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The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials held in the Soviet Union at the instigation of Joseph Stalin between 1936 and 1938. The defendants included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the former leadership of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Moscow Trials led to the execution of many of the defendants, including most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks. The trials are generally seen as part of Stalin's Great Purge which was an attempt to rid the party of current or prior party oppositionists. Trotskyists were especially targeted, but not exclusively. Indeed any leading Bolshevik cadre from the period of the 1917 revolution or earlier who might even potentially become a figurehead for the growing discontent in the Soviet populace resulting from Stalin's incompetent mismanagement of the economy was targeted.
From 1930 onwards, the Soviet Communist Party and police officials feared the social disorder caused by the upheavals of forced collectivization of peasants and the resulting famine of 1932–1933, as well as the massive and uncontrolled migration of millions of peasants into cities.<br/><br/> This fear resulted in a series of purges between about 1930 and 1939, costing the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) was the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. While formally the office of the General Secretary was elective and was not initially regarded as top position in the Soviet state, after Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin managed to consolidate more and more power in his hands, gradually putting down all opposition groups within the party.<br/><br/> Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin ( 9 October 1888 – 15 March 1938) was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician and prolific author on revolutionary theory.<br/><br/> When the Great Purge began in 1936, Stalin looked for any pretext to liquidate his former allies and rivals for power, and some of Bukharin’s letters, conversations and tapped phone-calls indicated disloyalty. Arrested in February 1937, he was charged with conspiring to overthrow the Soviet state and executed in March 1938, after a trial that alienated many Western communist sympathisers.
Lenin speaking at an assemble of Red Army troops bound for the Polish front. Photograph taken in Sverdlov Square, Moscow, on 5 May 1920.<br/><br/> This is the original image with Trotsky and Kamenev standing on the steps of the platform; later versions produced under Stalin's administration had them removed.
Hồ Chí Minh, born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc (19 May 1890 – 3 September 1969) was a Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader who was prime minister (1946–1955) and president (1945–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam).<br/><br/> He formed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and led the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War until his death. Hồ led the Viet Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu.<br/><br/> He lost political power inside North Vietnam in the late 1950s, but remained as the highly visible figurehead president until his death.
Nikolai Yezhov's time in charge is sometimes known as the 'Yezhovshchina' ('the Yezhov era'), a term coined during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s. After presiding over mass arrests and executions during the Great Purge, Yezhov became a victim of it himself. He was arrested, confessed under torture to a range of anti-Soviet activity, and was executed in 1940.<br/><br/> By the beginning of World War II, his status within the Soviet Union became that of a political non-person. Among art historians, he has the nickname 'The Vanishing Commissar' because after his execution, his likeness was retouched out of an official press photo; he is among the best known examples of the Soviet press making someone who had fallen out of favor 'disappear'.
Felix Dzerzhinsky is best known for establishing and developing the Soviet secret police forces; serving as their director from 1917 to 1926. Later he was a member of the Soviet government heading several commissariats; while being the chief of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Cheka soon became notorious for mass summary executions; performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials held in the Soviet Union at the instigation of Joseph Stalin between 1936 and 1938. The defendants included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the former leadership of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Moscow Trials led to the execution of many of the defendants, including most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks. The trials are generally seen as part of Stalin's Great Purge which was an attempt to rid the party of current or prior party oppositionists. Trotskyists were especially targeted, but not exclusively. Indeed any leading Bolshevik cadre from the period of the 1917 revolution or earlier who might even potentially become a figurehead for the growing discontent in the Soviet populace resulting from Stalin's incompetent mismanagement of the economy was targeted.
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (1878–1953) was the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. While formally the office of the General Secretary was elective and was not initially regarded as top position in the Soviet state, after Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin managed to consolidate more and more power in his hands, gradually putting down all opposition groups within the party.<br/><br/> Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (1868-1936), primarily known as Maxim (Maksim) Gorky, was a Russian and Soviet writer, a founder of the Socialist realism literary method and a political activist.
Beria was the longest-lived and most influential of Stalin's secret police chiefs, wielding his most substantial influence during and after World War II. He simultaneously administered vast sections of the Soviet state and served as de facto Marshal of the Soviet Union in command of the NKVD field units responsible for anti-partisan operations on the Eastern Front during World War II.<br/><br/> Beria administered the vast expansion of the Gulag labor camps and was primarily responsible for overseeing the secret defense institutions known as <i>sharashkas</i>, critical to the war effort. He also played the decisive role in coordinating the Soviet partisans, developing an impressive intelligence and sabotage network behind German lines. He attended the Yalta Conference with Stalin, who introduced him to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt as 'our Himmler'.<br/><br/> Beria was promoted to First Deputy Premier, where he carried out a campaign of liberalization. He was briefly a part of the ruling 'troika' with Georgy Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov. Beria's overconfidence in his position after Stalin's death led him to misjudge other Politburo members. During the coup d'état led by Nikita Khrushchev and assisted by the military forces of Marshal Georgy Zhukov, Beria was arrested on charges of treason during a meeting in which the full Politburo condemned him. The compliance of the NKVD was ensured by Zhukov's troops, and after interrogation Beria was taken to the basement of the Lubyanka and shot.
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials held in the Soviet Union at the instigation of Joseph Stalin between 1936 and 1938. The defendants included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the former leadership of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Moscow Trials led to the execution of many of the defendants, including most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks. The trials are generally seen as part of Stalin's Great Purge which was an attempt to rid the party of current or prior party oppositionists. Trotskyists were especially targeted, but not exclusively. Indeed any leading Bolshevik cadre from the period of the 1917 revolution or earlier who might even potentially become a figurehead for the growing discontent in the Soviet populace resulting from Stalin's incompetent mismanagement of the economy was targeted.
Nikolai Yezhov's time in charge is sometimes known as the 'Yezhovshchina' ('the Yezhov era'), a term coined during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s. After presiding over mass arrests and executions during the Great Purge, Yezhov became a victim of it himself. He was arrested, confessed under torture to a range of anti-Soviet activity, and was executed in 1940.<br/><br/> By the beginning of World War II, his status within the Soviet Union became that of a political non-person. Among art historians, he has the nickname 'The Vanishing Commissar' because after his execution, his likeness was retouched out of an official press photo; he is among the best known examples of the Soviet press making someone who had fallen out of favor 'disappear'.
Felix Dzerzhinsky is best known for establishing and developing the Soviet secret police forces; serving as their director from 1917 to 1926. Later he was a member of the Soviet government heading several commissariats; while being the chief of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Cheka soon became notorious for mass summary executions; performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials held in the Soviet Union at the instigation of Joseph Stalin between 1936 and 1938. The defendants included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the former leadership of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Moscow Trials led to the execution of many of the defendants, including most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks. The trials are generally seen as part of Stalin's Great Purge which was an attempt to rid the party of current or prior party oppositionists. Trotskyists were especially targeted, but not exclusively. Indeed any leading Bolshevik cadre from the period of the 1917 revolution or earlier who might even potentially become a figurehead for the growing discontent in the Soviet populace resulting from Stalin's incompetent mismanagement of the economy was targeted.
The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Southern Russia, near the eastern boundary of Europe.<br/><br/> Marked by constant close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians by air raids, it is often regarded as one of the single largest (nearly 2.2 million personnel) and bloodiest (1.7–2 million wounded, killed or captured) battles in the history of warfare. The heavy losses inflicted on the German Wehrmacht make it arguably the most strategically decisive battle of the whole war. It was a turning point in the European theatre of World War II; German forces never regained the initiative in the East and withdrew a vast military force from the West to replace their losses.
Beria was the longest-lived and most influential of Stalin's secret police chiefs, wielding his most substantial influence during and after World War II. He simultaneously administered vast sections of the Soviet state and served as de facto Marshal of the Soviet Union in command of the NKVD field units responsible for anti-partisan operations on the Eastern Front during World War II.<br/><br/> Beria administered the vast expansion of the Gulag labor camps and was primarily responsible for overseeing the secret defense institutions known as <i>sharashkas</i>, critical to the war effort. He also played the decisive role in coordinating the Soviet partisans, developing an impressive intelligence and sabotage network behind German lines. He attended the Yalta Conference with Stalin, who introduced him to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt as 'our Himmler'.<br/><br/> Beria was promoted to First Deputy Premier, where he carried out a campaign of liberalization. He was briefly a part of the ruling 'troika' with Georgy Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov. Beria's overconfidence in his position after Stalin's death led him to misjudge other Politburo members. During the coup d'état led by Nikita Khrushchev and assisted by the military forces of Marshal Georgy Zhukov, Beria was arrested on charges of treason during a meeting in which the full Politburo condemned him. The compliance of the NKVD was ensured by Zhukov's troops, and after interrogation Beria was taken to the basement of the Lubyanka and shot.
Nikolai Yezhov, head of the NKVD from 1936 to 1938, was arrested and executed in 1938 as an 'enemy of the people'. In 1940 Yezhov was shot in an execution chamber with a sloping floor, which was for hosing and had been built according to Yezhov's own specifications near the Lubyanka.<br/><br/> After his execution, Yezhov was painstakingly removed from this image, earning him the posthumous nickname 'the Vanishing Commissar'.
Felix Dzerzhinsky is best known for establishing and developing the Soviet secret police forces; serving as their director from 1917 to 1926. Later he was a member of the Soviet government heading several commissariats; while being the chief of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Cheka soon became notorious for mass summary executions; performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.
Nikolai Yezhov's time in charge is sometimes known as the 'Yezhovshchina' ('the Yezhov era'), a term coined during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s. After presiding over mass arrests and executions during the Great Purge, Yezhov became a victim of it himself. He was arrested, confessed under torture to a range of anti-Soviet activity, and was executed in 1940.<br/><br/> By the beginning of World War II, his status within the Soviet Union became that of a political non-person. Among art historians, he has the nickname 'The Vanishing Commissar' because after his execution, his likeness was retouched out of an official press photo; he is among the best known examples of the Soviet press making someone who had fallen out of favor 'disappear'.
Felix Dzerzhinsky is best known for establishing and developing the Soviet secret police forces; serving as their director from 1917 to 1926. Later he was a member of the Soviet government heading several commissariats; while being the chief of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Cheka soon became notorious for mass summary executions; performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.
Inessa Fyodorovna Armand (born Elisabeth-Ines Stephane d'Herbenville; May 8, 1874 – September 24, 1920) was a French-Russian communist politician and member of the Bolsheviks who spent most of her life in Russia.
The Lubyanka was originally built in 1898 as the headquarters of the All-Russia Insurance Company.<br/><br/> Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the structure was seized by the government for the headquarters of the secret police, then called the Cheka, subsequently the NKVD.
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials held in the Soviet Union at the instigation of Joseph Stalin between 1936 and 1938. The defendants included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the former leadership of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Moscow Trials led to the execution of many of the defendants, including most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks. The trials are generally seen as part of Stalin's Great Purge which was an attempt to rid the party of current or prior party oppositionists. Trotskyists were especially targeted, but not exclusively. Indeed any leading Bolshevik cadre from the period of the 1917 revolution or earlier who might even potentially become a figurehead for the growing discontent in the Soviet populace resulting from Stalin's incompetent mismanagement of the economy was targeted.
Nikolai Yezhov's time in charge is sometimes known as the 'Yezhovshchina' ('the Yezhov era'), a term coined during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s. After presiding over mass arrests and executions during the Great Purge, Yezhov became a victim of it himself. He was arrested, confessed under torture to a range of anti-Soviet activity, and was executed in 1940.<br/><br/> By the beginning of World War II, his status within the Soviet Union became that of a political non-person. Among art historians, he has the nickname 'The Vanishing Commissar' because after his execution, his likeness was retouched out of an official press photo; he is among the best known examples of the Soviet press making someone who had fallen out of favor 'disappear'.
Felix Dzerzhinsky is best known for establishing and developing the Soviet secret police forces; serving as their director from 1917 to 1926. Later he was a member of the Soviet government heading several commissariats; while being the chief of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Cheka soon became notorious for mass summary executions; performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.
The Kalinkin Brewery was based in St Petersburg. It was the predecessor of Stepan Razin, now owned by Heineken.
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials held in the Soviet Union at the instigation of Joseph Stalin between 1936 and 1938. The defendants included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the former leadership of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Moscow Trials led to the execution of many of the defendants, including most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks. The trials are generally seen as part of Stalin's Great Purge which was an attempt to rid the party of current or prior party oppositionists. Trotskyists were especially targeted, but not exclusively. Indeed any leading Bolshevik cadre from the period of the 1917 revolution or earlier who might even potentially become a figurehead for the growing discontent in the Soviet populace resulting from Stalin's incompetent mismanagement of the economy was targeted.
Andrei Rublev (Russian: Андре́й Рублёв), also transliterated Andrey Rublyov, born in the 1360s, died 29 January 1427 or 1430 although 17 October 1428, is considered to be the greatest medieval Russian painter of Orthodox icons and frescoes.<br/><br/> Little information survives about the life of Rublev. It is not known where he was born. Rublev probably lived in the Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra near Moscow under Nikon of Radonezh, who became hegumen after the death of Sergii Radonezhsky (1392).<br/><br/> The first mention of Rublev is in 1405 when he decorated icons and frescos for the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Moscow Kremlin in company with Theophanes the Greek and Prokhor of Gorodets. His name was the last of the list of masters as the junior both by rank and by age. Theophanes was an important Byzantine master who moved to Russia, and is considered to have trained Rublev.
World War One was to have a devastating impact on Russia. When World War One started in August 1914, Russia responded by patriotically rallying around Nicholas II.<br/><br/> Military disasters at the Masurian Lakes and Tannenburg greatly weakened the Russian Army in the initial phases of the war. The growing influence of Gregory Rasputin over the Romanov’s did a great deal to damage the royal family and by the end of the spring of 1917, the Romanovs, who had ruled Russia for just over 300 years, were no longer in charge of a Russia that had been taken over by Kerensky and the Provisional Government.<br/><br/> By the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks led by Lenin had taken power in the major cities of Russia and introduced communist rule in those areas it controlled. The transition in Russia over the space of four years was remarkable – the fall of an autocracy and the establishment of the world’s first communist government.
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials held in the Soviet Union at the instigation of Joseph Stalin between 1936 and 1938. The defendants included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the former leadership of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Moscow Trials led to the execution of many of the defendants, including most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, and the trials are generally seen as part of Stalin's Great Purge which was an attempt to rid the party of current or prior party oppositionists, especially but not exclusively Trotskyists, and indeed any leading Bolshevik cadre from the period of the 1917 revolution or earlier, who might even potentially become a figurehead for the growing discontent in the Soviet populace resulting from Stalin's incompetent mismanagement of the economy.
Catherine II of Russia (Russian: Yekaterina Alekseyevna, 2 May 1729 – 17 November 1796), was the most renowned and the longest-ruling female ruler of Russia, reigning from 1762 until her death in 1796 at the age of 67.<br/><br/> Born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, she came to power following a coup d'état when her husband, Peter III, was assassinated. Russia was revitalised under her reign, growing larger and stronger than ever and becoming recognised as one of the great powers of Europe.
World War One was to have a devastating impact on Russia. When World War One started in August 1914, Russia responded by patriotically rallying around Nicholas II.<br/><br/> Military disasters at the Masurian Lakes and Tannenburg greatly weakened the Russian Army in the initial phases of the war. The growing influence of Gregory Rasputin over the Romanov’s did a great deal to damage the royal family and by the end of the spring of 1917, the Romanovs, who had ruled Russia for just over 300 years, were no longer in charge of a Russia that had been taken over by Kerensky and the Provisional Government.<br/><br/> By the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks led by Lenin had taken power in the major cities of Russia and introduced communist rule in those areas it controlled. The transition in Russia over the space of four years was remarkable – the fall of an autocracy and the establishment of the world’s first communist government.
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Russian SFSR.<br/><br/> The Tsar was forced to abdicate and the old regime was replaced by a provisional government during the first revolution of February 1917 (March in the Gregorian calendar; the older Julian calendar was in use in Russia at the time).<br/><br/> In the second revolution, during October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a Bolshevik (Communist) government.
The Lubyanka is the popular name for the headquarters of the KGB and affiliated prison on Lubyanka Square in Moscow, Russia. It is a large Neo-Baroque building with a facade of yellow brick designed by Alexander V. Ivanov in 1897 and augmented by Aleksey Shchusev from 1940 to 1947.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, DL, FRS, RA (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.<br/><br/> Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer (as Winston S. Churchill), and an artist. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States.<br/><br/> Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) was the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. While formally the office of the General Secretary was elective and was not initially regarded as top position in the Soviet state, after Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin managed to consolidate more and more power in his hands, gradually putting down all opposition groups within the party.<br/><br/> Stalin's idea of socialism in one country became the primary line of the Soviet politics. He dominated Soviet politics and the USSR through the Great Purges of the 1930s, then the catastrophic Second World War, remaining in power until his death in 1953.