What was the yezhovschina?

Answer 1

I'm not sure if this will be answered 100% correctly, but it's what I'm studying at the moment hehe, so we'll give it a go.

Ok, the Yezhovschina was more or less a reign of terror of Nikolai Ivanovich Yehzov, who was a senior figure of the NKVD during Stalin's Great Purges. He was responsible for the deaths of around half the Soviet political and military establishment and was completely ruthless.