On Sun, Nov 9, 2025 at 6:52 AM Mark Baugher via groups.io <mark= [email protected]> wrote:
> > > It looks like there was a campaign against foreign communists, but I don't > know of any evidence of a quota or even a plan that emanated from Stalin. > > Mark > Scroll through Enemies within the Gates? The Comintern and the Stalinist Repression, 1934–1939 <https://annas-archive.org/md5/1a809a1ecff6f14041b6b03ced0e8dea> William J. Chase <https://annas-archive.org/search?q=William%20J.%20Chase> Yale University Press Document 33 Letter of congratulations from the ECCI party organization to Yezhov upon his receiving the Order of Lenin, 21 July 1937. RGASPI, f. 546, op. 1, d. 388, l. 98. Original in Russian. Typewritten. To Com. Yezhov. (Adopted at the general closed meeting of the party organization of the ECCI apparatus of 21 July 1937.) The party organization of the ECCI apparatus sends you, com. Yezhov, the faithful disciple and comrade-in-arms of the great Stalin, the renowned NKVD leader, an ardent greeting and sincere congratulations on the occasion of [your] being awarded the Order of Lenin.43 The entire Soviet nation, all the honest workers of the world, are enthusiastically watching the crushing blows that our NKVD, under your leadership, delivers to the fascist spies, the saboteurs, [and] the Trotskyist-Zinovievite-Bukharinist rascals. Our collective is particularly thankful to the NKVD and to you, com. Yezhov, for that great assistance rendered to us in rooting out the vilest enemies—Trotskyists [and] spies—who have sneaked into and have cunningly disguised themselves in the apparatus of the headquarters of the world revolution. We promise to strain every nerve to stop the fascist rascals, to help the NKVD to defend the USSR by [our] deeds, [and] to purge the VKP(b) and the Comintern of the enemies of the party and the people. In early July 1937, Stalin authorized the mass arrests of selected “anti-Soviet elements.” Soon after, the NKVD issued operational orders that identified the “groups subject to punitive measures” and set regional quotas for punishments.44 The arrests of political émigrés and members of the ECCI apparatus accelerated. The arrests quickly decimated the ranks of the CPP leaders and of Polish émigrés living in the USSR. On 9 August, after Yezhov had reported that members of the Central Committee of the CPP had confessed to participating in an anti-Soviet conspiracy, the Politburo authorized the NKVD to arrest suspected Polish spies and Polish Military Organization members. That Politburo resolution provided the basis of NKVD Order No. 00485, which unleashed the “Polish operation,” the purpose of which was to rid the USSR of any and all Poles and Polish émigrés who allegedly posed a threat to the USSR. The Polish operation was but one of many NKVD operations directed against national and ethnic groups.45 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NKVD_Order_No._00485 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_operations_of_the_NKVD#National_operations_of_the_NKVD <https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Yale%20University%20Press> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39188): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39188 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116179785/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
