Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov [IPA: nʲɪkɐˈlaj jɪˈʐof] (1 May 1895 - 4 February 1940) was the head of the Soviet secret police, the "People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs" (NKVD) (26 September 1936 - 25 November 1938) and a senior figure in the Great Purge; in fact, the wave of mass arrests, executions, deportations etc became known as the "Yezhovschina" (the Yezhov era). Then he ended up purged himself and replaced by Berya.