|
Aviators Affair
The Aviators Affair was a 1946 purge of the Soviet air force and the Soviet aircraft industry following accusations that, during World War II, Soviet fighter planes had been of poor quality. It resulted in the arrests and sentencing of about fifteen Soviet senior officers and officials, and was one of the series of similar purges of Soviet military in the aftermath of World War II through which Stalin reaffirmed his control over the country, eliminating or weakening internal rivals. Background The complaint about Soviet fighter planes being of lower quality than Western ones (including by Stalin's son Vasily Stalin) might have some grounds in reality. However, one of the primary goals of that affair was Joseph Stalin's desire to find compromising materials to use against Marshal Georgy Zhukov. This was part of Stalin's reaffirming his power in the aftermath of World War II and eliminating or weakening individuals who gained power during that period (mainly prominent leaders of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Purge
In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an effort is labeled as purging itself. Purges can be either nonviolent or violent, with the former often resolved by the simple removal of those who have been purged from office, and the latter often resolved by the imprisonment, exile, or murder of those who have been purged. Characteristics The Shanghai massacre of 1927 in China and the Night of the Long Knives of 1934 in Nazi Germany, in which the leader of a political party turns against a particular section or group within the party and kills its members, are commonly called "purges". Mass expulsions of populations on the grounds of racism and xenophobia, such as the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in the Soviet Union, are not. Though sudden and violent purges are notable, most purge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sergei Khudyakov
Sergei Alexandrovich Khudyakov (; ); born Armenak Artemi Khanferiants (, – 18 April 1950), was a Soviet Armenian Marshal of the aviation. Russian Revolution Armenak Khanferiants (or Khanperiants) was born in 1902 in the village of Mets Tagher (Böyük Tağlar), Shushinsky Uyezd, Elisabethpol Governorate, Russian Empire. His father died in 1908, leaving a widow with three sons. Khanferiants travelled to Baku to study and started working at oilfields owned by Armenian tycoon and philanthropist Alexander Mantashev. In 1918, he was involved in the production of the newspaper ''Iskra''. While in Baku, he joined the Bolsheviks and organized the Red Guards of Baku in April 1918. While he was in Astrakhan during the Russian Civil War, he was saved from drowning in a steamer sunk by a British gunboat by his friend, Sergei Khudyakov, who was later killed fighting the Whites. Khanferiants adopted Sergei's name as his own as memorial to the man who saved his life. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Case Of The Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization
The Case of the Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization, also known as the Military Case or the Tukhachevsky Case, was a 1937 secret trial of the high command of the Red Army, a part of the Great Purge. Defendants The Case was a secret trial, unlike the Moscow Show Trials. It is traditionally considered one of the key trials of the Great Purge. Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky and the senior military officers Iona Yakir, Ieronim Uborevich, Robert Eideman, August Kork, Vitovt Putna, Boris Feldman, and Vitaly Primakov (as well as Yakov Gamarnik, who committed suicide before the investigations began) were accused of anti-Soviet conspiracy and sentenced to death; they were executed on the night of June 11 to 12, 1937, immediately after the verdict delivered by a Special Session (специальное судебное присутствие) of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union. The Tribunal was presided over by Vasili Ulrikh and included marshals Vasily Blyukher, Semyon B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1941 Red Army Purge
Between October 1940 and February 1942, in spite of the Axis attack on the Soviet Union from June 1941, the Red Army, in particular the Soviet Air Force, as well as Soviet military-related industries were subjected to purges by Joseph Stalin. Background The Great Purge ended in 1939. In October 1940 the NKVD (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs), under its new chief Lavrentiy Beria, started a new purge that initially hit the People's Commissariat of Ammunition, People's Commissariat of Aviation Industry, and People's Commissariat of Armaments. High-level officials admitted guilt, typically under torture, then testified against others. Victims were arrested on fabricated charges of anti-Soviet activity, sabotage, and spying. The wave of arrests in the military-related industries continued well into 1941. 1941 Purge In April–May 1941, a Politburo inquiry into the high accident rate in the Air Force led to the dismissal of several commanders, including the head of the Air Fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historiography
Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians have studied that topic by using particular sources, techniques of research, and theoretical approaches to the interpretation of documentary sources. Scholars discuss historiography by topic—such as the historiography of the United Kingdom, of historiography of World War II, WWII, of the Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Americas, of early historiography of early Islam, Islam, and of Chinese historiography, China—and different approaches to the work and the genres of history, such as political history and social history. Beginning in the nineteenth century, the development of academic history produced a great corpus of historiographic literature. The extent to which historians are influence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De-Stalinization
De-Stalinization () comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and Khrushchev Thaw, the thaw brought about by ascension of Nikita Khrushchev to power, and his 1956 secret speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences", which denounced Stalin's cult of personality and the Stalinism, Stalinist political system. List of statues of Joseph Stalin, Monuments to Stalin were removed, his List of places named after Joseph Stalin, name was removed from places, buildings, and State Anthem of the Soviet Union, the state anthem, and his body was removed from the Lenin Mausoleum (known as the Lenin and Stalin Mausoleum from 1953 to 1961) and buried. These reforms were started by the collective leadership which succeeded him after his death on 5 March 1953, comprising Georgi Malenkov, Premier of the Soviet Union; Lavrentiy Beria, head of the Ministry of Internal Affa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ministry Of State Security (Soviet Union)
The Ministry of State Security (, ), abbreviated as MGB (), was a ministry of the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1953 which functioned as the country's secret police. The ministry inherited the intelligence and state security responsibilities of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) and People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB). The MGB was led by Viktor Abakumov from 1946 to 1951, then by Semyon Ignatiev until Stalin's death in 1953, upon which it was merged into an enlarged Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). Origins of the MGB The MGB was just one of many incarnations of the Soviet State Security apparatus. After the revolution, the Bolsheviks relied on a strong political police or security force to support and control their regime. During the Russian Civil War, the Cheka were in power, relinquishing it to State Political Directorate (GPU) in 1922 after the fighting was over. The GPU was then renamed The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viktor Abakumov
Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov (; 24 April 1908 – 19 December 1954) was a high-level Soviet security official who from 1943 to 1946 was the head of SMERSH in the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense, and from 1946 to 1951 of the Minister of State Security or MGB (ex- NKGB). He was removed from office and arrested in 1951 on charges of failing to investigate the Doctors' Plot. After the death of Joseph Stalin, Abakumov was tried for fabricating the Leningrad Affair, sentenced to death and executed in 1954. Early life and career Abakumov was an ethnic Russian. Recent scholarship suggests that he was born in Moscow, though he was previously said to be from the Don Cossack region of south Russia. His father was an unskilled labourer and his mother a nurse. At the age of 14, Abakumov joined the Soviet Red Army in spring 1922 and served with the 2nd Special Task Moscow Brigade in the Russian Civil War until demobilization in December 1923.Parrish, 1996, He then joined the Ko ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikolai Kuznetsov (admiral)
Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov (; 24 July 1904 – 6 December 1974) was a Soviet Navy, Soviet naval officer who achieved the rank of Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union and served as People's Commissar of the Navy during the Winter War and the World War II, Second World War. The N. G. Kuznetsov Naval Academy and the Russian Navy, Russian aircraft carrier , as well as the Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier, Kuznetsov-class carrier class, are named in his honor. Biography Early years and career Kuznetsov was born in a peasant family of Serbian paternal ancestry in the village of Medvedki, Velikoustyuzhsky Uyezd, Vologda Governorate, Russian Empire (now in Kotlassky District of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia). In 1919, Kuznetsov joined the Northern Dvina Naval Flotilla, having added two years to his age to make himself eligible to serve. In 1920, he was stationed at Petrograd and in 1924, as a member of a naval unit, he attended the funeral ceremony of Vladimir Lenin. That same ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Admirals Affair
Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, or fleet admiral. Etymology The word in Middle English comes from Anglo-French , "commander", from Medieval Latin , . These evolved from the Arabic () – () (), "king, prince, chief, leader, nobleman, lord, a governor, commander, or person who rules over a number of people" and (), the Arabic definite article meaning "the." In Arabic, admiral is also represented as (), where al-Baḥr (البحر) means the sea. The 1818 edition of Samuel Johnson's ''A Dictionary of the English Language'', edited and revised by the Rev. Henry John Todd, states that the term "has been traced to the Arab. emir or amir, lord or commander, and the Gr. , the sea, q. d. ''prince of the sea''. The word is written both with and without the d, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vasily Gordov
Vasily Nikolaevich Gordov (; 12 December 1896 – 24 August 1950) was a Soviet Army colonel general and Hero of the Soviet Union. Gordov commanded the Stalingrad Front between July and September 1942. Early life Gordov was born on 30 December 1896 in the village of Matveyevka in Ufa Governorate. He was the son of peasants. Gordov joined the Imperial Russian Army in 1915 and was promoted to junior sergeant. He enlisted in the Red Guard in 1917, joining the Red Army in 1918. Gordov ended the Russian Civil War as the commander of the 53rd Rifle Regiment, fighting in the campaign against Nestor Makhno, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Between 1925 and 1926, Gordov served as an advisor in the Mongolian People's Army. In 1932, he graduated from Frunze Military Academy and then became the chief of staff of the Moscow Red Banner Infantry School in 1933. He was the chief of staff of the 18th Rifle Division from May 1935 to 1937. In July 1937, Gordov became the co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
