The Purges

  • The Purges happened after the First of the Five Year Plans, and people felt that the changes were too big and stressful
  • Some of the most important Bolsheviks wanted Trotsky back, who was exiled once Stalin came to power
  • In 1934, Stalin arranged that assassination of Sergei Kirov who was another prominent politician, and launched the Great Purges in order to wipe out his opposition through trying to blame the murder on the other prominent Bolsheviks that were a threat to him
  • Soviet archives show that around 1.55M were detained and almost 700,000 were shot


The Purges had three phases
  1. Chistka (1932-5): 20% of members of the Bolshevik party were expelled peacefully without violence, who were mainly those who had simply joined for their own advantage. When membership cards were needed to be renewed, some members were denied approval
  2. The show trials: Prominent old Bolsheviks had been publicly tried and executed for disloyalty and being enemies of the people. Some were accused of conspiring with Trotsky to try to assassinate Stalin. These trials aimed to unite the people against those who Stalin claimed to be the "enemies of the people"
  3. Yezhovschina (1937-8): This period was named after Yezhov, the chief of the NKVD (secret police under Stalin's rule). Thousands of party members and members of the army were criticised, arrested, and imprisoned, executed and sent to prison camps. Yezhov also had a list of "Non-Soviet Elements" of 250,000 scientists, artists, writers, and more to punish.


The Purge targeted the following groups
  • Left wing opposition who supported "Permanent Revolution" like Trotsky. Trotsky continued to criticise Stalin overseas, and members like Zinoviev and Kamenev were accused of being his agents
  • Party officials who could appoint posts were accused to be foreign spies to mess with Russia's economy
  • Right wing opposition who had supported the NEP were accused of being in a right wing group in support of Trotsky
  • The Red Army had 3/5 marshals, 14/16 commanders and 37,000 officers either shot or imprisoned
  • The Navy lost every admiral
  • NVKD posed a threat to Stalin, and the purgers were purged. Even the previous head of the NVKD, Yagoda was shot in 1938
  • The Kulaks and Nepmen were called out as class enemies (enemies that were declared enemies of Russia) for profitting from capitalism


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