Knowra Great Purge Great Purge The Great Purge was a campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially from 1936 to 1938, marked by mass arrests, executions, and forced-labor imprisonment under Joseph Stalin.
NKVD : The Soviet interior ministry responsible for state security, policing, and administration of forced-labor camps during the Great Purge. Its personnel carried out arrests, interrogations, executions, and camp deportations.
Sergei Kirov : A prominent Soviet Communist Party leader assassinated in Leningrad in 1934. His murder became the pretext for expanding investigations into alleged political conspiracies.
Nikolai Yezhov : The head of the NKVD from 1936 to 1938, during the most intense phase of the Great Purge. He oversaw the security apparatus at the campaign's peak and was later arrested and executed.
Katyn massacre : The 1940 execution by the Soviet secret police of thousands of Polish prisoners, including officers and officials. It shows the continued use of mass execution after the peak years of the Great Purge.
Victims of the Great Purge : People arrested, executed, imprisoned, or otherwise persecuted during the Soviet political repression of the late 1930s. Their varied fates and incomplete records make the campaign's human toll difficult to summarize.
NKVD Order No. 00447 : The 1937 directive that organized mass operations against people designated as former kulaks and other anti-Soviet elements. It set target categories and execution or imprisonment quotas for a major purge operation.
Assassination of Sergei Kirov : The 1934 killing of Communist Party leader Sergei Kirov in Leningrad. The regime used the assassination to justify emergency measures and intensified political repression.
Genrikh Yagoda : The head of the NKVD from 1934 to 1936, before Nikolai Yezhov. His removal marked a transition to the more intensive phase associated with Yezhov.
Great Purge of the Red Army : The arrest and execution of thousands of Soviet military officers during the late 1930s. The military purge weakened experienced leadership shortly before the Second World War.
Soviet archives : Collections of records created by Soviet state and party institutions and later made available to researchers to varying degrees. Archival files have clarified operation totals while leaving important records inaccessible or contested.
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