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Great Purge
Tag
(14)
1934
December
01
The murder of Kirov
On 1 December 1934 at the Smolny, Leonid Nikolaev shot Sergei Kirov, the Leningrad party chief. Stalin used the crime to unleash a wave of repression.
1936
August
19
The first Moscow trial
On 19–24 August 1936 Zinoviev, Kamenev and 14 others were tried in Moscow for conspiring with Trotsky and murdering Kirov. All were shot.
October
01
Key event
The Great Purge
On 1 October 1936 Nikolai Yezhov took over the NKVD. In 1937–1938 his men arrested 1.5 million people and shot about 680,000, including many army commanders.
1939
November
01
The USSR annexes eastern Poland
On 1–2 November 1939 the Supreme Soviet annexed eastern Poland to the Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSRs, citing rigged “elections” of 22 October.
1940
February
10
First deportation from the eastern lands
On 10 February 1940 the NKVD began deporting families of military settlers and foresters from the Kresy. NKVD documents put the total at nearly 140,000.
March
05
Decision to shoot Polish prisoners
On 5 March 1940 the Politburo adopted Beria's proposal to shoot 14,700 Polish POWs and 11,000 prisoners without trial. Stalin was among the signatories.
April
03
Key event
The Katyn massacre
On 3 April 1940 the first prisoners left Kozelsk for their deaths. By mid-May the NKVD had killed almost 22,000 Polish officers, policemen and prisoners.
June
29
Third deportation from the eastern lands
On the night of 28 to 29 June 1940 the NKVD began a third deportation from the Kresy. Those taken were mainly refugees from German-occupied Poland, mostly Jews.
1941
May
22
Fourth deportation from the eastern lands
On 21 May 1941 the NKVD began the last deportation from the Kresy. It came in waves until the German attack on the USSR and took tens of thousands of people.
June
14
The June deportation
On the night of 13–14 June 1941 the NKVD began deporting people from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Over 40,000 were taken in days, Poles from Wilno among them.
September
08
The deportation of the Volga Germans
A decree of 28 August 1941 condemned the Volga Germans to expulsion. From 3 to 20 September the NKVD deported some 440,000 people to Siberia and Kazakhstan.
October
16
The Moscow panic
On 16 October 1941, after the decision to move the government to Kuybyshev, panic gripped Moscow. Stalin stayed; on 19 October a state of siege was declared.
1945
June
18
The Trial of the Sixteen
On 18–21 June 1945 a Soviet military court in Moscow tried the leaders of the Polish Underground State, seized by deceit, including Okulicki and Jankowski.
July
10
The Augustów roundup
On 10–25 July 1945 the Red Army, NKVD and SMERSH, aided by the UB and the militia, combed the Suwałki region; some 600 detainees vanished without trace.