show trials and the great purges
-Stalin feared being overthrown or having a counter-revolution
-He formed a secret police called the NKVD to remove threats
-Old Heros of the revolution or anyone with popular support charged with treason (seen as threats)
-1 of 5 officers of the army executed
-often put on trial "show trials" forced to admit they had done it (under duress)
-He formed a secret police called the NKVD to remove threats
-Old Heros of the revolution or anyone with popular support charged with treason (seen as threats)
-1 of 5 officers of the army executed
-often put on trial "show trials" forced to admit they had done it (under duress)
summary
purge trials, also called Great Purge, three widely publicized show trials and a series of closed, unpublicized trials held in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s, in which many prominent Old Bolsheviks were found guilty of treason and executed or imprisoned. All the evidence presented in court was derived from preliminary examinations of the defendants and from their confessions.