- Also called:
- purge trials
- Date:
- August 1936 - March 13, 1938
Great Purge
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What was the Great Purge in Soviet history?
The Great Purge, a dark chapter in Soviet history during the late 1930s, was a campaign of political terror led by Joseph Stalin to eliminate potential rivals and critics within the Communist Party and Soviet society.
The purges involved widely publicized show trials, followed by closed, unpublicized trials. False evidence, extracted confessions, torture, and intimidation were used against prominent Old Bolsheviks and alleged "enemies of the people," millions of whom were imprisoned or executed.
The Great Purge successfully eliminated Stalin's political rivals and critics, consolidating his personal power but also dislocating the country’s economy and military.
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Who was in charge of the Soviet Union during the Great Purge?
During the Great Purge in the Soviet Union (late 1930s), Joseph Stalin was in charge as the General Secretary of the Communist Party. The Great Purge was a period of political repression and persecution, characterized by show trials, expulsions, imprisonment, and executions of perceived political rivals and critics.
Stalin used the assassination of Sergey Kirov as a pretext to launch a campaign of political terror against Communist Party members and the Soviet elite. The trials eliminated potential rivals, and critics were sent to prison camps. The purges aimed to maximize Stalin's personal power and remove any opposition within the party and society.
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Why did the Great Purge happen?
The Great Purge, a period of intense political repression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s, was largely driven by Joseph Stalin's desire to consolidate his power and eliminate potential rivals.
Key contributing factors:
* Elimination of Rivals The show trialseliminated major political rivals and critics of Stalin, including prominent Old Bolsheviks.
* NKVD's Role The secret police (NKVD) fabricated cases, extracted confessions through torture, and carried out executions and imprisonments.
* Kirov's Assassination The assassination of Sergei Kirov served as a pretext for launching the purge, with Stalin claiming a widespread conspiracy against the Soviet leadership.
* Maximizing Power Stalin's primary motive was to maximize his personal power by liquidating veteran Bolsheviks, party bosses, military leaders, and government officials.
* Climate of Fear A semi-haphazard persecution, fueled by extorted denunciations and confessions, created a climate of fear and implicated countless victims.4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Who were the main targets of the Great Purge?
During the Great Purge in the Soviet Union in the late 1930s, the main targets included Old Bolsheviks, high-ranking military officers, government officials, and members of the intelligentsia. These individuals were often accused of treason, sabotage, or espionage and were subjected to show trials, followed by execution or imprisonment in labor camps. The NKVD (the secret police) fabricated cases and extracted confessions through torture and intimidation. The purge aimed to eliminate Joseph Stalin's political rivals and critics, consolidate his power, and instill fear throughout Soviet society.
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How did the Great Purge affect life in the Soviet Union?
The Great Purge, which consisted of widely publicized show trials and a series of closed, unpublicized trials, had a devastating impact on life in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s.
The trials and purges eliminated Joseph Stalin's political rivals and critics and sent millions of alleged "enemies of the people" to prison camps. The Communist Party was purged, and local leaderships were annihilated. People's Commissariats and Party departments were devastated, and the industrial, engineering, economic, and military cadres suffered heavy losses. The cultural world also suffered, with writers executed or sent to camps.
The effects of the Great Purge were long-lasting, dislocating the country's life and economy.
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What were the consequences of the Great Purge for the Soviet government and society?
The Great Purge had extensive and devastating consequences for the Soviet government and society. It successfully eliminated Joseph Stalin's major political rivals and critics through show trials and a widespread purge that imprisoned millions of alleged "enemies of the people" in labor camps.
The Red Army was weakened by the purge of experienced military leaders, which contributed to the Soviet Union's poor performance during the early stages of the German invasion in 1941. The Communist Party and government were also purged, with many officials and party members executed or sent to labor camps, resulting in a loss of experienced personnel and a climate of fear and suspicion.
The purges had a deep impact on Soviet society, with millions of ordinary citizens arrested, executed, or sent to labor camps. The purges created a climate of fear and suspicion, where people were afraid to speak out against the government or associate with those who had been purged.
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Great Purge, three widely publicized show trials and a series of closed, unpublicized trials held in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s, in which many prominent Old Bolsheviks were found guilty of treason and executed or imprisoned. All the evidence presented in court was derived from preliminary examinations of the defendants and from their confessions. It was subsequently established that the accused were innocent, that the cases were fabricated by the secret police (NKVD), and that the confessions were made under pressure of intensive torture and intimidation.
(Read Leon Trotsky’s 1926 Britannica essay on Lenin.)
The trials successfully eliminated the major real and potential political rivals and critics of Joseph Stalin. The trials were the public aspect of the widespread purge that sent millions of alleged “enemies of the people” to prison camps in the 1930s.
The first trial opened in August 1936, while Genrikh G. Yagoda was head of the secret police. The main defendants were Grigory Yevseyevich Zinovyev, Lev Kamenev, and Ivan Smirnov, all of whom had been prominent Bolsheviks at the time of the October Revolution (1917) and during the early years of the Soviet regime. With 13 codefendants they were accused of having joined Leon Trotsky in 1932 to form a terrorist organization in order to remove Stalin from power. The prosecution blamed the group for the assassination of Sergei Kirov (December 1934) and suggested that it planned to murder Stalin and his close political associates. On August 24, 1936, the court found the defendants guilty and ordered their executions.
The second trial opened in January 1937, after N.I. Yezhov had replaced Yagoda as chief of the NKVD. The major defendants were G.L. Pyatakov, G.Y. Sokolnikov, L.P. Serebryakov, and Karl Radek, all prominent figures in the Soviet regime. They and their 17 codefendants were accused of forming an “anti-Soviet Trotskyite centre,” which had allegedly collaborated with Trotsky to conduct sabotage, wrecking, and terrorist activities that would ruin the Soviet economy and reduce the defensive capability of the Soviet Union. They were accused of working for Germany and Japan and of intending to overthrow the Soviet government and restore capitalism. They were found guilty on January 30, 1937; Sokolnikov, Radek, and two others were given 10-year sentences, and the rest were executed.
At the third trial (March 1938), the prosecution suggested that the Zinovyev–Trotsky conspiracy also included Nikolay Bukharin and Aleksey Ivanovich Rykov, the leaders of the right-wing opposition to Stalin that had been prominent in the late 1920s. Yagoda was also accused of being a member of the conspiracy, as were three prominent doctors who had attended leading government officials. A total of 21 defendants were accused of performing numerous acts of sabotage and espionage with the intent to destroy the Soviet regime, dismember the Soviet Union, and restore the capitalist system. They were also charged with responsibility for Kirov’s death, and it was alleged that Yagoda had ordered the three doctors to murder the former secret police chief V.R. Menzhinsky, the author Maxim Gorky, and a member of the Politburo, V.V. Kuibyshev. Bukharin was accused of having plotted to murder Lenin in 1918. Although one defendant, N.N. Krestinsky, retracted his guilty plea, and Bukharin and Yagoda skillfully responded to the prosecutor Andrey Yanuaryevich Vyshinsky’s questions to demonstrate their innocence, all the defendants except three were sentenced to death on March 13, 1938.
In addition to the so-called show trials, a series of closed trials of top Soviet military leaders was held in 1937–38, in which a number of prominent military leaders were eliminated; the closed trials were accompanied by a massive purge throughout the Soviet armed forces. Stalin’s liquidation of experienced military leadership during this purge was one of the major factors contributing to the poor performance of Soviet forces in the initial phase of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.
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