section_path: Consolidation of power/1932–1939: Major crises/The Great Terror
section_name: The Great Terror
paragraph_text: The Great Terror
  
  Stalin's approach to state repression was often contradictory. In May 1933, he released many convicted of minor offences, ordering the security services not to enact further mass arrests and deportations. 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. However, after Sergey Kirov was murdered in December 1934, Stalin became increasingly concerned about assassination threats, and state repression intensified. Stalin issued a decree establishing NKVD troikas which could mete out rulings without involving the courts. In 1935, he ordered the NKVD to expel suspected counterrevolutionaries from urban areas; over 11,000 were expelled from Leningrad alone in early 1935. In 1936, Nikolai Yezhov became head of the NKVD.
  
  Stalin orchestrated the arrest and execution of opponents in the Communist Party and the Central Committee. The first Moscow Trial in August 1936 saw Kamenev and Zinoviev executed. The second trial took place in January 1937, and the third in March 1938, with Bukharin and Rykov executed. } By late 1937, all remnants of collective leadership were gone from the Politburo, which was now effectively under Stalin's control. There were mass expulsions from the party, with Stalin ordering foreign communist parties to purge anti-Stalinist elements.
  
  Repressions intensified further from December 1936 until November 1938, known as the Great Purge. In May 1937, Stalin ordered the arrest of most military Supreme Command members, and mass arrests followed. By late 1937, purges extended beyond the party to the wider population. In July 1937, the Politburo ordered a purge of "anti-Soviet elements" in society, targeting anti-Stalin Bolsheviks, former Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries, priests, ex-White Army soldiers, and common criminals. Stalin and Yezhov signed Order No. 00447 in July 1937, listing 268,950 people for arrest, with 75,950 executed. Stalin 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. Approximately 1.6 million people were arrested, 700,000 shot, and an unknown number died under NKVD torture.
  
  During the 1930s and 1940s, NKVD groups assassinated defectors and opponents abroad; in August 1940, Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico, eliminating Stalin's last major opponent. These purges replaced most of the old guard with younger officials loyal to Stalin. Party functionaries readily carried out their commands and sought to ingratiate themselves with Stalin, to avoid becoming victims. Such functionaries often carried out more arrests and executions than their quotas set by government.
  
  Stalin initiated all key decisions during the Terror, personally directing many operations. Historians debate his motives, noting his personal writings from the period were "unusually convoluted and incoherent", filled with claims about enemies encircling him. He feared a domestic fifth column in the event of war with Japan and Germany, particularly after right-wing forces overthrew the leftist Spanish government. The Great Terror ended when Yezhov was replaced by Lavrentiy Beria, a fellow Georgian completely loyal to Stalin. Yezhov was arrested in April 1939 and executed in 1940. The Terror damaged the Soviet Union's reputation abroad, particularly among leftist sympathizers. As it wound down, Stalin sought to deflect responsibility, blaming its "excesses" and "violations of law" on Yezhov. According to historian James Harris, the purges were driven by an excessive fear of counterrevolution.