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Great Purge
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Joseph Stalin Andrey Vyshinsky, wearing glasses and a suit, rests his chin on his hand in a thoughtful pose. The background is out of focus.
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Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin Joseph Stalin.

Great Purge

Soviet history
Also known as: purge trials
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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•History

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),...

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