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Kazakov confirmed Levin’s evidence, and said he had been taken to see Yagoda personally, submitting out of fear on hearing the remark “If you make any attempt to disobey me, I shall find quick means of exterminating you.”¹⁴⁵

Yagoda was now called. He looked very different from his old self. His hair seemed whiter, and his former jauntiness had gone.¹⁴⁶ But he still showed a certain bitter energy. His evidence was extraordinary, and must be significant—even though he was to withdraw it later in the day.

Vyshinsky:

Accused Yagoda, did you instruct Levin to tell Kazakov that he would be asked to come and have a talk with you?

Yagoda:

The first time I saw this man was here.

Vyshinsky:

So you gave no such instructions to Levin?

Yagoda:

I gave instructions to Levin to talk it over …

Vyshinsky:

With whom?

Yagoda:

With Kazakov, but I did not receive him personally.

Vyshinsky:

I am not asking you whether you received him or not; I am asking you whether you instructed Levin to talk it over with Kazakov.

Yagoda:

I gave no instructions to talk to Kazakov.

Vyshinsky:

You just said here that you gave Levin such instructions.

Yagoda:

I gave Levin instructions to bring about the death of Alexei Maximovich Gorky and Kuibyshev, and that’s all.

Vyshinsky:

And how about Menzhinsky?

Yagoda:

I did not bring about the death of either Menzhinsky or Max Peshkov.

¹⁴⁷

Vyshinsky called Kryuchkov, who confirmed his role in killing Peshkov on Yagoda’s orders. He then turned on Yagoda again and read from his evidence at the preliminary examination confessing to the Menzhinsky and Peshkov murders:

Vyshinsky:

… Did you depose this, accused Yagoda?

Yagoda:

I said that I did, but it is not true.

Vyshinsky:

Why did you make this deposition if it is not true?

Yagoda:

I don’t know why.

Vyshinsky:

Be seated.

    ‘I summoned Kazakov and confirmed my orders…. He did his work. Menzhinsky died.’

Did you despose this, accused Yagoda?

Yagoda:

I did.

Vyshinsky:

Hence, you met Kazakov?

Yagoda:

No.

Vyshinsky:

Why did you make a false deposition?

Yagoda:

Permit me not to answer this question.

Vyshinsky:

So you deny that you organized the murder of Menzhinsky?

Yagoda:

I do.

Vyshinsky:

Did you admit it in this deposition?

Yagoda:

Yes.

Vyshinsky:

When the Prosecutor of the Union interrogated you, what did you answer to this question about your part in the murder of Menzhinsky?

Yagoda:

I confirmed it also then.

Vyshinsky:

You confirmed it. Why did you confirm it?

Yagoda:

Permit me not to answer this question.

Vyshinsky:

Then answer my last question: Did you file any protest or complain with regard to the preliminary investigation?

Yagoda:

None.

Vyshinsky:

Are you filing any now?

Yagoda:

No.

¹⁴⁸

Taking up the Peshkov murder, Vyshinsky went on:

Vyshinsky:

So everything that Kryuchkov says …

Yagoda:

It is all lies.

Vyshinsky:

You gave him no such instructions regarding Maxim Peshkov?

Yagoda:

I have stated, Citizen Prosecutor, that with regard to Maxim Peshkov I gave no instructions. I see no sense in his murder.

Vyshinsky:

So Levin is lying?

Yagoda:

He is lying.

Vyshinsky:

Kazakov is lying?

Yagoda:

Yes, lying.

Vyshinsky:

Kryuchkov?

Yagoda:

Is lying.

Vyshinsky:

You gave Kryuchkov no instructions regarding the death of Maxim Peshkov? At the preliminary investigation you …

Yagoda:

I lied.

Vyshinsky:

And now?

Yagoda:

I am telling the truth.

Vyshinsky:

Why did you lie at the preliminary investigation?

Yagoda:

I told you. Permit me not to reply to this question.

¹⁴⁹

This last was spoken “with such concentrated venom and fury,” an American observer notes that the whole audience gasped with “dismay and terror.”When Ulrikh intervened, Yagoda turned on him and said (in a phrase not included in the official report): “You can drive me, but not too far. I’ll say what I want to say … but … do not drive me too far.”¹⁵⁰ Again everyone was shaken. If Stalin was present in the hidden room above the Tribunal, where during this trial a trick of the light at one point made him clearly visible,¹⁵¹ even he might for a moment have wondered whether his whole plan was not about to be wrecked.

Yagoda, more than any of the others, had reason to resent the trial. He, more than anyone, had performed irreplaceable services for Stalin. His arrest had so affected him that he could not sleep or eat, and Yezhov had feared for his sanity. Slutsky, the insinuating Head of the NKVD Foreign Department, had been sent to talk to him. Yagoda complained about the ruin of the police organization he had built up over fifteen years, and one day remarked that God must after all exist: from Stalin he deserved only gratitude, but from God the fate which had actually overtaken him.¹⁵²