Because of his old connections to Stalin and Budyonny, Yegorov seemed to be safe from the wave of arrests that swept through the Red Army in 1937 as Great Purge gathered pace. He was officially listed as one of the judges at Tukhachevsky's trial in June 1937. But at the end of 1937 he was demoted to Commander, Transcaucasian military district, and was arrested in February 1938 and his military writings banned. Yegorov died in prison.