Description:
(Official) Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda was a Soviet secret police official who served as director of the NKVD from 1934 to 1936. Appointed by Joseph Stalin, Yagoda oversaw arrests, show trials, and executions of prominent figures like Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev during the Great Purge. He managed the construction of the White Sea–Baltic Canal using penal labor from the gulag system, resulting in numerous laborer deaths. Yagoda himself was demoted, arrested, and ultimately executed after a show trial in 1937.
