APOGEE

Abstract

On 17 July 1937 the Central Executive Committee (TsIK), in agreement with the Politburo, awarded Nikolai Ezhov the Lenin order ‘‘for his outstanding success in leading the NKVD organs in their fulfillment of government assignments.’’1 Ten days later, with the preparations of the mass operations in full swing, TsIK President Mikhail Kalinin ceremonially handed over the order to him, as well as orders to some 120 other NKVD executives: Bel’skii, Berman, Dagin, Frinovskii, Gendin, Leplevskii, Litvin, Redens, Tsesarskii, Zakovskii, et al. Kalinin embraced him warmly, declaring that he had ‘‘introduced Party spirit, Bolshevism into the NKVD work’’ and calling him an example for the Chekists.2 A few days after that, Izvestiia published Boris Efimov’s famous cartoon of Ezhov’s ‘‘hedgehog’s gauntlets’’ (ezhovy rukavitsy).* The cartoon showed an armored gauntlet crushing a reptile covered with the words ‘‘terror’’ and ‘‘espionage’’; in the corner were Trotskii and his son, with frightened faces.3 Later during the