The purge of the Red Army was claimed to be supported by Nazi-forged documents (said to have been correspondence between Marshal Tukhachevsky and members of the German high command).[28] The claim is unsupported by facts, as by the time the documents were supposedly created, two people from the eight in the Tukhachevsky group were already imprisoned, and by the time the document was said to reach Stalin the purging process was already underway. However the actual evidence introduced at trial was obtained from forced confessions.[29] The purge of the army removed three of five marshals (then equivalent to five-star generals), 13 of 15 army commanders (then equivalent to three- and four-star generals), eight of nine admirals (the purge fell heavily on the Navy, who were suspected of exploiting their opportunities for foreign contacts),[30] 50 of 57 army corps commanders, 154 out of 186 division commanders, 16 of 16 army commissars, and 25 of 28 army corps commissars.[31]
At first it was thought 25-50% of Red Army officers were purged, it is now known to be 3.7-7.7%. Previously, the size of the Red Army officer corps was underestimated and it was overlooked that most of those purged were merely expelled from the Party. 30% of officers purged 1937-9 were allowed back
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge
To bold δικό μου σχετικά με το βαθμό των αξιωματικών που εκδιώχθηκαν. Πρακτικά αποκεφαλίστηκε ο Κόκκινος Στρατός και τα αποτελέσματα φάνηκαν στα πρώτα 2 χρόνια του Πολέμου.
Να ας πούμε τον ήρωα του Στάλινγκραντ:
Rokossovsky held senior commands until 1937, when he became caught up in Joseph Stalin's Great Purge and accused of being a Polish spy. His association with the cutting edge methods of Marshal Tukhachevsky may have been the real cause of his conflict with more traditional officers such as Semyon Budenny, who still favoured cavalry tactics, and whose policy disagreements with Tukhachevsky triggered the Great Purge of the Red Army, which resulted in the execution of the latter and many others.[7] Rokossovsky, however, survived.
It is reported that he escaped the fate of so many other officers caught up in the purge by proving to the court that the officer whom his accusers claimed had denounced him had been killed in 1920 during the civil war.[8] According to Alexander Solzhenitsyn he endured two mock shooting ceremonies where people were shot dead around him.[8]
In his famous 'secret speech' of 1956, Nikita Khrushchev, when speaking on the subject of the purges, mentioned Rokossovsky, saying, 'suffice it to say that those of them who managed to survive, despite severe tortures to which they were subjected in the prisons, have from the first war days shown themselves real patriots and heroically fought for the glory of the Fatherland.'.[9]
After his trial Rokossovsky was sent to the Kresty Prison in Leningrad, where he remained until he was released without explanation on March 22, 1940.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Rokossovsky
