The apex of Yezhov's ascendancy was reached on 20 December 1937, when the party hosted a giant gala to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the NKVD at the Bolshoi Theater. Enormous banners with portraits of Stalin hung side-by-side with those of Yezhov. On a stage crowded with flowers, Anastas Mikoyan, dressed in a dark caucasian tunic and belt, praised Yezhov for his tireless work. "Learn the Stalin way to work, " he said, "from Comrade Yezhov, just as he learned and will continue to learn from Comrade Stalin himself." When presented, Yezhov received an "uproarious greeting." He stood, one observer wrote, "eyes cast down and a sheepish grin on his face, as if he wasn't sure he deserved such a rapturous reception." Comrade Stalin himself observed the scene from his private box. All of this merriment while a majority of the party's Central Committee were being condemned to death or prison as "enemies of the people."

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On March 3, 1939 Yezhov was relieved of all his posts in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. On April 10, 1939 he was arrested. The Soviet judge Ulrikh tried him in Beria's office. Yezhov refused Beria's suggestion he confess to a plot to kill Stalin saying "it is better to leave this earth as an honourable man". On 3/4 February he was shot. His ashes were dumped in a common grave at Donskoi Cemetery (Montefiore, Stalin 288)