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The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (Russian: Большой террор, romanized: Bolshoy terror), also known as the Year of '37 (37-й год, Tridtsat sedmoy god) and the Yezhovshchina (Ежовщина, 'period of Yezhov' Russian pronunciation: [(j)ɪʐəfɕːɪnə]), was Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin's campaign to consolidate ...
- Motives For The Great Terror
- Sergei Kirov
- Moscow Trials
- Fifth Column
- Gulag Labor Camps
- Leon Trotsky
- Legacy of The Great Terror
- Sources
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
Soviet Union leader Vladimir Lenin, head of the Bolshevikparty, died in 1924. Stalin had to fight his way to political succession, but ultimately declared himself dictator in 1929. Upon Stalin’s rise to power, some members of the former Bolshevik party began to question his authority. By the mid-1930s, Stalin believed anyone with ties to the Bolshe...
The first event of the Great Terror took place in 1934 with the assassination of Sergei Kirov, a prominent Bolshevik leader. Kirov was murderedat the Communist Party headquarters by a man named Leonid Nikolayev. Although his role is debated, many speculate that Stalin himself ordered the murder of Kirov. After Kirov’s death, Stalin launched his pur...
Kirov’s death led to three widely publicized trials that successfully wiped out many of Stalin’s political rivals and critics. Several former high-ranking Communists, including Lev Kamenev, Grigorii Zinoviev, Nikolai Bukharin and Aleksei Rykov, to name a few, were accused of treason. The trials, which became known as the Moscow Trials, were clearly...
Stalin used terms, such as “fifth column,” “enemy of the people” and “saboteurs” to describe those who were sought out during the Great Purge. The killing and imprisonment started with members of the Bolshevik party, political officials and military members. Then the purge expanded to include peasants, ethnic minorities, artists, scientists, intell...
There’s no doubt the brutal tactics of Stalin paralyzed the country and promoted a climate of widespread terror. Some victims claimed they would rather have been killed than sent to endure the torturous conditions at the infamous Gulag labor camps. Many who were sent to the Gulag camps were ultimately executed. Although most historians estimate tha...
The Great Terror officially ended around 1938, but many believe Stalin wasn’t truly finished until his long-time rival Leon Trotskywas eliminated. Trotsky was sentenced to death in absentia during the Moscow Trials. Living in exile in Mexico, Trotsky was assassinatedin 1940 with an ice pick by a Spanish communist. Even after this assassination, mas...
Stalin’s successor, Nikita Khrushchev, condemned the cruel violence of the Great Terror. In a 1956 secret speech, Khrushchev called the purges “an abuse of power” and acknowledged that many of the victims were, in fact, innocent. Stalin’s acts of terror and torture broke the Soviet people’s spirit and effectively eliminated certain groups of citize...
The Great Terror. Seventeen Moments in Soviet History. Michigan State University. Stalin’s Great Purge: Over A Million Detained, More Than Half A Million Killed, War History Online. New research reveals misconceptions about Joseph Stalin and his “Great Purge,” Business Insider. Sentenced to Death in Stalin’s Great Purge, Radio Free Europe/Radio Lib...
The Great Terror, also known as the Great Purge, was a brutal campaign by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to eliminate his political rivals and anyone else he considered a threat. Learn about the motives, methods and legacy of the Great Terror, which killed at least 750,000 people and sent millions to forced labor camps.
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. Learn more about the Great Purge in this article.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Learn about the period of extreme persecution and oppression in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s, when Stalin and his secret police targeted anyone who could be considered an enemy of the people. Explore the historical context, the sources, and the impact of the Great Purge on ordinary life and society.
Timeline of the Great Purge. The Great Purge of 1936–1938 in the Soviet Union can be roughly divided into four periods: [1] October 1936 - February 1937. Reforming the security organizations, adopting official plans for purging the elites. March 1937 - June 1937.
The Great Purge, or the Great Terror, also known as the Year of '37 and the Yezhovshchina, was Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin's campaign to consolidate power over the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Soviet state.
Learn about the Great Purge, a period of mass terror and repression in the Soviet Union under Stalin from 1936 to 1938. Find out how Stalin consolidated his power, executed or imprisoned his opponents, and destroyed the party and the army.
