Great Purge

E1755

The Great Purge was a brutal campaign of political repression, mass arrests, and executions in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s that targeted perceived enemies of the state, including Communist Party members, military leaders, and ordinary citizens.

All labels observed (9)

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf mass political repression
political purge
state repression campaign
aftermath partial denunciation during Khrushchev Thaw
aimedAt consolidation of Stalin's personal power
elimination of perceived enemies of the state
elimination of political opposition
alsoKnownAs Great Purge
surface form: Great Terror

Yezhovshchina
carriedOutBy KGB
surface form: NKVD
chargeOftenUsed counterrevolutionary activities
espionage
sabotage
treason
country Soviet Union
endDate 1938
estimatedVictims hundreds of thousands executed
millions imprisoned or sent to Gulag
historicalAssessment crime against humanity
keyFigure Nikolai Yezhov
legalInstrument Article 58 of the RSFSR Penal Code
location Belarus
surface form: Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic

Kazakhstan
surface form: Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic

Russian SFSR
surface form: Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

Soviet Ukraine
surface form: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

other Soviet republics
mainPerpetrator Joseph Stalin
method executions
forced labor camps
mass arrests
show trials
torture during interrogations
notableConsequence decimation of Red Army officer corps
strengthening of Stalin's dictatorship
widespread climate of fear
notableEvent Trial of the Sixteen
surface form: Trial of the Seventeen

Trial of the Sixteen
Trial of the Twenty-One
organizedBy Communist Party of the Soviet Union
partOf Stalinist repression
history of the Soviet Union
precededBy Great Purge self-linksurface differs
surface form: Moscow show trials
startDate 1936
targetedGroup Communist Party members
Soviet military officers
ethnic minorities
intellectuals
ordinary citizens
timePeriod late 1930s

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (86)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Sergei Sedov victimOf Great Purge
Moscow Trials partOf Great Purge
Ivan Smirnov deathCauseContext Great Purge
Ivan Smirnov historicalEventContext Great Purge
this entity surface form: Stalinist purges
Grigory Yevdokimov wasAccusedIn Great Purge
Fedor Reingold politicalContext Great Purge
Konstantin Berman-Yurin partOf Great Purge
Konstantin Berman-Yurin historicalContext Great Purge
this entity surface form: Great Purge in the Soviet Union
Yevgeny Ginzburg subjectOf Great Purge
this entity surface form: Stalin’s Great Purge
Yevgeny Ginzburg politicalContext Great Purge
Alexei Rykov victimOf Great Purge
Pavel Piatakov victimOf Great Purge
Fritz David participantIn Great Purge
Eduard Holtzman facetOf Great Purge
Christian Rakovsky victimOf Great Purge
Fritz Noether victimOf Great Purge
Arkady Rosengolts partOf Great Purge
Constitution of the RSFSR (1937) historicalContext Great Purge
this entity surface form: Great Purge period
Andrei Bubnov facedEvent Great Purge
Andrei Bubnov participantIn Great Purge
this entity surface form: Great Purge (as victim)
Nikolai Krestinsky participantIn Great Purge
NKVD camps relatedTo Great Purge
Martin Latsis victimOf Great Purge
NKWD notableWork Great Purge
subject surface form: NKVD
NKWD notableEvent Great Purge
subject surface form: NKVD
Titsian Tabidze victimOf Great Purge
Matvei Bronstein victimOf Great Purge
Gustav Klutsis victimOf Great Purge