Power and purification: late-Stalinist repression in the Uzbek SSR

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article analyses the late-Stalinist waves of repression in the Uzbek SSR against the background of the legacy of World War II. Drawing on new archival evidence, the article shows how postwar conditions influenced the Stalin leadership’s decision to unleash repressive campaigns and how the specific circumstances in the Uzbek SSR influenced the course of the campaigns. The article argues, first, that the late-Stalinist purges in the Uzbek SSR were primarily directed by the regime’s desire to regain control over the production base but that the desire to overcome ‘backwardness’ remained a prominent goal. Second, the article argues that repression in the Uzbek SSR can be divided into two phases, underlying an intensifying dynamic due to central leadership intervention in Uzbek affairs. The first phase (1946–1949) focused primarily on the Uzbek intelligentsia; the second phase (1949–1953) intensified repression through party purges so as to ensure institutional functioning in party and state, which included measures to uproot patronage networks, overcome backward behaviour and establish party discipline.