Author of the letter that brought Yezhov down
Mikhail Shreider remembered him as 'a career-seeker of the deepest dye' who, 'sensing the clouds gathering over Yezhov, wrote to Stalin at just the right moment' that the commissar had been shielding enemies of the people.
A Chekist who took over the Kuibyshev oblast NKVD in September 1937 and pushed its quota up by 4,800 through two increases. Moved to Ivanovo in February 1938, he re-arrested the people his predecessor Radzivilovsky had 'mistakenly' released, and that November sent Stalin a letter accusing Yezhov of shielding enemies of the people. Reviewed by the Politburo, the letter became the direct occasion for Yezhov's removal; Zhuravlev was paid with the Moscow city and oblast NKVD and a Central Committee seat, then was shunted off to run the Karaganda camps and died in 1946.
Career Timeline
- 1920–1937Service in the Cheka, OGPU and NKVD
- 1937–1938Head of the Kuibyshev NKVD; won a 4,800 quota increase
- 1938Head of the Ivanovo oblast NKVD
- 1938November letter to Stalin denouncing Yezhov
- 1938–1939Head of the Moscow NKVD; Central Committee member
- 1939Transferred to head the Karaganda camps
- 1946Died