October 30, 2015

Stars and Purges


Stars and Purges

Eighty years ago, on October 25, 1935, crowds gathered to watch as the second diamond-encrusted Soviet star was hoisted onto the Trinity Tower in the Kremlin. The first had gone up the day before; two more went up the day after. Gilded, shiny new stars replaced the tsarist eagles and celebrated Soviet political power. But was it all worth celebrating? On this October 30, the Day of Memory for Victims of Political Repression, let’s take a look at what else was happening that day.

A few people were getting arrested:

  • One was Ivan Grigorievich Ogorodnikov, from Perm, up in the Ural mountains. Over a year later he was finally sentenced to four years in prison for anti-Soviet “agitation.”
  • Another was Kaspar Ermandovich Nizen, a Volga German living in the aptly named Volga German ASSR near Saratov. Several months later he got a whopping ten years for anti-Soviet activities, and was probably not around to witness the destruction of his native ASSR in 1941, fueled by anti-German sentiment.
  • Not too far away, near Samara, Semyon Akimovich Biryukov was also being arrested. His arrest record included the distinctively Soviet job description: “serves in a religious cult, i.e. is a priest.”

A few others were being sentenced:

  • In Eastern Kazakhstan, Moisei Isaakovich Kratsman, an accountant from Pavlodar, was being sentenced by a special meeting of the NKVD. Kratsman could now look forward to three years of exile under the infamous Article 58-10.
  • Out west, in Belarus, an illiterate security guard, Petr Ustinovich Papkovsky from Minsk, was getting his sentence from a mere court judge. For “agitation,” he, too, got three years, but in the GULAG.
  • Near Baikal, the military tribunal of the Trans-Baikal Railway was sentencing woodworker Petr Martynovich Kozlov to two years in prison, also under Article 58-10. Oddly enough, he came out of prison less than a year later and was rehabilitated.
  • Back in Kazakhastan, another railroad, the Turkestan-Siberia Railway, was sentencing a stationmaster with the unusual name Fillipovich Yakovlevich. Four years in the GULAG, also for Article 58-10.

And in one very lucky and unusual case, one Aleksandr Fyodorovich Kulikov was being rehabilitated on this very day after being arrested and immediately sentenced under Article 58-10 back in August. The court was ordered to drop the case and erase the record “for lack of evidence.” (Historically, almost never an issue in political trials.)

Purge directive with signatures
Typical of the Great Terror: a resolution to purge non-Russians
throughout the Soviet Union as potential spies, covered in the
approving signatures of Stalin and other leaders.

For a period when over half a million people were arrested every year, these pickings are surprisingly sparse – maybe the political repression machine was taking it easy on that Friday (not to mention that the records are almost definitely incomplete). Just ten months after the assassination of party leader Sergei Kirov, things were still heating up – and the horrors of the “Great Terror” (1937-1938) were yet to come. It’s hard to imagine: how many people watching the raising of the new Kremlin stars were thinking of these arrests – or even knew about them?

 

Case records source: Memorial

Image credit: “Moscow Kremlin Star 2011” by Alexey Vikhrov, via Wikimedia Commons

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955