Mass operations of the NKVD

Last updated

Mass operations of the People's Comissariate of Internal Affairs (NKVD) [1] were carried out during the Great Purge and targeted specific categories of people. As a rule, they were carried out according to the corresponding order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Nikolai Yezhov.

Contents

A total of 340,000 to 350,000 people were sentenced, of whom 140,000 were targeted in the Polish operation and about 55,000 in the German one. [2] 247,157 were executed, a larger percentage than overall for the Great Purge. [3]

National operations of the NKVD

A 31 January 1938 resolution by Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to extend the National operations of the NKVD until 15 April for the destruction of Polish, Latvian, German, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Iranian, Harbinian, Chinese and Romanian "spy-saboteur contingent" signed by Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Kliment Voroshilov, Anastas Mikoyan and Vlas Chubar Great Purge Resolution of Central Committee.jpg
A 31 January 1938 resolution by Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to extend the National operations of the NKVD until 15 April for the destruction of Polish, Latvian, German, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Iranian, Harbinian, Chinese and Romanian "spy-saboteur contingent" signed by Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Kliment Voroshilov, Anastas Mikoyan and Vlas Chubar

The operations of this type in this period targeted "foreign" ethnicities (ethnicities with cross-border ties to foreign nation-states), unlike nationally targeted repressions during World War II. According to historian Oleg Khlevniuk, Stalin became concerned about rearguard uprisings that were seen in the Spanish Civil War and believed that "nationalities of foreign governments" posed a threat in border regions, even if they were Soviet citizens whose ancestors had sometimes lived decades or centuries in the areas controlled by the Soviet Union. [4]

Minutes of the January 31, 1938 Politburo meeting list the following ethnicities against which NKVD operations were to be continued: Poles, Latvians, Germans, Estonians, Finns, Greeks, Iranians, Harbinites, Chinese, and Romanians. It was also suggested to carry out similar NKVD operations against Bulgarians and Macedonians. [5]

From August 1937 to October 1938, 353,513 people were arrested and 247,157 were shot in the national operations of NKVD. It is estimated that this would make up 34% of the total victims of the Great Purge. [6]

Nationality of arrested persons, from January 1, 1936 to July 1, 1938, [17] [18]
NationalityArrestedShare of arrested, %Share of population, %Overrepresentation
Russians 657,79946.30%58.39%0.79
Ukrainians 189,41013.33%16.48%0.81
Poles 105,4857.42%0.37%20.10
Germans 75,3315.3%0.8%6.34
Belarusians 58,7024.1%3.1%1.34
Jews 30,5422.15%1.78%1.21
Latvians 21,3921.51%0.07%22.43
Iranians 14,9941.06%0.02%45.72
Estonians 11,0020.77%0.08%9.20
Finns 10,6780.75%0.08%8.94
Chinese 8,5380.60%0.02%32.00
Buryats 7,8450.55%0.13%4.19
Greeks 6,5650.46%0.17%2.75
Koreans 5,1610.36%0.11%3.40
Lithuanians 2,8180.20%0.02%10.37
Others [note 1] 219,61015.46%18.61%0.83
Total1,420,711100%100%1

Other

Rollback

On November 17, 1938 a joint decree No. 81 of Sovnarkom USSR and Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Decree about Arrests, Prosecutor Supervision and Course of Investigation and the subsequent order of the NKVD undersigned by Lavrentiy Beria canceled most of NKVD orders of mass type (but not all, see, e.g., NKVD Order No. 00689) and suspended implementation of death sentences, signifying the end of the Great Purge ("Yezhovshchina").

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Among them 2,989 Romanians, 2,091 Afghans and 236 Japanese.

References

  1. ↑ Vadim Rogovin "The Party of the Executed" (1997) ISBN   5-85272-026-7, Chapter 1: "Mass Operations" (in Russian)
  2. ↑ Savin, Andrey. "Ethnification of Stalinism? Ethnic Cleansings and the NKVD Order No 00447 in a Comparative Perspective". In Andrej Kotljarchuk & Olle Sundström (ed.). Ethnic and Religious Minorities in Stalin's Soviet Union: New Dimensions of Research. p. 48.
  3. ↑ "The NKVD Mass Secret National Operations (August 1937 - November 1938) | Sciences Po Mass Violence and Resistance - Research Network". www.sciencespo.fr. 15 April 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2025.
  4. ↑ Werth, Nicolas (2010). "The NKVD Mass Secret National Operations (August 1937 – November 1938)". Mass Violence & Résistance. ISSN   1961-9898.
  5. ↑ Выписка из протокола заседания Политбюро ЦК ВКП(б) о продлении операции против поляков, латышей, немцев, эстонцев, финнов, греков, иранцев, харбинцев, китайцев и румын. 31 января 1938 г.
  6. ↑ Sundström, Olle; Kotljarchuk, Andrej (2017). "Introduction: the problem of ethnic and religious minorities in Stalin's Soviet Union". Ethnic and Religious Minorities in Stalin's Soviet Union: New Dimensions of Research (PDF). Södertörn Academic Studies. p. 16. ISBN   9789176017777.
  7. ↑ Eric J. Schmaltz. "Soviet "Paradise" Revisited: Genocide, Dissent, Memory and Denial" (PDF). GRHS Heritage Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 18, 2011. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
  8. ↑ Н.Охотин, А.Рогинский, Москва. Из истории "немецкой операции" НКВД 1937-1938 гг.Chapter 2
  9. ↑ Will Englund (November 12, 2012). "Greeks of the steppe". The Washington Post. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  10. ↑ Agtzidis, Vlasis (1991). "The Persecution of Pontic Greeks in the Soviet Union" . Journal of Refugee Studies . 4 (4): 372–382. doi:10.1093/jrs/4.4.372.
  11. ↑ Björn M. Felder: Lettland im Zweiten Weltkrieg. p. 72.
  12. ↑ Pohl, J. Otto (1999), Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937-1949, Greenwood, page 13-14
  13. ↑ Yin, Guangming (2016). "苏联处置远东华人问题的历史考察(1937—1938)" [A Historical Investigation of the Soviet Union's Handling of the Chinese Issue in the Far East (1937-1938)]. Modern Chinese History Studies (in Simplified Chinese) (2). Beijing: Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: 41. Archived from the original on 22 June 2022. Retrieved 25 June 2022– via Renmin University of China Library.
  14. ↑ Werth, Nicolas (2010-05-20). "The NKVD Mass Secret National Operations (August 1937 – November 1938)". Sciences Po . Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  15. ↑ Torvinen, Pekka (2021-01-27). "Stalinin vainoissa kuolleiden tai kadonneiden suomalaisten vaiheiden selvittämistä jatketaan". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  16. ↑ "Ukraine: Secret service publishes Stalin files". BBC News. August 2014.
  17. ↑ Krieger, Victor [in German]; Kampen, Hans; Paulsen, Nina (2016). Gedenkschrift 75 Jahre Deportation der Deutschen in der Sowjetunion : Entrechtet - Entwürdigt - Entwurzelt (PDF) (in German). Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland. p. 6.
  18. ↑ Danilov, Victor P. [in Russian]; Manning, Roberta P. [in German] (2006). The Tragedy of the Russian village: Collectivization and Dekulakization: Documents and Materials: Vol.5: 1937-1939: Part 2.1938-1939 (in Russian). ROSSPEN. p. 18. ISBN   978-5824300062.
  19. ↑ Snyder, Timothy (2012). Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. Basic Books. p. 81. ISBN   978-0465002399.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.