Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov (Russian : ������� �������� ���� : May 1, 1895 in St Petersburg,Russian Empire – February 4,in Moscow, RSFSR, Soviet Union 1940) was the leader of the Soviet secret police called the NKVD. He worked for Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938, during the Great Purge. He was executed in 1940 by Stalin and Lavrentiy Beria who replaced him . Nikolai Yezhov was born on May 1 1895 in the Russian Empire either in St Petersburg,Russia,or probably Veiveriai,Marijampolė,or Kaunas in Lithuania in Imperial Russia .