"Great Terror"

Categories / Social Life/Political Repressions
"GREAT TERROR", a term introduced by American historian Robert Conquest (1971), referring to mass repression in the USSR in 1937-38 (in Russia, it was traditionally called "ezhovshchina", after the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR N.I. Ezhov, or just "The Year of 1937"). "The Great Terror" was launched according to a decree issued by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) on 2 July 1937; the operation was initiated on 5 August 1937, after an operational order given by the People's Commissar of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) of the USSR, issued on 30 July 1937 (approved by Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) on 31 July 1937). The main instrument of "The Great Terror" in Leningrad was the so-called Osobaya Troika ("special triplet", a tribunal of three people), made up of the Leningrad Regional Department of the NKVD (established according to a decree issued by the NKVD of the USSR on 31 July 1937). It convicted 32,714 people (including 9,265 Leningrad residents and 23,449 resident of the Leningrad Region). Following the operational order of the NKVD of the USSR (25 July 1937) to start the operation against "enemy agents with the German Secret Service", about 3,000 Soviet citizens of German origin were convicted. The operational order of the NKVD of the USSR (11 August 1937) "against fascist-inspired rebellious, espionage, sabotage, defeat and terrorist activities of the Polish Secret Services in the USSR" in Leningrad and its region in August 1937 – November 1938 led to the conviction of 29,500 people of various nationalities (Poles, Germans, Latvians, Estonians, Finns); 21,500 of them were executed by shooting. The operational order of the NKVD of the USSR (15 August 1937) declared that people's enemies' wives and children of 15 and older were subject to repression, and over 2,000 women were sentenced to camp imprisonment by February 1938. Accurate statistics are lacking regarding people convicted with verdicts given by other punitive agencies in this period. Officially, "The Great Terror" campaign was ceased according to a decree issued by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) on 15 November 1938, suspending all investigations carried out by troikas starting 16 November 1938, and a regulation was passed on 17 November 1938 by the Soviet of the People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) "To abolish troikas and prohibit mass repression". Actually, only 3,691 people were released of the 13,600 people under investigation in Leningrad prisons on 17 November 1938. During "The Great Terror", in Leningrad and its region, from the period of 5 August 1937 to 16 November 1938, the NKVD convicted a total of 53,658 people, with 44,479 of them sentenced to death by shooting. Aside from that, 2,272 prisoners of camps were executed by shooting following sentences issued by the Osobaya Troika of the Leningrad Regional Department of the NKVD; the so-called Dvoika ("Twosome", a commission consisting of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR and the Public Prosecutor of the USSR) sentenced another 17,640 residents of Leningrad and its region to be shot. Information concerning the shootings and burial sites was kept in strict secret (the tactic of "10 years without the right to correspond" was used for this); during the rehabilitation campaign of the 1950-60s, relatives of those who were shot were given fake death certificates that said people had died in camps or places of detention; certificates of rehabilitation from the 1990s included the date of sentence and the date of execution.

References: Хлевнюк О. В. 1937-й: Сталин, НКВД и советское общество. М., 1992; Ленинградский мартиролог, 1937–1938: Кн. памяти жертв полит. репрессий / Отв. ред. А. Я. Разумов. СПб., 1995–2002. Т. 1-5; Иванов В. А. Миссия Ордена: Механизм массовых репрессий в Сов. России в конце 20-х-40-х гг.: (На материалах Северо-Запада РСФСР). СПб., 1997.

I. A. Flige. Conquest Robert
Ezhov Nikolay Ivanovich
Ezhov Nikolay Ivanovich
Ezhov Nikolay Ivanovich
Ezhov Nikolay Ivanovich
Иванов В. А. Миссия Ордена: Механизм массовых репрессий в Сов. России в конце 20-х - 40-х гг.: (На материалах Северо-Запада РСФСР). СПб., 1997
Хлевнюк О. В. 1937-й: Сталин, НКВД и сов. о-во. М., 1992
Ленинградский мартиролог, 1937-1938: Кн. памяти жертв полит. репрессий / Отв. ред. А. Я. Разумов. СПб., 1995-2002 "Great Terror"
1937