When inquesting with the Constitutional Court about whether the prohibition of the KPSS was lawful or not, the question of blameworthiness of the party with regard to mass repression carried out against the own people arose once again. Acts of terror were accepted by the party throughout the whole period of its rule as an essential means of preserving power. The year 1937, however, became known as the year of the Great Terror, when the punitive sword of the party – the NKVD – mowed down its victims in all social classes of our society – in every single village, even in the smallest.
The repressions of the year 1937 began with the commencement of the decision of the Politbureau of the VKP (B) Central Committee of 2 July 1937 “About anti-Soviet elements”, in which party organs, secretaries of all regional and district committees, as well as the Central Committee of the National Communist Party, were asked to furnish details about the personal formation of the troikas and lists containing the names of all those who were to be either executed by shooting or deported and and arrested in camps. During the month of July 1937 the Politbureau confirmed the the formation of the troikas, which were to examine anti-Soviet elements. Its members were: the head of the local NKVD (chairman of the troika), the leader of the VKP (B) of the respective region (the first or second secretary of the regional / district committee) and the public prosecutor’s or his deputy as a an ordinary troika member.
For Krasnoyarsk Territory the following persons were confirmed members of the
troika:
Leoniuk, Gorchaev, Rabinovich.
All through July 1937 the secretaries of the VKP (B) regional and district committees sent information about the number of individuals which were to be executed to the Central Committee. On the basis of these data and by taking into consideration the directives of the Central Committee, the NKVD set about preparing a draft law “About the operation to prosecute former kulaks, criminal offenders and other anti-Soviet elements”. On 31 July 1937 the Politbureau approved the draft law, which on the very same day was executed by the NKVD by reference number N 00447. The ordinance defined limits for persons sentenced in accordance with the first (execution) or second category (camp detention). The general number of those who were subject to repression amounted to 286 950 individuals, 75 950 of them were destined for execution. Shortly after the passing of the order to proceed with the planned operation, the regional and district committees, having reached the defined limits for executions, asked for the permission to raise the previous limits. Stalin personally replied to the request of the Krasnoyarsk regional committee in the following words: “The limit with regard to the first categorie is to be raised in Krasnoyarsk Territory by 6600 persons. Y. Stalin”.
At the same time, a serious of terrorist actions was carried out among some social and national population groups to fulfill the tasks fixed by the above-mentioned operation. On 20 July 1937 the Politbureau passed a decision about reprisals against Germans: “ Comrade Ezhov ist to be submitted the proposal to urgently instruct the NKVD organs that all Germans working for armament factories are to be arrested and that the process of the action, the arrests and the number of people seized are to be documented in a daily summary report. All relevant information are to be passed to the Central Committee”. Accordingly, Ezhov passed the Order No. N 00439 on 25 July 1937. An analogue order about the arrest of Poles was accepted by the Politbureau on 9 August 1937; it was passed under No. N 00485 by decision of the NKVD on 11 August 1937. Orders to arrest Letts, Finns, Greeks, Chinese and others were put into force in exactly the same way.
According to the decision of the Politbureau of 31 March 1937 the entire operation was to be finalized within a period of four months, but things turned out differently. At the disposition of the Politbureau (31 January 1938) the operation was extended until the 15 April 1938; the NKVD furthermore passed an order to finish the planned operation by the 15 April, wiping out the cadres (original wording) of Bulgarians and Macedonians, namely those who were of foreign nationality and those who were citizens of the USSR. For these purposes the limits for both categories were once again raised in 23 republics, regions and districts. However, they did not succeed to entirely realize the action by the middle of April, so that the Politbureau fixed new limits over and over again.
The extensive sanctions applied by the NKVD necessitated the allocation of funds. On 31 July 1937 it was decided to “ to make 75 million rubels available to the NKVD from the reserve fund of the Council of People’s Commissars to be spent for the planned operation, 25 millions of which were to be used for transportation expenses (transports by train)”. Apart from this thE GULAG was allocated an advance in the amount of 10 million rubels for the organization of camps. These financial means were allocated immediately, based on a Instruction No. 1244-286 (strictly confidential) of the Council of People’s Commissars dated 1 August 1937.
Due to the extention of the time frame for this action, NKVD People’s Commissar Ezhov addressed himself to Molotov shortly after, asking him to provide him with an additional amount of 62 million rubels. His application was approved without delay.
The Politbureau passed a decision about the closing of all proceedings initiated by the troikas and liquidated them on 17 November 1938. However, the the NKVD of the USSR continued to hold their special sessions and fulfill their frenetic tasks. Their is yet another directive by the Council of the People’s Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the VKP (B), dating from the 17 November, “About arrests, prelimenary proceedings and means of control carried out by the public prosecutor”, which was also passed by the Politbureau. The order includes comments on the great work done by the NKVD organs and its effectiveness, which was highly appreciated. However, it is emphasized at the same time that the operations of the years 1937 and 1938 lead to a series of spurious actions and wrong interpretations within the NKVD organization and the public prosecutor’s department. As a consequence of the new directive, some NKVD workers ceased to apply torture during the preliminary proceedings. By means of an encoded telegram, addressed to the first secretaries of the respective organizations on-site, those are reminded of the fact “that the use of force by the NKVD had been expressly approved by the Central Committee of the VKP (B) as from 1937.
The Central Committee of the VKP (B) is of the opinion that methods of corporal punishment are to be continuously applied, with the exception of clear-cut enemies of the people, who refused to decommission their weapons. In all other cases torture was accepted as an entirely justified and appropriate method of questioning” .
Vladimir SIROTININ, chairman of the Krasnoyarsk “Memorial” Organization
The publication contains archival material which is being kept with the Russian “Memorial” Organization.