Post War Purges

• During war people hoped that when it was over, peace would be brought, however Stalin made this impossible.

  He became increasingly paranoid, and saw threats and plots everywhere.

  • Launched a series of purges to uncover potential enermies
• During the post war purges, Stalin targeted:

  • Members of the military
  • Communist party members
  • National minorities

  The Gulag population almost tripled, from 1.6 million in 1942, to 4.7 million in 1947.
• The 1.5 million Soviet prisoners of war returning from Germany were treated like criminals for 'allowing themselves' to be captured.

  • Interrogated by the NKVD
  • Most were deported to labour camps in Siberia

  The Heroes of war also fell victim to Stalin's purges, for example: Marshal Zhukov, the architect of Soviet Union's victory over Germany, was demoted to command Odessa military direct, far from Moscow and lacking any importance
• Zhukov was also written out of history. Stalin did not want anyone other than him taking credit for the Soviet Union's victory.
• Terror was used to bring some of the 'rebellious Soviet republics' into line. After the war, nationalists in Ukraine and the Baltic states took up arms and fought to win independence for their countries.

  These little known wars were extremely bitter.

  • In Lithuania, Soviet sources admitted to the Red army losing 20,000 men.

  Stalin responded with mass deportations

  By 1950, this included 300,000 Ukrainians, and 400,000 Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians.
• Stalin's deportations were often carried out in well planned operations.

  In Estonia, around 3% of the entire population was seized in less than a week in March 1949. Most were women and children.