In 1917, a popular uprising in Imperial Russia leads to the abdication of the throne, and a faction of far-left revolutionaries known as Bolsheviks rises to power, led by Vladimir Lenin. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is formed in 1922, and Joseph Stalin, the former editor of the Bolshevik newspaper, is named Secretary-General of the Soviet Communist Party. It is a powerful perch from where he cultivates loyal supporters, and following Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin begins ruthlessly eliminating potential rivals with arrests, sham trials, and executions. It marks the beginning of a brutally oppressive reign that continues into the 1930s. In what becomes known as the “Great Terror,” the Soviet secret police and Red Army enforce political conformity at gunpoint while imprisoning millions of dissenters in remote detention camps known as gulags.
SOVIET UNION
Red Army soldiers in formation, 1941
- PRELUDE TO WAR
- SOVIET UNION
Despite his power, Stalin remains consumed by paranoia, ordering a massive purge of the Red Army officer corps amid suspicions of disloyalty. Some 30,000 officers are arrested and removed from service, crippling the leadership ranks as war winds swirl in central Europe. Hoping to avert war with Germany, Stalin signs a nonaggression pact with Hitler in 1939, and though the agreement sends tremors across Europe, its most sinister tenet, a conspiracy to jointly invade and dismember Poland, remains secret.
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