there were no war in the immediate future, **then to get rid of the leadership of the Party and the government, especially Stalin** and Molotov, **by carrying out terrorist acts against them.** I firmly remember that I told Zhukovskii about this after I had entrusted him with the existence of the conspiracy."

https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/ezhovinterrogs.html