Purges

The Purges under Stalin - 1930s

Purges describe the mass arrests, imprisonment and execution of political prisoners, dissidents or threats to Stalin in the USSR. By 1933, 18% of Communist party members had been expelled for disloyalty. The Great Purge (or Great Terror) was between 1936 and 1938.

The purges

The purges were used as a way to distract people from economic issues and challenges and to secure Stalin's position.
Executions were used to set an example to other potential dissenters (opponents of the regime) or threats to Stalin.
Purges helped to control communist party bosses in small towns, and to prevent corruption and disloyalty to the Party leadership (Stalin).
Explosions in the Keremovo mines in 1936 were blamed on enemies, rather than unsafe conditions.

Reason for the purges

Stalin wanted to deal with any potential internal opposition and strengthen his position.
Stalin was concerned about Hitler and Nazi Germany rearming in the second half of the 1930s.
The purges were a way for the Communists to forcibly take control across Russia. They did not have full control over all areas.
Thousands of powerful people in the Communist party and army were killed in the purges.

Show trials

'Show trials’ were an important part of the purges. They made examples of people who Stalin disapproved of.
Factory managers who were accused of 'wrecking' (acts against the state e.g giving wrong commands) were often put through show trials.
Factory managers resented extremely productive workers known as Stakhanovites, and were blamed alongside supposed ‘experts’ for economic failures.
Any people who were potential threats to Stalin's political power, like the 'Old Bolsheviks' were tried and executed.

The end of the ‘Old Bolsheviks’

The purges killed many of the 'Old Bolsheviks' like Kamenev and Zinoviev. These were the communists who had been in the party in the early days of the Russian revolution of 1917.
Executing or discrediting any rivals allowed Stalin to consolidate his position fully at the top of the Communist party.
Stalin was suspicious of the army's power so he tried to weaken it. There is no evidence of any plots against Stalin within the army, but 35,000 officers were still arrested between 1937 and 1938.

Kamenev and Zinoviev

Zinoviev and Kamenev were candidates to lead the Communist party after Lenin's death.
Kamenev and Zinoviev were executed in August 1936 after a show trial during the Great Purges. They were blamed for killing a Communist party official, Kirov and for attempting to kill Stalin. They reportedly pled guilty to avoid execution, but were executed anyway.
Kamenev's sons were executed in 1938 and 1939 and his wife was executed in 1941.
Kamenev & Zinoviev were cleared by the Soviet government in 1988.

The Great Terror, 1937-38

As many ‘experts’ were arrested and removed during the purges, the development of the Soviet Union was stunted.
As many as 8 million people were arrested during the Great Terror (1937-38). 1 million were shot. 2 million died in the labour camps. The numbers are still disputed by historians.
- The vast majority were, however, innocent of any crimes.

Kirov and Yagoda

Sergei Kirov, a Bolshevik party leader in Leningrad was killed in December 1934. This sparked mass arrests and repression increased after this. Some historians suggest that the murder was planned by Stalin/the state and was an excuse for the Great Purge.
Genrikh Yagoda, the head of the NKVD (Soviet intelligence agency), was exectued in March 1938 for 'wrecking', Trotskyism and for failing to arrest enough ‘enemies of the people’. Yagoda had overseen the show trials and execution of Kamenev and Zinoviev.

1The Leadership Struggle, 1924-1929

1.1Struggle for Power 1924-28

1.1.1Stalin & his Rivals

1.1.2The End of Lenin & Stalin

1.1.3Stalin & the Communist Party

2Five Year Plans & Collectivisation

2.1Changes in Industry

2.1.1Industrialisation & Gosplan

2.2Agriculture & Collectivisation

2.2.1Five Year Plans & Grain Hoarding

2.2.2Collectivisation

2.2.3Kulaks

3Purges, Show Trials & The Cult of Stalin

3.1The Use of Terror in the 1930s

3.1.1Purges

3.1.2NKVD

3.1.3Show Trials

3.1.4Labour Camps

3.2Propaganda & Censorship

3.2.1Art & Religion Under Stalin

3.2.2Media & the Cult of Stalin

3.2.3The Cult of Stalin

3.2.4History

4Life in the Soviet Union, 1924-1941

4.1Life in the Soviet Union

4.1.1Living Conditions & Ethnic Minorities in the USSR

5The Second World War, 1941-1953

5.1USSR in the War

5.1.11941-1942

5.1.21943-1945

5.2Stalin & WW2

5.2.1Stalin's Popularity

5.2.2Post-War Consolidation

5.3Post-War Recovery

5.3.1Economic Recovery

5.3.2The USSR by 1953

Jump to other topics