The “Great Purge” in USSR [Great Terror]

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.2.00: Post-1917 Writing and Culture in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, 1917-present.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Domains

Massacres, purges

Dates

Date of occurrence 1934-12-01-1939

Places

Russia (Location)
Ukraine (Location)

Resources

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The Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin. It involved the purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the repression of peasants (epecially of the rich kulaks), of the Red Army leadership, and the persecution of the general populance. It was characterized by widespread police surveillance, a climate of generalised suspicion, imprisonment, and killings. Estimates of the number of deaths associated with the Great Purge run from the official figure of 681,692 to nearly 2 million.

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88 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "The “Great Purge” in USSR [Great Terror]". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 February 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=2988, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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