The complete openness of written instructions to murder or imprison hundreds of thousands of people, such as Operational Decree No. 00447, tells us that the executioners either believed that what they were doing was right or, if not, that there would be no adverse consequences. Hitler's executioners were more cautious.
Although some fanatics, such as Ezhov and a few of his associates, may have believed the myths of super-human class enemies organizing massive and intricate plots, regular NKVD officials would have known the truth. They knew that confessions were forced by torture or by false promises of leniency. Therefore, the most likely explanation is that most understood that what they were doing was wrong but that they would not be punished, or that they had no choice in the matter anyway.
The absence of caution appears justified. Despite more than a million unwarranted executions and premature deaths, few of those responsible were punished. As Stalin turned off the Great Terror and the search for scapegoats began in November of 1938, only 937 NKVD employees were arrested (91 from the central office), and 99 were reported as deceased, with no information given on the cause of death.29 They were punished less for their deeds than for their association with discredited superiors who had fallen out of favor with Stalin. They also needed to be liquidated to make room for the new boss's underlings.
As the Gulag began to empty of prisoners after Stalin's death, a number of NKVD officers, interrogators, and informants panicked and a few committed suicide. One interrogator fell to his knees and begged forgiveness. Former inmates, in rare cases, took vengeance into their own hands, such as a former officer who shot his interrogator to death in Kiev. A female informant responsible for the imprisonment of many colleagues was fired from her party job, went insane, and continued to come to work every day to be turned away at the front entrance.30 In the vast majority of cases, however, those responsible for the imprisonment of millions of persons lived out their lives with no visible repercussions.
Low-level administrators could justify their actions with the claim that they were only following orders—a claim less easily exercised by Politburo members, such as Khrushchev. After addressing an open meeting after he had exposed Stalin's crimes (in 1956), Khrushchev purportedly received a written question asking why he allowed such things to happen. Khrushchev asked the audience who wrote the question and, upon receiving no answer, responded: "He who wrote this question is afraid, just like we were all afraid to act against Stalin.” 31
World History
