In the short history of the Soviet Union, the "Great Purge", which took place in the thirties of the 20th century, is recognized as the darkest, bloodiest and most terrifying era.
In just a few years, tens of millions of innocent people have been sentenced, exiled, and executed. The range of people affected is a record in human history.
In the mouth of some Soviet scholars, the Great Purge was an unpardonable sin committed against the party and people of the Soviet Union.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the "gravedigger" of the Soviet Union, was a die-hard supporter of this view.
Gorbachev.
However, it is one-sided to attribute a historical event to a single person.
Behind the occurrence of the Great Purge were deeper political and economic reasons at home and abroad in the Soviet Union.
So, what exactly did this catastrophe come about? Historically, how wrong was the Great Purge?
All of this starts with the birth of the Soviet Union and the rise of Stalin to power.
The Soviet Union was formed on December 30, 1922 as a Soviet Union based on the Russian Empire and united by 15 republics.
However, although the CPSU has always been the ruling party of the Soviet Union, it is not very peaceful internally, and factional struggles are very serious.
In the years leading up to Lenin's death, there were three major political struggles:
The first time, in 1923-1925, was fought between the Russian Communist Party (CPR)** led by Stalin and the opposition led by Trotsky;
The second time, from 1925 to 1928, was fought between the Communist Party of Brazzaville and the new opposition, led by Zinoviev and Kamenev;
The third time, in 1928-1929, was fought between the leadership of the CPSU led by Stalin and the right-leaning activists led by Bukharin.
Three struggles, both of which were directly related to Stalin.
It can be seen that from that time on, Stalin had already begun to fight against the same party. And his attitude also has a lot to do with his rise process.
Stalin was not Russian, but Georgian.
Throughout his life, he spoke with a thick Georgian accent.
And this lineage means that he cannot be easily recognized within the CPSU, which is dominated by Russians. This deepened Stalin's sense of crisis.
Stalin gained a foothold from the armed uprisings in the localities and gained a certain social status by attaching himself to Lenin.
However, because he was effectively loyal to his personal armed forces, he was stronger than the other members of the CPSU.
Although Lenin used him to stabilize the situation, he was also promotedTrotsky, allowing him to form a counterbalance with Stalin.
TrotskyHowever, after his assassination, Lenin's health deteriorated, and in his old age he could not even speak.
Stalin seized the opportunity to seize real power, unitedKamenevwithZinoviev, isolated Trotsky, and thus pushed him out of the centre of power.
This was the first internal struggle of the CPSU mentioned earlier.
After that, Stalin again threatened himself enormouslyBukharinwithRykov, on the charge of right-leaning. At this point, Stalin was able to secure his position as leader. And this was the beginning of the Great Purge.
From the above, it can be seen that Stalin's rise to power has gone through a bloody storm.
His pedigree, his experience, all tell him that this is how Game of Thrones is played, and there are always challengers in his place.
And the opposition within the CPSU has not actually stopped its activities.
They were all scholarly figures who were familiar with the Marxist-Leninist classics, and some of them had reasons and slogans that could be used to criticize Stalin verbally and in writing.
And after Stalin came to power, it did become more and more extreme, which made many people within the CPSU feel unbearable. As a result, new competition is bound to exist, and it is bound to become more intense.
After the 30s, in order to stabilize his position, Stalin began to vigorously promote young cadres who were close to him. The attitude towards the old cadres is becoming more and more contemptuous.
This greatly angered those comrades-in-arms who had fought side by side with him.
This group also began to unite with the former opposition and began to restrain Stalin by various means.
Moreover, these people also hold the Politburo and have very much power. Their threat to Stalin was indeed enormous.
Among them, there are representativesKirov, Ordzhonikidze, Kuibyshev, KalininWait a minute. Historically, they were often called the "New Opposition".
In 1932, the contradictions between the "new opposition" and Stalin began to intensify more and more. In the case of the "Union of Marxist-Leninists", Stalin advocated against the ringleadersGalkin, Ivanovand others to be severely punished, preferably shot, but,In the end, the Politburo simply expelled them from the party
In 1933, the Soviet Union deliberately promoted industrialization, resulting in a great famine. Many farmers couldn't stand it anymore and chose to rise up.
Stalin was angry at this and advocated repression, but Kirov, the leader of the "new opposition", advocated restraint; The "new opposition" also expressed its opposition to Stalin's iron-fisted repression of the old opposition, and in the cities it managedLeningrad, the policy of Stalin was contrary to the yang and the yin.
Even at some meetings, they openly criticized Stalin, arguing that Stalin's line of attack on dissidents was completely wrong.
Soon after, at the 17th Congress of the CPSU, the contradictions between the two sides reached their peak.
At the meeting, some of Stalin's supporters had a very sensible attitude towards this supreme power;
The "new opposition" was formedVareskyThe coalition against Stalin, with the secretaries of the Communist Party of all nationalities and the secretaries of the state party committees as the main responders.
Although their activities are not public, they also secretly put forward a proposition:Remove Stalin and let Kirov take over the post of General Secretary
This proposition was so bold that Kirov himself did not dare to agree with it.
At the electoral voting stage of the conference, Stalin was taken aback.
At that time, the election list was sorted by the number of votes received from the supporters. And Stalin, as the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, was ranked last in the list of the Politburo Committee.
That is, the least number of supporters for him. In contrast, Kirov had only 3 votes against it, while Stalin had 270 votes.
The situation of the 17th Congress made Stalin aware of the danger. In order to keep his power, he began to use his hands to eliminate some ** committee members who were not friendly with him, and at the same time replace some people who were close to him.
Later became famousSecret Police ForceChieftainBeria, it was this opportunity to soar.
However, Stalin's actions did not stop the activities of the opposition.
As the leader of this faction, Kirov still held high prestige among the workers. And his relationship with Stalin was completely broken after the 17th Party Congress.
In the following more than a year, two Soviet leaders who were also in high power turned out to be "zero exchanges", and they never even fought a single **.
On the night of December 1, 1934KirovAssassinated in front of the Smolny Palace.
Stalin, with whom he was originally involved in the Cold War, showed great interest in the case at this time. He ordered the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Yagoda, to launch an investigation into the assassination of Kirov.
Moreover, he also hinted that Yagoda would lean in the direction of politics in the trial of the case.
Finally, in August 1936, the case went to trial.
The all-Soviet propaganda machine kicked in and threw all the blame on the opposition. After that, a political wave was set off throughout the Soviet Union, and the masses of the people took to the streets to denounce the criminals.
With this as a beginning, the climax of the Great Purge began.
In this frenzy, Stalin used the propaganda of the CPSU ** as a caliber, accusing the old and new opposition of "spies", "traitors", saying that they were constantly engaged in actions to sabotage the country.
He arrested them and sent them into exile, imprisoned, and even shot. In the process, whoever wants to die will be put on a hat.
Stalin's aim was to "destroy those potential people who could be reorganized."
As long as he considers a threat, he will be arrested regardless of whether he is indiscriminate.
As for the hidden opposition among the people, Stalin issued orders encouraging the Soviet people to report and expose each other. For a time, the Soviet Union fell into a bloody storm, bullets were fired indiscriminately to execute prisoners, and prisons and ** farms were overcrowded.
It is estimated that one out of every two families in the Soviet Union at that time was imprisoned.
This trend, which began in 1928 and lasted for 10 years.
And the aftermath lasted even after Stalin's death, that is, in 1953.
During this time, no one can accurately count the exact number of people who died. According to the data given before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this figure is 4.5 million.
And even more Western**, according to their own exaggerated propaganda, gave an even more appalling figure: during the reign of Stalin, the number of unnatural deaths of the Soviets was 22 million, to say the least! And if the statistics are broader, the number will reach 66 million.
It should be said that no matter which number it is, it should be exaggerated.
At that time, the total population of the Soviet Union was less than 200 million, and it was unreasonable to lose so many people at once.
However, even if it is conservatively estimated, this number is not too small. Six or seven hundred thousand people have been poisoned, and this should be a more realistic situation.
So, what effect did this campaign have on the Soviet Union?
Some scholars today, out of disgust with Western propaganda, have come to a very bizarre conclusion:The Great Purge was a necessary process for the Soviet Union. Their main basis is the trajectory of the Soviet Union before and after the Great Purge.
The USSR was originally an agrarian country with relatively weak industrial capacity.
In order to quickly complete industrialization, Stalin plundered the wealth of the countryside without restraint. And the means of plundering are precisely this Great Purge.
Indeed, Stalin, relying on this form, quickly completed the industrialization of the Soviet Union, laying the foundation for its later ability to become a superpower.
At the same time, Stalin's "Great Purge" slaughtered the opposition and made Stalin's authority unshakable.
This helps to unite all the resources of the country against foreign invaders at a time when capitalist countries are surrounded by wars and wars are on the horizon.
But in fact, the Great Purge did far more harm than benefits to the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union did complete industrialization in a short period of time by centralizing power and squeezing the peasantry. However, their level of technology and education is far from reaching a level that can adapt to industrialization.
This creates a very embarrassing situation:After World War II, although the Soviet Union obtained a large number of scientific and technological achievements from Germany, it was never able to thoroughly understand these technologies, so that in the high-tech competition, it lagged far behind the United States, and finally failed in the competition.
As for the face of war, the Great Purge was also very drastic.
A total of thirty-five thousand senior commanders of the Red Army were killed during this campaign, including three of the four commanders of the first rank of the army and sixteen commanders of the army group. Twelve commanders of the 1st rank army, emptied. Of the fifty-seven commanders, fifty were executed.
In a bloody storm, most of the heroes who came out of the revolution of that year were executed. The rest of the leaders are either inexperienced or not skilled enough.
After the German invasion began, the Soviet Union was beaten back in the early stages of the war, and even the capital Moscow was almost lost.
As for the loss of ** and personnel, it is even more innumerable. Think about it, if those experienced troop leaders are still there, how can there be such huge losses?
In any case, the Great Purge was a disaster for the Soviet Union. This campaign seriously affected the prestige of the CPSU, as well as the personal prestige of Stalin.
So much so that after his death, the Soviet Union quickly fell into revisionism and hegemonism. Although this catastrophe is still foggy, its destructive power is self-evident. How to sum up experience and prevent history from repeating itself is a topic worthy of careful study by future generations.
Ma Longshan: "Also on the Right and Wrong and Nature of the "Great Purge"".Sun**: On the Causes of the Great Purge in the Soviet Union in the 30s