Nikolai Yezhov
Eventually, Stalin dismissed Yezhov from his post in November 1938, demoting him to the post of Commissar of Water Transport; less than a year later, Yezhov was arrested and put on trial for excesses committed during the Purges. In his defence, Yezhov said that he regretted only that he had not punished enough counter-revolutionaries. He was found guilty and probably executed in secret in 1940.