Between October 1940 and February 1942, in spite of the ongoing
German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...
, in particular the
Soviet Air Force
The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...
, as well as
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
military-related industries were subjected to purges by
Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
.
Background
The
Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...
ended in 1939. In October 1940 the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
(People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs), under its new chief
Lavrenty Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ; – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik ...
, started a new purge that initially hit the People's Commissariat of Ammunition, People's Commissariat of Aviation Industry, and People's Commissariat of Armaments. High-level officials admitted guilt, typically under torture, then testified against others. Victims were arrested on fabricated charges of anti-Soviet activity,
sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
, and spying. The wave of arrests in the military-related industries continued well into 1941.
1941 Purge
In April–May 1941, a
Politburo
A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states.
Names
The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contracti ...
inquiry into the high accident rate in the Air Force led to the dismissal of several commanders, including the head of the Air Force, Lieutenant General
Pavel Rychagov
Pavel Vasilievich Rychagov (russian: Павел Васильевич Рычагов; 2 January 1911 – 28 October 1941) was the Commander of the Soviet Air Forces (VVS) for a brief time from 28 August 1940 to 14 April 1941.Hooton, E.R. ''The L ...
. In May, a German
Junkers Ju 52
The Junkers Ju 52/3m (nicknamed ''Tante Ju'' ("Aunt Ju") and ''Iron Annie'') is a transport aircraft that was designed and manufactured by German aviation company Junkers.
Development of the Ju 52 commenced during 1930, headed by German aero ...
landed in Moscow, undetected by the air defense forces beforehand, leading to mass arrests among the Air Force leadership.
The NKVD soon focused attention on them and began investigating an alleged anti-Soviet conspiracy of German spies in the military, centered around the Air Force and linked to the
conspiracies of 1937–1938. Suspects were transferred in early June from the custody of the
Military Counterintelligence to the NKVD. Further arrests continued well after the German attack on the Soviet Union, which started on June 22, 1941.
Arrests
* May 30: People's Commissar of Ammunition Ivan Sergeyev and Major General
Ernst Schacht
* May 31: Lieutenant General
Pyotr Pumpur
Pyotr Ivanovich Pumpur (, lv, Pēteris Pumpurs; 25 April 1900 – 23 March 1942) was a Soviet Air Forces fighter pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, and lieutenant general of Latvian ethnicity.
Pumpur joined the Red Army in 1918 and became a mech ...
* June 7: People's Commissar of Armaments
Boris Vannikov
Boris Lvovich Vannikov (russian: Бори́с Льво́вич Ва́нников; 26 August 1897 – 22 February 1962) was a Soviet government official and three-star general.
Vannikov was People's Commissar for Defense Industry from December ...
and Colonel General
Grigory Shtern
Grigory Mikhailovich Shtern (russian: Григорий Михайлович Штерн; – 28 October 1941) was a Soviet officer in the Red Army and military advisor during the Spanish Civil War. He also served with distinction during the So ...
* June 8: Lieutenant General
Yakov Smushkevich
* June 18: Lieutenant General Pavel Alekseyev
* June 19: Colonel General
Alexander Loktionov
* June 24: General
Kirill Meretskov and Lieutenant General
Pavel Rychagov
Pavel Vasilievich Rychagov (russian: Павел Васильевич Рычагов; 2 January 1911 – 28 October 1941) was the Commander of the Soviet Air Forces (VVS) for a brief time from 28 August 1940 to 14 April 1941.Hooton, E.R. ''The L ...
* June 27: Lieutenant General
Ivan Proskurov
Ivan Iosifovich Proskurov (Russian: Иван Иосифович Проскуров; – 28 October 1941) was a Soviet pilot and recipient of the title Hero of the Soviet Union, best known as the chief of military intelligence who tried in vain to ...
In wartime
During the first months of the war, scores of commanders, most notably General
Dmitry Pavlov, were made
scapegoat
In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other is sacrificed. The concept first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in which a goat is designate ...
s for failures. Pavlov was arrested and executed after his forces were heavily defeated in the early days of the campaign. Only two of the accused were spared: People's Commissar of Armaments
Boris Vannikov
Boris Lvovich Vannikov (russian: Бори́с Льво́вич Ва́нников; 26 August 1897 – 22 February 1962) was a Soviet government official and three-star general.
Vannikov was People's Commissar for Defense Industry from December ...
(released in July) and Deputy People's Commissar of Defense General
Kirill Meretskov (released in September). The latter had admitted guilt, under torture.
[Michael Parrish. ''The Lesser Terror: Soviet State Security, 1939–1953''. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 1996. . P. 71–76.]
About 300 commanders, including Lieutenant General
Nikolay Klich, Lieutenant General
Robert Klyavinsh
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
, and Major General
Sergey Chernykh
Sergey Aleksandrovich Chernykh (russian: Сергей Александрович Черных; – 16 October 1941) was a Soviet fighter pilot in the Spanish Civil War who went on to become a Major-general and commander of the 9th Mixed Aviation ...
, were executed on October 16, 1941, during the
Battle of Moscow
The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between September 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive ...
. Others were sent to
Kuybyshev, provisional capital of the Soviet Union, on October 17. On October 28 twenty individuals were summarily shot near Kuybyshev on
Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ; – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolshevik ...
's personal order, including Colonel Generals
Alexander Loktionov and
Grigory Shtern
Grigory Mikhailovich Shtern (russian: Григорий Михайлович Штерн; – 28 October 1941) was a Soviet officer in the Red Army and military advisor during the Spanish Civil War. He also served with distinction during the So ...
, Lieutenant Generals
Fyodor Arzhenukhin
Fyodor, Fedor (russian: Фёдор) or Feodor is the Russian form of the name "Theodore" meaning “God’s Gift”. Fedora () is the feminine form. Fyodor and Fedor are two English transliterations of the same Russian name.
It may refer to:
Giv ...
,
Ivan Proskurov
Ivan Iosifovich Proskurov (Russian: Иван Иосифович Проскуров; – 28 October 1941) was a Soviet pilot and recipient of the title Hero of the Soviet Union, best known as the chief of military intelligence who tried in vain to ...
,
Yakov Smushkevich, and
Pavel Rychagov
Pavel Vasilievich Rychagov (russian: Павел Васильевич Рычагов; 2 January 1911 – 28 October 1941) was the Commander of the Soviet Air Forces (VVS) for a brief time from 28 August 1940 to 14 April 1941.Hooton, E.R. ''The L ...
with his wife, as well as several individuals who had been previously arrested during the immediate aftermath of the Great Purge in 1939, prior to the Red Army Purge of 1941, including politicians
Filipp Goloshchyokin
Filipp Isayevich Goloshchyokin (russian: Филипп Исаевич Голощёкин) (born Shaya Itsikovich) (russian: Шая Ицикович) ( – October 28, 1941) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, and party functiona ...
and
Mikhail Kedrov.
In November, Beria successfully lobbied Stalin to simplify the procedure for carrying out death sentences issued by local military courts so that they would no longer require approval of the
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court and Politburo for the first time since the end of the Great Purge. The right to issue extrajudicial death sentences was granted to the
Special Council of the NKVD. With the approval of Stalin, 46 persons, including 17 generals, among them Lieutenant Generals
Pyotr Pumpur
Pyotr Ivanovich Pumpur (, lv, Pēteris Pumpurs; 25 April 1900 – 23 March 1942) was a Soviet Air Forces fighter pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, and lieutenant general of Latvian ethnicity.
Pumpur joined the Red Army in 1918 and became a mech ...
,
Pavel Alekseyev,
Konstantin Gusev,
Yevgeny Ptukhin,
Nikolai Trubetskoy,
Pyotr Klyonov,
Ivan Selivanov, Major General
Ernst Schacht, and People's Commissar of Ammunition Ivan Sergeyev, were sentenced to death by the Special Council. They were executed on the
Day of the Red Army, February 23, 1942.
Aftermath
On February 4, 1942, Beria and his ally
Georgy Malenkov
Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov ( – 14 January 1988) was a Soviet politician who briefly succeeded Joseph Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union. However, at the insistence of the rest of the Presidium, he relinquished control over the p ...
, both members of the
State Defense Committee
The State Defense Committee (russian: Государственный комитет обороны - ГКО, translit=Gosudarstvennyĭ komitet oborony - GKO) was an extraordinary organ of state power in the USSR during the German-Soviet War (Gr ...
, were assigned to supervise production of aircraft, armaments, and ammunition.
Many victims were exonerated posthumously during
de-Stalinization
De-Stalinization (russian: десталинизация, translit=destalinizatsiya) comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and the thaw brought about by ascension ...
in the 1950s–1960s. In December 1953 a special secret session of the
Supreme Court of the Soviet Union
The Supreme Court of the Soviet Union (russian: Верховный Суд СССР) was the highest court of the Soviet Union during its existence. The Supreme Court of the USSR included a Military Collegium and other elements which were not typic ...
, itself without
due process
Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual per ...
, found Beria guilty of terrorism for the extrajudicial executions of October 1941 and other crimes, and was given the death penalty as his sentence.
See also
*
Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization (Tukhachevsky trial)
References
{{Joseph Stalin
1941 in the Soviet Union
1942 in the Soviet Union
Joseph Stalin
Lavrentiy Beria
Military history of the Soviet Union during World War II
NKVD
Political and cultural purges
Political repression in the Soviet Union
Soviet military personnel