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The '''Great Purge''', also known as the '''Moscow show trials''', began in [[Moscow]] on 15 August 1936 with the trial of 'the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre'.<ref>Isaac Deutscher, ''The Great Purges'', edited by Tamara Deutscher (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1984), p. 72.</ref> Besides vengeance and elimination of the opposition, the show trials were intended to intimidate anyone who dared  to challenge the [[Leftist]] [[Deep state]].

The '''Great Purge''', also known as the '''Moscow show trials''', began in [[Moscow]] on 15 August 1936 with the trial of 'the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre'.<ref>Isaac Deutscher, ''The Great Purges'', edited by Tamara Deutscher (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1984), p. 72.</ref> Besides vengeance and elimination of the opposition, the show trials were intended to intimidate anyone who dared  to challenge the [[Leftist]] [[Deep state]].

Throughout the decade of the 1930s the contest between [[CPSU]] General Secretary [[Josef Stalin]] and [[Leon Trotsky]] occupied the centre of the Soviet political scene. From various places of exile in Turkey, France and Norway, Trotsky ceaselessly attacked Stalin. The [[Bolshevik]] hierarchy - Trotskyists, Zinovievists, Bukharinists and Stalinists listened intently to every word of the founder of the [[Red Army]]. In Bolshevik eyes, Trotsky represented the sole alternative to Stalin and Stalinism; and so the whole Stalinist [[propaganda]] machine concentrated immense eftorts upon discrediting him.<ref>Deutscher, ''The Great Purges'', p. 69.</ref> Stalin carried the anti-Trotsky campaign into every sphere of thought and activity both within the borders of the [[Soviet Union]] and abroad, among the [[Comintern]] apparatus abroad. The campaign reached its climax in 1936-38 when the world was treated to the spectacle of the Moscow Trials, of which Trotsky, was 'tried' in absentia.

Throughout the decade of the 1930s the leadership disput between the founder of the [[Red Army]] [[Leon Trotsky]] and [[CPSU]] General Secretary [[Josef Stalin]] occupied the centre of the Soviet political scene. From various places of exile in Turkey, France and Norway, Trotsky ceaselessly criticized Stalin. The [[Bolshevik]] hierarchy - Trotskyists, Zinovievists, Bukharinists and Stalinists listened intently to every word of Trotsky. In Bolshevik eyes, Trotsky represented the sole alternative to Stalin and Stalinism; and so the whole Stalinist [[propaganda]] machine concentrated immense eftorts upon discrediting him.<ref>Deutscher, ''The Great Purges'', p. 69.</ref>  

Nearly all the leaders of the [[October Revolution]], all members of [[Lenin]]'s Politbureau, most commanders of the [[Red Army]], scientists and writers were denounced as [[terrorist]]s, murderers, and wreckers, as foreign spies and traitors, and executed.<ref>Deutscher, ''The Great Purges'', p. 6.</ref> [[Andrey Vyshinsky]] was the Prosecutor General.

Stalin carried the anti-Trotsky campaign into every sphere of thought and activity both within the borders of the [[Soviet Union]] and abroad, among the [[Comintern]] apparatus abroad. The campaign reached its climax in 1936-38 when the world was treated to the spectacle of the Moscow Trials, of which Trotsky, was 'tried' in absentia.

During the Terror 3 million people were arrested on various and often made-up charges, while 750,000 were executed. Due to the interrogation techniques of the NKVD (later, KGB), which often were torturous, most of those arrested confessed and were sent to work camps, called the [[Gulag]] for 10 years and sometimes even 25. Here, prisoners were forced to labor in mines, to log forests, or to do construction. Few lived through their sentences.  

 

During the Terror 3 million people were arrested on various [[politically incorrect]] and made-up charges, while 750,000 were executed. Due to the interrogation techniques of the NKVD (later, KGB), which often were torturous, most of those arrested confessed and were sent to work camps, called the [[Gulag]] for 10 years and sometimes even 25. Here, prisoners were forced to labor in mines, to log forests, or to do construction. Few lived through their sentences.  

Stalin eviscerated the high command of the [[Red Army]], killing 90% of the senior leadership. This would have disastrous consequences for the USSR in 1941 when Germany invaded the country. Those responsible for the apparatus of state oppression were not spared, either: of the NKVD's 809 high officials, only 43 lived through the purges. According to KGB defector [[Alexander Orlov]], more than 3,000 NKVD officers were shot in 1937 alone.<ref>Alexander Orlov, ''The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes'', (New York: Random House, 1952), p. 216.</ref>

Stalin eviscerated the high command of the [[Red Army]], killing 90% of the senior leadership. This would have disastrous consequences for the USSR in 1941 when Germany invaded the country. Those responsible for the apparatus of state oppression were not spared, either: of the NKVD's 809 high officials, only 43 lived through the purges. According to KGB defector [[Alexander Orlov]], more than 3,000 NKVD officers were shot in 1937 alone.<ref>Alexander Orlov, ''The Secret History of Stalin's Crimes'', (New York: Random House, 1952), p. 216.</ref>