Great Purge

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Lore & Background

The purges were largely conducted by the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs), which functioned as the interior ministry and secret police of the USSR. In 1936, the NKVD under Genrikh Yagoda began the removal of the central party leadership, Old Bolsheviks, government officials, and regional party bosses. Soviet politicians who opposed or criticized Stalin were removed from office and imprisoned, or executed, by the NKVD, including Nikolai Bukharin, Lev Kamenev, and Grigory Zinoviev. The purges were eventually expanded to the Red Army high command, which had a disastrous effect on the military, including Marshal of the Soviet Union Mikhail Tukhachevsky. The campaigns also affected many other segments of society: the intelligentsia, professionals sometimes in the form of specialist-baiting, and others suspected of disloyalty. As the scope of the purge widened, the omnipresent suspicion of saboteurs and counter-revolutionaries (known collectively as wreckers) began affecting civilian life.

Reader's Guide

The purge reached its peak between September 1936 and August 1938, when the NKVD was under chief Nikolai Yezhov (hence the name Yezhovshchina). The campaigns were carried out according to the general line of the party, often by direct orders by the Politburo headed by Stalin. Hundreds of thousands of people were accused of political crimes, including espionage, wrecking, sabotage, anti-Soviet agitation, and conspiracies to prepare uprisings and coups. They were executed by shooting, or sent to Gulag labor camps. The NKVD targeted certain ethnic minorities with particular force (such as Volga Germans or Soviet citizens of Polish origin), who were subjected to forced deportation and extreme repression. Throughout the purge, the NKVD sought to strengthen control over civilians through fear and frequently used imprisonment, torture, violent interrogation, and executions during its mass operations. Stalin reversed his stance on the purges in 1938, criticizing the NKVD for carrying out mass executions and overseeing the execution of NKVD chiefs Yagoda and Yezhov. Scholars estimate the death toll of the Great Purge at 700,000 to 1.2 million. Despite the end of the purge, widespread surveillance and an atmosphere of mistrust continued for decades. Similar purges took place in Mongolia and Xinjiang. The Soviet government wanted to put Leon Trotsky on trial during the purge, but his exile prevented this. Trotsky survived the purge although he was assassinated in 1940 by the NKVD in Mexico on orders from Stalin.

Did You Know?

• The term 'great purge' was popularized by historian Robert Conquest in his 1968 book, The Great Terror.
• The purge reached its peak between mid-1937 and mid-1938, when the NKVD was under chief Nikolai Yezhov, giving the period the name Yezhovshchina.
• The NKVD targeted certain ethnic minorities with particular force, such as Volga Germans and Soviet citizens of Polish origin, subjecting them to forced deportation and extreme repression.
• Stalin reversed his stance on the purges in 1938, criticizing the NKVD for mass executions and overseeing the execution of NKVD chief Yagoda in 1938; Yezhov was executed later, in 1940.
• The Soviet government wanted to put Leon Trotsky on trial during the purge, but his exile prevented this; he was later assassinated in 1940 by the NKVD in Mexico on orders from Stalin.

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