Dress rehearsal of the “Great Purge” and western national minorities
Journal: Historical Courier
Year: 2019

The representatives of the so-called "western" national minorities (Germans, Pole, Finns, etc.) were targeted by the Central Committee's Politbureau long before the beginning of the mass repressions during 1937-1938 as a potential "base" for the "Fifth Column". Escalating conflict with Hitler's Germany has pushed this xenophobia to the extreme. In this article, the author states, that the "national" operations in the USSR (targeted search of the spies, residents, saboteurs etc. among "disloyal e