Stalin's purges
Mass political executions
Stalin's purges were campaigns of political repression in the Soviet Union during the 1930s, particularly 1936–1938 (the Great Purge or Great Terror).
Stalin's government arrested, imprisoned, exiled, or executed millions—Communist Party members, military officers, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens accused of disloyalty or sabotage.
Show trials extracted confessions through torture.
The purges eliminated real and imagined rivals while terrorizing the population into submission.
- gulagForced labor prison system
- Marxism-LeninismState-led revolutionary socialism
- NKVDStalin-era secret police
- fearEmotional response to threat
- historical memoryShared recollection of past events
cult of personality · informants · enemy of the people · propaganda posters · ethnic cleansing · secret police · knock on the door · forced labor camps · frozen corpses · denunciation · political prisoners · troikas · Cold War tensions · show trials · censorship · ideological conformity · human rights violations · party loyalty
Stalin's purgesamnesty
Group pardon from authorities
restorative justice · national healing · de-Stalinization · clemency · peace process
Stalin's purgesdue process
Guaranteed judicial fairness
rule of law · fair trial · habeas corpus · judicial independence · presumption of innocence
Stalin's purgesfreedom of speech
Protected right to speak
democratic governance · civil liberties · open society · loyal opposition · free press
Stalin, Stalinist, Stalinism, purge, purges, purged, purging, purgation, purgative