In his review of Grover Furr's book Khrushchev Lied for the journal Socialism and Democracy Sven-Eric Holstrom says the following:
It is worth noting that the vast majority of the death sentences occurred during the so-called “yezhovshina” in 1937-38, and there is now good evidence that NKVD head Nikolai Yezhov acted behind the back of the Soviet government in order to turn people against the regime. See Mark Jansen & Nikita Petrov, Stalinskii pitomets – Nikolai Yezhov, Moscow 2008, 367-79. When Yezhov himself was executed, Stalin claimed, in a private conversation with aircraft designer Aleksandr Yakovlev, that it was because he had killed a lot of innocent people (Aleksandr Yakovlev, Tsel' Zhizni. Zapiski Aviakonstruktora, Moscow 1973, 267).
https://dev.sd.brechtforum.net/issue/59/khrushchev-lied
I decided to investigate Holstrom's alleged "good evidence" that Yezhov was the one responsible for the purges and that he was working against the USSR.
First off, it's funny how they cite Mark Jansen and Nikita Petrov, because both of them are known as being the authors of one of the biggest biographies of Yezhov called Stalin's Loyal Executioner: People's Commissar Nikolai Ezhov, 1895-1940. Notice how they call Yezhov "Stalin's Loyal Executioner". So clearly, they believe that Yezhov was loyal to Stalinism and that he was acting on behalf of Stalin, and are clearly unconvinced by any claims that Yezhov was actually an anti-Soviet and that he was solely responsible for the purges rather than Stalin. Anyways, I digress.
But it took about 2 seconds of investigation to expose Holstrom's lie.
Looking at his source, he literally just cites the interrogation protocol of Yezhov where he confesses to being a part of the anti-Soviet conspiracy and that the mass operations were on behalf of the anti-Soviet organization. That's it. Keep in mind that Holstrom claimed that there is "good evidence" that Yezhov was a conspirator.
As someone who has at least basic knowledge of the history of the USSR under Stalin, Holstrom should know better than to go and unironically cite purge era confessions as evidence of conspiracies. There's multiple reasons why this is not "good evidence" of Yezhov being a conspirator.
1. There is no external evidence corroborating Yezhov's confession (afaik). There is no evidence at all from the archives of Germany, Japan, or any other country (like correspondance and stuff) proving that Yezhov had connections with foreign intelligence. Files from the Amt Ausland Abwehr (the German military intelligence agency) have been available since the 1940s, and there is no evidence of a conspiracy involving Yezhov (or those charged in the Moscow Trials while we're at it). All the evidence shows that Yezhov was a loyal Stalinist.
2. While they may have small bits and pieces of truth in them, confessions from the time of the Great Purge are extremely unreliable, especially the ones where people confess to being Trotskyist terrorists, foreign agents, saboteurs, etc. This is mainly because we have extensive evidence proving that confessions from this time were forced and extracted through torture:
Again about the Stalinist deniers: yes, the Moscow trials were staged, duh.
One of Stalin's orders for beatings of individuals during the Great Purge
Iordan Terziev's horrifying testimony of NKVD torture
Appeals from victims and their families (contains complaints about torture)
Chekist reports (contains complaints about torture)
"Letters to the authorities" Letters from the NKVD (contains complaints about torture)
And there is plenty more evidence out there. Simply put, it's almost certain that Yezhov was either tortured to confess to these things or was threatened with torture if he did not confess.
Keep in mind that Holstrom claimed that he had "good evidence" of the Yezhov conspiracy, yet he clearly doesn't; all he has is confessions. No documents, no correspondance, none of that. Just confessions.
Plus, Holstrom ignores all the evidence we have that Stalin was both involved in the Great Purge and actively tried to keep it going:
СТАЛИНСКИЙ ПЛАН ПО УНИЧТОЖЕНИЮ НАРОДА: Подготовка и реализация приказа НКВД № 00447 «Об операции по репрессированию бывших кулаков, уголовников и других антисоветских элементов» (contains hundreds of documents between Stalin and local secretaries of regions and territories on purge matters)
ЛУБЯНКА: Сталин и Главное управление госбезопасности НКВД (correspondance between Stalin and the NKVD, including signed documents on purge matters between Yezhov and Stalin.)
So I stand that Yezhov was not working behind the back of the USSR; rather, he was working for Stalin's interests in launching mass repression, and there is actual no evidence that he was working for anti-Soviet or foreign intelligence agencies.
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