Great Purge

The Great Purge is the name given to campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s which included purges of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Victim toll

According to MVD estimates carried out by order of a special commission of the Communist Party in preparation to the 20th Party Congress, at least 681,692 people were executed during 1937–38 alone, and only accounting for the execution lists signed personally by Stalin from archives of NKVD. The exact total of persons affected remains uncertain and depends on how the count is made, especially depending on the time period considered and whether deaths related to the Gulag and transportation losses are included.

Related Topics:
MVD - 20th Party Congress

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Some current historians estimate higher numbers.http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Stalin. The old records of the KGB have been available for access by the newer governments of Russia.

Related Topics:
KGB - Russia

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One of Russia's leading human rights groups, the Memorial Society, has released a list of 1,345,796 names of people who fell victim to Soviet political repressions.

Related Topics:
Russia - Human rights - Memorial Society - Soviet political repressions

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