1951 - Mingrelian Purge

• Although skilful at managing Stalin's difficult personality, Beria was not immune to Stalin's paranoid suspicion.
• As the power of the MVD grew, Stalin probably became concerned about Beria's ability to build up his own power base.
• In 1951, Stalin ordered the arrest of a number of Mingrelian Party officials.
• Beria himself was a Mingrelian and was close to a number of those arrested.

  • Mingrelians are a small ethnic group in Georgia.
• Stalin ordered Beria himself to carry out the purge.

  • This was a classic Stalinist tactic to undermine the confidence and security of someone he felt could become a threat.
• Stalin continued his pre-war policy of suppressing the rights and interests of national minorities in the USSR.
• The top jobs in the non-Russian SSRs, such as the Party Secretaries and the police chiefs, went to Russians.
• Centralised economic planning and control of collective farms was strengthened which reduced the ability of local communist parties to make decisions at a regional level.
• Deportations of Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians and Ukrainians were organised.
• Hundreds of thousands were moved to Siberia and Kazakhstan.
• Russian migrants were encouraged to settle in the depopulated areas.
• The national cultures and identities of these states were downplayed at every opportunity and the Russian language was promoted through education and government.

  • These policies bore many similarities to the Russification pursued by the Tsars in the 19th century.