Bureau of the Kirov regional committee of the CPSU (b) and the issue of political repressions in 1937

Abstract

The theme of political repressions occupies a prominent place in modern national and foreign historiography. By now, the scale of the phenomenon, the structure of the contingent of the people affected by repressions has been well studied, and the details of the political struggle connected with that issue in the “top” party leadership of the Soviet Union are becoming more and more fully revealed. The issue of the reasons and the direction of the repressive actions of the authorities was touched upon (primarily, in the works of Yu.N. Zhukov). However, there are still many “white spots” in the field. Moreover, the implementation of the corresponding state policy regarding the specific republics, territories, and regions of the USSR demands more in-depth study.

By the example of one of the regions of the Soviet Union, the author reveals the background of the political events of 1937, related to the eve (the first half) and the initial period of the campaign of mass repressions. The main attention in the research is paid to the issue of the degree of guilt (or total lack of one) of the Soviet citizens who were subjected to repressions. The author considers the ratio of political and non-political charges brought against the defendants by the members of the Bureau of the Kirov regional Committee of the CPSU(b) and shows that the decisions of that body all too often combined the real basis of personal cases (accusations of corruption, poor management of entrusted objects, etc.) with far-fetched political “add-ons”. The management system of the Kirov region in the period under review was characterized by a high degree of centralization. The key link of that management system was the Bureau of the regional Committee of the CPSU(b); its minutes of meetings characterized by information density and a sufficiently high degree of reliability laid the basis for the present research.