1936-1938 - The Great Purge

• In 1936, Kamenev and Zinoviev both confessed to being involved in Trotskyite plots to overthrow Stalin and the murder of Kirov.

  • They were both shot after the trial.
• In the 1937, leading figures of the Communist Party in Piatakov, Radek and Sokolnikov had questioned Stalin's policies especially after industrialisation.

  • This show trial demonstrated that no one was safe.
  • After being tortured in the infamous Lubianka prison, they all confessed to forming an "Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Centre" and were shot.
• The show trial of Bukharin, Rykov and Yagoda in 1938 was the last and most famous of the show trials.

  • Bukharin confessed to involvement in plots against Stalin and was shot.
  • Yagoda was arrested in 1936 and after the torture, he confessed to a startling array of crimes such as the murder of Kirov, the novelist Gorky and the NKVD Head before him.
  • Yagoda also confessed to corruption through diamond dealing, being a German spy and attempting to murder Yezhov.
  • Yagoda was shot along with his father-in-law and brother-in-law and his sister and parents were exiled.