# Stalin's Great Purge: State Oppression in the USSR — WHE Article Discussion (2-3028)

**URL:** <https://community.worldhistory.org/t/stalins-great-purge-state-oppression-in-the-ussr-whe-article-discussion-2-3028/19250>\
**Category:** WHE Articles\
**Created:** [November 12, 2026, 10:00am UTC](https://community.worldhistory.org/t/stalins-great-purge-state-oppression-in-the-ussr-whe-article-discussion-2-3028/19250 "2026-11-12T10:00:02Z")\
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**Author:** ![markzcartwright](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/community.worldhistory.org/markzcartwright/32/35_2.png) [@markzcartwright](https://community.worldhistory.org/u/markzcartwright)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2026, 10:00am UTC](https://community.worldhistory.org/t/stalins-great-purge-state-oppression-in-the-ussr-whe-article-discussion-2-3028/19250/1 "2026-11-12T10:00:02Z")

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Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, also known as the Great Terror of 1936-8, was the most manic part of a decade of state oppression in the USSR. The purges saw the arrest of around 8 million Soviet citizens and around 800,000 executions. Anyone could be suspected of being an 'enemy of the state,' but specific groups targeted included leaders within the Communist Party, officers in the military, wealthier farmers, intellectuals, scientists, nationalists, and religious leaders. Still today, the motivations, scale, and consequences of the Great Purge continue to cause debate. As the historian G. L. Freeze notes: "The Great Purges…of 1936-8 seem to have been so arbitrary in victimization, so elusive in motivation as to defy explanation" (127).

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_This is a companion discussion topic for the original article at [https://www.worldhistory.org/article/3028/stalins-great-purge/](https://www.worldhistory.org/article/3028/stalins-great-purge/)._

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**Author:** ![system](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/community.worldhistory.org/system/32/30_2.png) [@system](https://community.worldhistory.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2026, 10:03am UTC](https://community.worldhistory.org/t/stalins-great-purge-state-oppression-in-the-ussr-whe-article-discussion-2-3028/19250/2 "2026-11-12T10:03:27Z")

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Unlisted on November 12, 2026, 10:03am UTC