r consisted of many events including the Purge Trials and many massacres. The Purge Trials eliminated many military officers, engineers and the Elite of Soviet society. The numbers are not exact, but between 250,000 to 500,000 Russians died specifically because of Stalin's orders. These trials caused mass paranoia of the elite. These people were ultimately afraid to make any decision that might be perceived as un patriotic, un communistic or anti-Stalin. This was because they knew that any such infraction would eventually kill them. Stalin and his policies not only haltered the growth of his own country, but he retarded the growth of neighboring counties, one of which being Poland. In Poland during the Great Terror, Stalin ordered the Katyn Massacre to occur. This mass killing was one of the bloodiest in history only to be topped by Hitler in World War II. During this phase of Stalin’s authoritarian presence the top 15,000 officers in the Polish army were rounded up and killed in the forests of Belarus. This deeply wounded the Polish people and severely stunted the Polish progress. Poland was now without leaders in top positions and there was no one with any leadership experience to take over. Once again history had repeated itself and Stalin had broken another nation.While the Katyn Massacre was taking place Stalin was also methodically killing off all of his political opponents, or anyone who posed as to be the most remote of a threat to him. One key feature to Stalin’s Purge is the killing off many people in his own country and party. Stalin showed mercy to no one, he was evil incarnate, killing the innocent and severely damaging any possibility of future progress for Russia in the near future. Stalin had broken once again broken a nation…but this nation was Russian.After the last purge in March 1938, the spread of terror was out of control. The Soviet society was in danger of collapsing. It was clear that t...
