YAGODA Henry G.

(1891-1938)
Born in 1891 in Rybinsk in the family of small jeweler-craftsman. Graduated from an external high school in Nizhny Novgorod. As the family followed the anti-government views (two brothers Berries later died in the revolutionary events - one during the uprising in Sormovo, . another shot for the organization of the uprising in the army in World War I), . beginning work as a typesetter coincided with a revolutionary - a place of work was an underground printing,
. Even in the age of 17 came to the attention of the police which have acceded to the Nizhny Novgorod group of anarcho-communists (the group led a secret police agent), engaged in transportation of explosives and training 'exa' in city bank. Arrested in 1911 and 1912, was expelled for two years in Simbirsk under strict police surveillance. He was granted amnesty in connection with the anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, moved to St. Petersburg, where he worked as a statistician in the artel Cities Alliance, a health insurance Putilov, in the magazine 'Statistical Studies'. In 1914 he married Ida Averbakh - niece of the Sverdlov. In World War I was drafted into the army, was wounded, was at the front until 1917.
In 1917 he returned to Petrograd, joined a military organization RSDLP (b), a member of the Bolshevik faction of the City Council workers and soldiers' deputies, participated in the edition of 'Soldier's true'. Member of armed fighting in Moscow in October 1917. After the October coup, executive editor of 'poor peasants', administrator of the Supreme Military Inspectorate Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.

Since November 1919 - Managing the affairs of the special department of the Cheka, and then the entire All-Russia Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution and Sabotage, a member of the board of the Cheka. In the new work has shown organizational and administrative abilities, has repeatedly proposed reorganization and improvement of the central apparatus of the Cheka and its local bodies (some of whom were adopted). Rapid career growth contributed to lack of principle, the desire to fulfill any order management, as well as family ties Berries

. Since June 1922 - Head of Special Branch successor of the Cheka - the Main Political Administration (GPU), . September 1923 - Second Vice-Chairman of the Joint GPU (GPU), . simultaneously head of the special, . then the secret-operations department of the OGPU, . responsible for combating domestic political opposition,
. Since October 1929 - first deputy chairman of the OGPU (due to illness VR MENZHINSKY since the 1930's actually directed all the activities of this punitive authority), and from July 1934 - after the conversion of the OGPU - People's Commissar for Internal Affairs. In November 1935, Yagoda was awarded the title of Commissioner General of State Security.

In the 1920's - early 1930's there were no political trial or a political rally, in which Berry did not take part. His signatures are under orders of deportation in 1922 of NA Berdyaev, . PA Sorokin, . other known representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, . to documents the expulsion of the Soviet LD Trotsky and his family, . the warrant for the arrest of the poet Osip Mandelstam, . playwright N. Erdman, and many others,
. Berry led or participated directly in the conduct of the end of 1920's Operation 'Spring' on the repression of former officers and generals of the old army, . in the fabrication of materials 'Shakhty case' (1928), . processes' Workers and Peasants' Party '(1930), . 'Industrial Party (Engineering Center) "(1930), . 'Federal Bureau RSDLP Mensheviks' (1931) and others,
.

Were in his Chekist activities and other hobbies. He loved benefactor to writers and artists, organized by a literary soirees and salons. The fight against homelessness led famous in those years Bolshevo Labor Commune OGPU, bearing the name of its high-protector, not regular visits to children. Among the organizers of the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal (built its inmates in the system of the OGPU - NKVD famous Gulag - the General Directorate of camps) belonged to the prominent head of the Cheka Office. Justifying the massive loss of bonded construction tasks 'forging of a new human material', . Berry even arranged for a group of Soviet writers, headed by Maxim Gorky study tour to this construction, . outcome of which was published in Gorky series 'history of the factories' book White Sea-Baltic Canal, the Stalin,
. Construction History.

After the assassination of Sergei Kirov in December 1934 Berry led the effort to 'identify' and destroy 'terrorists and saboteurs "from among the former opposition. With his direct participation by the NKVD were rigged and ready for consideration at public litigation case 'Leningrad terrorist Zinoviev Center' (December 1934), . 'Moscow Center Zinoviev counterrevolutionary organization' (January 1935), . 'Counter-revolutionary terrorist groups in the government library and the Commandant of the Kremlin' (July 1935), . 'Joint Trotsky-Zinoviev Center' (August 1936),
.

Nevertheless manifested zeal was not enough. In a telegram to Stalin and Zhdanov from Sochi on September 25, 1936, addressed to the members of the Politburo of the CPSU (b), said: 'We deem it absolutely necessary and urgent matter of the appointment of Comrade. Yezhov the post Commissariat. Berry explicitly was not up to its task in exposing the Trotsky-Zinoviev bloc. OGPU late in this business for 4 years. This is spoken by all Party workers and the majority of the representatives of the NKVD ... '. The next day, NI Ezhov was appointed People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and Berry moved to the post of Commissar of the USSR's.

At the February-March (1937) Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) diatribe against the berries said NI Ezhov. Criticized the disgraced head of his former subordinates were LM Zakovsky, J. S. Agranoff, VA Balitsky, EG Evdokimov. In response, the defendant confessed, admitted 'mistakes'. Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) adopted a resolution condemning the activities of the former People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. March 28, 1937, Yagoda was arrested, the NKVD started 'cleansing', as a result of which all who served under Yagoda 18 commissioners of national security first and second ranks were killed or died in custody.

Materials 'business' of the former People's Commissar of artificially enter into the affairs of NI Bukharin, AI Rykov, and others. Do a lot to the victory of Stalin's inner struggle for power, Berry appeared in the dock with those against whom he once fought. The process of 'anti-Soviet bloc pravotrotskistskogo' held in Moscow on 2-13 March 1938. At trial, Berry has confirmed most of the charges against him: in the preparation of a Kremlin plot, . links with LD Trotsky, . in the murder of his former boss VR MENZHINSKY, . Kuibyshev and Gorky, . but denied spying and involvement in the murder of Sergei Kirov,
. He was sentenced to death. The sentence was executed March 15, 1938.

As one of the organizers of repression (for incomplete data, during his stay at the helm of Berries OGPU - NKVD from 1922 to 1936 were shot more than 52 thousand. people) are not rehabilitated.