Now that someone has answered the consequences, let me talk about the process: (The information is pasted): In the early 1930s, the Soviet Union had basically formed a highly centralized regulative economic system. In line with this, political power It also tends to be highly centralized. The personality cult of Stalin and Stalin's arbitrary control of power are becoming the dominant tendency in the Soviet political field. This situation has caused concern among some leading cadres within the party. At the same time, the party leadership has also been divided on specific issues such as policies and guidelines for industrialization and agricultural collectivization. Although through several rounds of political struggles, Stalin had eliminated the "opposition" among the old Bolsheviks who once posed a threat to his power and line, and promoted a group of younger cadres who were loyal to him into the leadership, his status still remained. It has not yet been finalized, and his policy proposals may still encounter opposition or resistance from members of the Central Committee and even the Politburo. In order to nip the new opposition in the bud, Stalin needed to launch a comprehensive political purge campaign
The "Kirov Incident" and the beginning of the Great Purge
December 1934 On the evening of the 1st, in the corridor of the Smolny Palace, the seat of the Leningrad Oblast Committee, Kirov, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the United Nations (Bolsheviks) and Secretary of the Leningrad Oblast Committee, was arrested by a man who had sneaked into the palace. The murderer Ergulayev shot and killed him. This incident became the beginning of the "Great Purge" of the Soviet Union in the 1930s.
The assassination of Kirov is still a historical mystery with complicated and confusing circumstances. Although the murderer Nikolayev was arrested on the spot and interrogated personally by Stalin who arrived in Leningrad that day, the interrogation record was never released. Nikolayev was shot that month; the other main witness Borisov (Ky. Love's guard captain) died in a "traffic accident" on his way to trial. Regardless of the truth of the Kirov case, one thing is very clear, that is, this incident provided Stalin with the opportunity to completely cleanse all opposition (including potential opponents), consolidate his power position, and adopt various illegal means to achieve the above goals. excuse. Stalin acted according to this logic at the time.
On the evening of December 1, 1934, based on Stalin's suggestion, the Central Executive Committee and the People's Committee of the Soviet Union passed the "Resolution on Amending the Current Criminal Procedure Codes of the Union Countries", which stipulated that: In cases of terrorist organizations and terrorist activities against workers of the Soviet regime, the investigation work cannot exceed ten days; the conclusion of the accusation is handed over to the defendant one day and night before the official trial; neither the plaintiff nor the defendant will participate in the trial; appeals from the judgment and requests for pardon will not be accepted ;The capital punishment sentence will be executed immediately after it is announced. This provision, later known as "special procedures," opened the door for the use of illegal means to frame charges and persecute dissidents in political purges, and became a tool for Stalin to purge political opponents at will. Since then, the "Great Purge" has been gradually pushed to its climax, the first step of which was the trial of the so-called "Leningrad Headquarters".
The Great Purge Movement was in full swing
On the evening of December 1, 1934, according to Stalin’s suggestion, the Central Executive Committee and the People’s Committee of the Soviet Union passed the "On Modifications of the Allied Communist Party and Soviet Union" Resolution of the current Criminal Procedure Code of the country, which stipulates: In cases involving terrorist organizations and terrorist activities against Soviet regime personnel, the investigation work cannot exceed ten days; the conclusion of the accusation shall be handed over to the defendant one day and night before the official trial; both the plaintiff and the defendant None of them participated in the trial; appeals against the verdict and petitions for pardon were not accepted; the capital punishment sentence was executed immediately after it was announced. This provision, later known as "special procedures," opened the door for the use of illegal means to frame charges and persecute dissidents in political purges, and became a tool for Stalin to purge political opponents at will. Since then, the "Great Purge" has been gradually pushed to its climax, the first step of which was the trial of the so-called "Leningrad Headquarters".
On December 22, 1934, the Soviet government issued a report on the investigation of the Kirov case, mentioning for the first time a terrorist organization called "Leningrad Headquarters", saying that Nikolayev was Members of this organization, which is mainly composed of former Zinoviev-Kamenev opposition members. On December 27, the Soviet government made public the conclusion of the accusation against the "Leningrad Headquarters", confirming that Kirov's murder was instigated by this organization, and said that the murder of Kirov was the result of the organization's attempt to murder Stalin and other party leaders. part of a long-term plan.
After the immediate execution of Nikolayev, the main members of the "Headquarters" were tried on January 15, 1935. Zinoviev and others firmly denied that they had any involvement in the Kirov case, although no evidence could be produced. , the court still sentenced Zinoviev to ten years in prison and Kamenev to five years in prison. On January 18, the Central Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (Bolsheviks) issued a secret letter to party organizations across the country, requiring all localities to mobilize all forces to dig deep into the enemy. This began a mass arrest across the country and created countless unjust cases.
In order to give the "Great Purge" a "legal" appearance, in August 1936, the Military Court of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union held its first public trial. The defendant was the so-called "Trotsky-Ji" There are 16 members of the Noviev Joint Headquarters, including Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Smirnov. During the trial, the court did not present any evidence, and all charges were based on the defendant's "account" and "admission." In the absence of a lawyer's defense, the defendant's "confession" was used as the basis for conviction. The court finally declared that Zinoviev and others had colluded with Trotsky, who had been deported, and masterminded the murder of Kirov, and sentenced 16 defendants to death. Less than 24 hours after the verdict, newspapers reported that the death penalty had been carried out.
The trial of the "Joint Headquarters" led to a new wave of arrests. Based on the "confessions" of the defendants during the trial, a so-called "Trotsky Parallel Headquarters" was unearthed, whose members had skin. Darkov, Radek, Sokolnikov and others. In January 1937, the second public trial in the "Great Purge" was held against the "Parallel Headquarters". The defendants were accused of "accepting Trotsky's instructions", "betraying the motherland, engaging in reconnaissance and military sabotage, and carrying out acts of terrorism and assassination." The procedure was the same as the first public trial (only "defenders" were formally appointed for the defendants). Among the 17 defendants, 13 including Pytakov were sentenced to death, and 4 including Radek were sentenced to ten or eight years. imprisonment.
Because Radek confessed during his trial that he had "criminal connections" with Bukharin, Rykov and others, at the end of February 1937, Bukharin and Rykov were arrested while attending the Central Committee Plenum. The following year In March, the third public trial in the "Great Purge" was held against the so-called "Rightist-Trotsky Alliance". Bukharin and other 21 defendants were prosecuted for "murder" and "treason", and 19 people, including Bukharin and Rykov, were sentenced to death
The three public trials were all "big purges" "The fake cases were carefully concocted during the movement to deceive public opinion at home and abroad. The subjects involved in these trials are only a very small number of representatives of the countless people who were wronged during the "Great Purge". In fact, the injustices caused by the "Great Purge" There are far more false and erroneous convictions than public trials reveal, and the targets of the purge include almost all social fields and all classes from the central government to the grassroots. According to relevant data, 98, or 70%, of the 139 Central Committee members and alternate members elected to the 17th National Congress of the United Nations were purged; among the 1,996 delegates who attended the 17th National Congress, 1,108 , that is, more than half of them were purged; among the 17 Politburo members and alternate members, 5 except Kirov were killed; the Soviets and government agencies also suffered a heavy blow, and only some of the 17 members and alternate members were arrested and executed between 1937 and 1938. There are 17 people's commissars, and with their deputies and subordinates, the number will be several times higher; the army cannot escape the bad luck. In May 1937, a group of senior generals such as Deputy People's Commissar of Defense Tukhachevsky were accused He was arrested and executed for treason for organizing the "Anti-Soviet Military Center", and then a comprehensive purge was carried out in the army. 35,000 officers of the Communist Party were suppressed, including 80% of senior officers and 3 of the marshals. /5, involving all military district commanders and most group army commanders; even the NKVD itself, the security agency used as a tool of the "Great Purge", is not immune. Its members are constantly updated to maintain loyalty to the leader or to be As a scapegoat. Yagoda, who led the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the early days of the "Great Purge", was replaced by the more ruthless Yezhov in September 1936 because he could not meet Stalin's demands. He was soon arrested and executed in 1938. After Yezhov pushed the "Great Purge" to its climax in accordance with Stalin's orders, he suffered the same fate. He was replaced by Beria in July 1938, and on April 1, 1940, he was dismissed as a "baseless suppression of the Soviet people". Shot for crime.
How many unjust cases and innocent people were killed during the "Great Purge"? There are no exact statistics yet, but as a political repression campaign, its scale, breadth of coverage, and depth of harm are unprecedented in history. It was the darkest chapter in the Soviet Union under Stalin's leadership. After 1938, considering that the endurance of the Soviet people was close to its limit and the purpose of the "Great Purge" had been basically achieved, the wave of repression tended to ease, and some wrong practices were corrected to varying degrees. However, because Stalin did not fundamentally understand the error of the "Great Purge", but continued to regard it as a necessary means to consolidate the centralized system, the aftermath of the "Great Purge" continued until the eve of the war and the early stages of the war, and after the war Another climax.