Editing Great Purge (section)

==Purge of the army==
{{Further|Case of the Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization}}
[[File:5marshals 01.jpg|thumb|The first five [[Marshal of the Soviet Union|Marshals of the Soviet Union]] in November 1935. (l–r): [[Mikhail Tukhachevsky]], [[Semyon Budyonny]], [[Kliment Voroshilov]], [[Vasily Blyukher]], [[Alexander Yegorov (soldier)|Alexander Yegorov]]. Only Budyonny and Voroshilov survived the Great Purge.]]

The purge of the [[Red Army]] and [[Soviet Navy|Military Maritime Fleet]] removed three of five [[Marshal of the Soviet Union|marshals]] (then equivalent to four-star generals), 13 of 15 army commanders (then equivalent to three-star generals),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.goarmy.com/about/ranks-and-insignia/ranks.html|title=Ranks|website=goarmy.com|access-date=2018-12-18|archive-date=17 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017012826/https://www.goarmy.com/about/ranks-and-insignia/ranks.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> eight of nine admirals (the purge fell heavily on the Navy, who were suspected of exploiting their opportunities for foreign contacts),{{sfn|Conquest|2008|p=211}} 50 of 57 army [[corps]] commanders, 154 out of 186 division commanders, 16 of 16 army [[commissar]]s, and 25 of 28 army corps commissars.{{sfn|Courtois|1999|p=198}}

At first, it was thought 25–50% of Red Army officers had been purged; the true figure is now known to be in the area of 3.7–7.7%. This discrepancy was the result of a systematic underestimation of the true size of the Red Army officer corps, and it was overlooked that most of those purged were merely expelled from the Party. Thirty percent of officers purged in 1937–1939 were allowed to return to service.<ref>Stephen Lee, ''European Dictatorships 1918–1945,'' p. 56.</ref>

The purge of the army was claimed to be supported by German-forged documents (alleged correspondence between Marshal Tukhachevsky and members of the German high command).{{sfn|Conquest|2008|pp=198–89 (a Soviet book, ''Marshal Tukhachevskiy'' by Nikulin, pp.&nbsp;189–94 is cited)}} This claim is unsupported by facts, as by the time the documents were supposedly created, two of Tukhachevsky's group were already imprisoned, and by the time the document was said to reach Stalin, the purging process was already underway. <!--Cleansing (Очищение) Victor Suvorov''--> Furthermore, actual evidence introduced at trial was obtained from forced confessions.{{sfn|Conquest|2008|p=200–202}}

The purge had a significant effect on German decision making in [[World War II]]: many German generals opposed an [[Operation Barbarossa|invasion of Russia]], but [[Hitler]] disagreed, arguing that the Red Army was less effective after its intellectual leadership had been eliminated in the purge.<ref>"Despite the fact that the combined firepower of the Red Army was greater than that of the Germans, the Purges had effectively crippled it by destroying the officer corps. This was the decisive element which persuaded Hitler to attack in 1941. At the Nuremberg trial, [[Wilhelm Keitel|Field Marshal Keitel]] testified that many German generals had warned Hitler not to attack Russia, arguing that the Red Army was a formidable opponent. Rejecting this opposition, Hitler gave Keitel his main reason for invading: 'The first-class high-ranking officers were wiped out by Stalin in 1937, and the new generation cannot yet provide the brains they need.'" [[Roy Medvedev]], ''[[Let History Judge]]'', p. 214 {{ISBN?}}</ref>