Outline of the Great Purge (Soviet Union)

Great Purge
Part of the Bolshevik Party purges
Victims of the Vinnytsia massacre
LocationSoviet Union
DateMain phase:
19 August 1936 – 17 November 1938
(2 years, 2 months, 4 weeks and 1 day)
TargetPolitical opponents, Trotskyists, Red Army leadership, kulaks, religious activists and leaders
Deaths681,692 executions and 116,000 deaths in the Gulag system (official figures)
700,000 to 1.2 million (estimated)
PerpetratorsJoseph Stalin, the NKVD (Genrikh Yagoda, Nikolai Yezhov, Lavrentiy Beria, Ivan Serov), (principle actors of the purges)
MotiveElimination of political opponents, consolidation of power, fear of counterrevolution, fear of party infiltration

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to English Wikipedia articles about the Great Purges.