what happened in the Great Purge in russia?
457239
It involved the purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the persecution of unaffiliated persons, both occurring within a period characterized by omnipresent police surveillance, widespread suspicion of "saboteurs", show trials, imprisonment and killings. The source will tell everything you'd ever want to know about the Great Purge.
846548
Think of the coldest, wettest and most miserable you have ever been.  Multiply by a hundred.  You should get a rough idea.  \n\nNapoleon took his army into Russia too close to winter and in the end, they were faced by a worse enemy than the Russian forces: Russian weather.\n\nThe troops were alway hungry, facing a tough, determined enemy and a climate that French soldiers were not even close to being ready to face.  \n\nIt was so bad that a large portion of the surviving Frenchmen went home without even boots on their feet and only socks and strips of old blankets to prevent them from losing their feet as they marched on.
1103489
I believe the incident you are referring to is the Katyn Forest Massacre where 4000 Polish officers were massacred, not by the Nazis, but by the Soviets on Stalin's order in late 1939 or early 1940. Most people forget that in 1939, Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany first and then by  the Soviet Union about 18 days later. Half of Poland was occupied by the USSR, the other half by the Nazis.\n\nStalin wished to eliminate any leaders among the Poles that could cause trouble in his part of occupied  Poland. Remember that at this point in time, the USSR and the Nazis signed a non-aggression pact and were somewhat defacto allies until Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941.
694908
unity?\n you think it brought fu*king unity!\n\nyou are the biggest idiot on earth if you think that. If anything it brought fear, hate, and violent racism on anyone that did not fit the pure Russian Communist bill. My grandmother was a Atheist and a college professor in Moscow. Do you think that helped her escape abject poverty? \n\nwould it have helped her when Stalin was planing to put her and her infant child on a cattle car headed for Siberia!\n\nyou seriously need to learn some history before you talk about what you dont know.
248641
Well besides a lot of the people who post questions and answers here, I would have to say it was that Russian guy who was into cannibalism.  He killed like 60 people I think.  What a nut job.
277917
Ya Russian is agressor till 1980. Now also it is agressor in part of militray .
647225
As far as I know we had no special police, unlike in Germany. Until 1944 everything was ’relatively’ normal, but when the Soviet army approached the country, the Hungarian fascists (they called themselves ’bowmen’) took over the power with German support and introduced military governing. It was only the communist party that created a special force called ÁVH (State Security Office) after the war.
459283
On March 1, 1953, after an all-night dinner with interior minister Lavrenty Beria and future premiers Georgi Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin collapsed in his room, having probably suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body.\n\nAlthough his guards thought it odd that he did not rise at his usual time the next day they were under orders not to disturb him and he was not discovered until that evening. He died four days later, on March 5, 1953, at the age of 74, and was buried on March 9. Officially, the cause of death was listed as a cerebral hemorrhage. His body was preserved in Lenin's Mausoleum until October 31, 1961.\n\nAs part of the process of de-Stalinization, his body was removed from the Mausoleum and buried next to the Kremlin walls.\n\nIt has been suggested that Stalin was assassinated. The ex-Communist exile Avtorkhanov argued this point as early as 1975. The political memoirs of Vyacheslav Molotov, published in 1993, claimed strong evidence that Beria had boasted to Molotov that he poisoned Stalin: "I took him out."\n\nKhrushchev recorded in his memoirs that Beria had, immediately after the stroke, gone about "spewing hatred against [Stalin] and mocking him", and then, when Stalin showed signs of consciousness, dropped to his knees and kissed his hand. When Stalin fell unconscious again, Beria immediately stood and spat.\n\nIn 2003, a joint group of Russian and American historians announced their view that Stalin ingested warfarin, a powerful rat poison that inhibits coagulation of the blood and so predisposes to hemorrhagic stroke (cerebral hemorrhage). Since it is flavorless, warfarin is a plausible weapon of murder. The facts of Stalin's death, however, will probably never be known with certainty.\n\nHis demise arrived at a convenient time for Beria and others, who feared to be swept away in still another purge. It is believed that Stalin felt Beria's power was too great and threatened his own. Whether or not Beria or another usurper was directly responsible for his death, it is true that the politburo did not summon medical attention for him for more than a day after he was found.
558694
I think a better way to put this is who killed more people in a genocide, the nazis or the russians.  The answer is the russians killed many times the number of people that the nazis did.  We should have destroyed both of these leftest causes while they were still relatively young (nazism is often misidentified as right wing where it was, actually National SOCIALISM).  Probably, it would have been much more wise to allow Hitler to wipe out the Russians, probably expending much of his military power to do so, and then mopped up the floor with him afterward.\n\nThere was nothing good about either regime.  If Hitler didn't force us to stop him militarily by invading all of his neighbors, the government was well on its way to collapse all by itself.\n\nThere is a saying that virtue is its own reward.  But, what is not said is that evil is its own punishment.  Values that are evil lead to destruction and eventual death of those who adhere to them.  This is a repeating pattern in human history.  Unfortunately, evil people rarely give their victims the luxury of waiting around until the bad guys off themselves.
134364
Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start of the Russian Revolution of 1917.
105063
That was the American Great Depression.  Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger were both killed that year.  FDR was busy getting the Social Security administration and the WPA set up (they debuted in 1935).  It was one of the worst years for the Dust Bowl and witnessed the worst drought in U.S. history.\nIt was also when Germany really plunged into its dark night of the soul. The Night of Long Knives happened then, the Austrian chancellor was murdered, the concentration camps were fully established, and Adolf Hitler officially became Fuhrer.\nIn China, Mao and his followers took off on the Long March.\nBasically, 1934 is the year that WWII became unavoidable.
36153
It didn't last for the USSR! :)
52136
Yep it's happened, which explains their deep seated desire for security. Back in the good old days before the time of Prince Vladimir who christianized all Russia, the Varangians were invited in to rule, because the local tribes were constantly warring and fighting. They had ruddy complexions, so according to the legends, that's where the "Rus" in Russia comes from. \n\nLater, there was fairly constant mayhem and whatnot. The Mongols invaded around the time of the renaissance, causing the Russians to miss out on the experience due to what Russians call "The Tatar Yoke", the very long occupation of Russia by the Mongols. The Russians are still a bit upset about that. Then various European powers attempted conquest. The Swedes, the French, etc. \n\nIn the modern era, Operation Barbarossa comes to mind. The Germans were ruthless and brutal in their invasion, and the Russians suffered 20 million dead in WWII. A very tough period, but many Russians seem to think of it as one of their best times, since the entire country was for once united in their desire to throw out the Nazis. Of course, after the war, it was a long tough ride through Stalin's last years, followed by the chill of the cold war. \n\nYou have to give them credit. Most cultures, having gone through such a wringer, might just give it all up. The Russians have just gotten good at enjoying life and partying on the edge of the apocalypse.
580092
like when? the city is 850 years old, and spend half that time being capital of Russia, so lotsa stuff went down.\n\nhere are just some benchmarks that are not so obvious from general history of Russia\n\n1250 - Founded by Yuri Dolgorukii, who ruled Russia from then-captial Kiev\n\n1533-1580 reign of Ivan the Terrible, who finished consolidating power in Moscow. The city witnesses some gruesome medieval-style executions, hence the "Terrible" nickname.\n\n~1610 As a result of civil war after Ivan's death, Moscow is taken by Polish troops, who are soon kicked out by russian militia\n\n~1710 Peter the Great moves capital to freshly Built Saint Petersburg. Moscow become a provincial city\n\n1812 Napoleon invasion. After a bloody Borodino battle, Russians set fire to the city & abandon it.  Napoleon moves in nonetheless, rans out of food and is forced to retreat in the middle of winter, loosing most of his army.\n\n1924 Communists move capital back to Moscow since St-Petersburg (renamed Leningrad) was too close to border with capitalist Finland.\n\nwinter 1941-1942 Battle of Moscow, outgunned Russian troops aided by Russian winter stop Germans miles away front he city and counterattack.\n\n1991 Hard-line communists attempt a coup against Gorbachev's liberalization. Mass protests in Moscow, headed by Boris Yeltsin. Military moves in, but takes the side of protesters, and the coup fails. Yeltsin uses resulting political capital to disband Soviet Union.\n\n1993 Right-wing parliament starts a standoff with Yelstin, resulting in troops moving in again. This time, fighting erupts, ~100 people die and parliament building is shelled by tanks. Yeltsin prevails, parliament assumes "puppy dog" posture from then on.
12304
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Communist dictatorship formed after the Russian Revolutions. It was first headed by Lenin, then Stalin before a succession of more moderate leaders. From 1919 until WWII it "comprised of 11 republics, the RSFSR, Ukraine, White Russia, Armenia, Azerbaidjan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikisan, Kazakhstan and Kirghizia. In 1940 Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, and Finno-Karelia became constitutional republics."
501778
nothing was wrong. technically it was the best government. ON PAPER.  the thing is, is that people love power so it turned into a dictatorship for russia.
273726
Stalin ruled on fear. He greatly rewarded family and friends who ratted on each other, and people were greatly rewarded. So, everyone lived in terror. People would rat, and others would disapear mysteriously into the night.