In the midst of the secret police terror known as the Yezhovshchina , Osip Piatnitsky objected to the massacres , expressed doubt that charges against party comrades were valid when the Central Committee met in plenary session and was asked to sanction what had been happening . Equal to calling Stalin a tyrant and fraudster , Pyatnitsky refused to back down . As a result , in October 1937 , he was removed from his position on the Central Committee , stripped of party membership , and arrested by the NKVD , the Soviet secret police . This suicidal act of courage was extremely rare He remained in jail for a year before finally being given a summary trial and sentenced to death . On October 30 , 1938 , Osip Piatnitsky was executed . He was 56 years old at the time of his death
Yezhovshchina
Great Purge
Osip Piatnitsky