Joseph Stalin

====The Great Terror====
{{main|Great Purge}}
[[File:Vinnycia16.jpg|thumb|right|Exhumed mass grave of the [[Vinnitsia massacre]]]]
Stalin often gave conflicting signals regarding state repression.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=126}} In May 1933, he released from prison many convicted of minor offences, ordering the security services not to enact further mass arrests and deportations.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=125}} In September 1934, he launched a commission to investigate false imprisonments; that same month he called for the execution of workers at the Stalin Metallurgical Factory accused of spying for Japan.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=126}} This mixed approach began to change in December 1934, after prominent party member [[Sergey Kirov]] was murdered.{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=179|2a1=Montefiore|2y=2003|2pp=126–127|3a1=Service|3y=2004|3p=314|4a1=Khlevniuk|4y=2015|4pp=128–129}} After the murder, Stalin became increasingly concerned by the threat of assassination, improved his personal security, and rarely went out in public.{{sfn|Overy|2004|p=327}} State repression intensified after Kirov's death;{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|pp=128, 137}} Stalin instigated this, reflecting his prioritisation of security above other considerations.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=347}} Stalin issued a decree establishing [[NKVD troika]]s which could mete out rulings without involving the courts.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=315}} In 1935, he ordered the NKVD to expel suspected counterrevolutionaries from urban areas;{{sfn|Service|2004|p=318}} in early 1935, over 11,000 were expelled from Leningrad.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=318}} In 1936, [[Nikolai Yezhov]] became head of the NKVD.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=139}}

{{multiple image |align=left |direction=vertical |width=230
|image1= |caption1 =In this well-known image, [[Nikolai Yezhov]] is shown with Voroshilov, Molotov, and Stalin inspecting the White Sea Canal
|image2= |caption2=The image was later altered to remove Yezhov completely
}}

Stalin orchestrated the arrest of many former opponents in the Communist Party [[Central Committee elected by the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)|as well as sitting members of the Central Committee]]: denounced as Western-backed mercenaries, many were imprisoned or exiled internally.{{sfn|Service|2004|pp=314–317}} The first [[Moscow Trials|Moscow Trial]] took place in August 1936; Kamenev and Zinoviev were among those accused of plotting assassinations, found guilty in a show trial, and executed.{{sfnm|1a1=Montefiore|1y=2003|1pp=139, 154–155, 164–172, 175–176|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2p=320|3a1=Khlevniuk|3y=2015|3p=139}} The second Moscow Show Trial took place in January 1937,{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|pp=139–140}} and the third in March 1938, in which Bukharin and Rykov were accused of involvement in the alleged Trotskyite-Zinovievite terrorist plot and sentenced to death.{{sfnm|1a1=Montefiore|1y=2003|1pp=192–193|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2p=346|3a1=Conquest|3y=2008|3p=24 |4a1=Khlevniuk|4y=2015|4p=140}} By late 1937, all remnants of collective leadership were gone from the Politburo, which was controlled entirely by Stalin.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|pp=176–177}} There were mass expulsions from the party,{{sfn|Service|2004|p=349}} with Stalin commanding foreign communist parties to also purge anti-Stalinist elements.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=391}}

[[File:RIAN archive 910794 Memorial events in Bykovnya Graves reserve.jpg|thumb|right|Victims of Stalin's [[Great Purge|Great Terror]] in the [[Bykivnia graves|Bykivnia mass graves]]]]
Repressions further intensified in December 1936 and remained at a high level until November 1938, a period known as the [[Great Purge]].{{sfn|Service|2004|p=347}} In May 1937, this was followed by the [[Case of the Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization|arrest]] of most members of the military Supreme Command and mass arrests throughout the military, often on fabricated charges.{{sfnm|1a1=Montefiore|1y=2003|1p=201|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2p=349|3a1=Khlevniuk|3y=2015|3p=140}}  By the latter part of 1937, the purges had moved beyond the party and were affecting the wider population.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|pp=141, 150}} In July 1937, the Politburo ordered a purge of "anti-Soviet elements" in society, targeting anti-Stalin Bolsheviks, former Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries, priests, ex-White Army soldiers, and common criminals.{{sfnm|1a1=Service|1y=2004|1p=350|2a1=Khlevniuk|2y=2015|2pp=150–151}} That month, Stalin and Yezhov signed [[NKVD Order No. 00447|Order No. 00447]], listing 268,950 people for arrest, of whom 75,950 were executed.{{sfnm|1a1=Montefiore|1y=2003|1pp=203–204|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2pp=350–351|3a1=Khlevniuk|3y=2015|3p=150}} He also initiated "national operations", the [[ethnic cleansing]] of non-Soviet ethnic groups—among them Poles, Germans, Latvians, Finns, Greeks, Koreans, and Chinese—through internal or external exile.{{sfnm|1a1=Montefiore|1y=2003|1p=204|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2pp=351, 390|3a1=Khlevniuk|3y=2015|3p=151}} During these years, approximately 1.6&nbsp;million people were arrested, 700,000 were shot, and an unknown number died under NKVD torture.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=151}}

During the 1930s and 1940s, NKVD groups assassinated defectors and opponents abroad;{{sfn|Service|2004|p=394}} in August 1940, Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico, eliminating the last of Stalin's opponents among the former Party leadership.{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=230|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2p=394|3a1=Overy|3y=2004|3p=338|4a1=Khlevniuk|4y=2015|4p=174}}  These purges replaced most of the party's old guard with younger officials who did not remember a time before Stalin's leadership and who were regarded as more personally loyal to him.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|pp=137–138, 147}} Party functionaries readily carried out their commands and sought to ingratiate themselves with Stalin to avoid becoming the victim of the purge.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=140}} Such functionaries often carried out a greater number of arrests and executions than their quotas set by Stalin's central government.{{sfn|Montefiore|2003|p=204}}

Stalin initiated all key decisions during the Terror, personally directing many of its operations and taking an interest in their implementation.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|pp=151, 159}} His motives in doing so have been much debated by historians.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=151}} His personal writings from the period were — according to Khlevniuk — "unusually convoluted and incoherent", filled with claims about enemies encircling him.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=152}} He was particularly concerned at the success that right-wing forces had in overthrowing the leftist Spanish government,{{sfnm|1a1=Service|1y=2004|1pp=347–248|2a1=Khlevniuk|2y=2015|2pp=125, 156–157}} fearing a domestic [[fifth column]] in the event of future war with Japan and Germany.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|pp=153, 156–157}} The Great Terror ended when Yezhov was removed as the head of the NKVD, to be replaced by [[Lavrentiy Beria]],{{sfn|Service|2004|p=367}} a man totally devoted to Stalin.{{sfn|Montefiore|2003|p=245}} Yezhov was arrested in April 1939 and executed in 1940.{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=209|2a1=Service|2y=2004|2p=369|3a1=Khlevniuk|3y=2015|3p=160}} The Terror damaged the Soviet Union's reputation abroad, particularly among sympathetic leftists.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=162}} As it wound down, Stalin sought to deflect responsibility from himself,{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=157}} blaming its "excesses" and "violations of law" on Yezhov.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=159}} According to historian James Harris, contemporary archival research shows that the motivation behind the purges was not Stalin attempting to establish his own personal dictatorship; evidence suggests he was committed to building the socialist state envisioned by Lenin. The real motivation for the terror, according to Harris, was an excessive fear of counterrevolution.{{sfn|Harris|2017|pp=1–5, 16}}