Editing History of Ukraine (section)

==== Political repression and the Great Purge ====
{{Main|Executed Renaissance|Great Purge}}

Throughout the 1930s, [[Stalin]]'s regime became increasingly marked by paranoia and a relentless drive to eradicate any perceived threats to his authority. This climate of suspicion fueled widespread political repression across the [[Soviet Union]], profoundly impacting every layer of society in Ukraine. The purges specifically targeted Ukrainian intellectuals, artists, political leaders, and ordinary citizens suspected of harboring nationalist sympathies or potential dissenting views. Stalin’s objective was clear: to eliminate any possible source of opposition to Soviet rule, no matter how tenuous or imagined.<ref>[https://www.thecollector.com/stalin-great-purge-political-rivals/  Stalin’s Great Purge: Gulags, Show Trials, and Terror]</ref>

[[File:Биківнянські могили3.jpg|thumb|Mass burial in Bykivnia]]
The [[Great Purge]], reaching its zenith between 1936 and 1938, devastated Ukraine. During this period, tens of thousands were arrested, tortured, and executed, or sent to forced labor camps (the [[Gulag]]) in remote Soviet regions. The Ukrainian intelligentsia, initially supported during the Soviet policy of Ukrainization in the 1920s, became a particular target as they were increasingly viewed as a threat to Soviet ideological conformity. In a systematic crackdown, the [[NKVD]], Stalin’s secret police, dismantled the Ukrainian cultural and intellectual community. Most members of this intelligentsia were either imprisoned, executed, or driven to despair and suicide. One notable site, the [[Slovo Building]] in Kharkiv, where many prominent Ukrainian intellectuals resided, became infamous as a place where residents were closely surveilled, then rounded up in these purges.<ref>Павличко С. Дискурс модернізму в українській літературі: [монографія] / С. Павличко. — К.: Либідь, 1997. — C. 170.</ref><ref>Українська література XX століття: навч.-метод. посіб. для студентів 2-го курсу, які навчаються за спец. 035 — Філологія (заоч. форма) / Нар. укр. акад., каф. українознавства; упоряд. О. В. Слюніна. — Харків: Вид-во НУА, 2018. — 128 с.</ref>

The terror also took a horrific toll on [[Kyiv]], which became the capital of the Ukrainian SSR in 1934, replacing Kharkiv. Tens of thousands of Kyiv’s citizens were abducted by Soviet security forces, tortured, and summarily executed on fabricated charges. Victims were accused of treason, espionage, or nationalist activities without evidence and sentenced to death in sham trials. Their bodies were secretly buried in [[Bykivnia]], a wooded area near Kyiv, which later became one of the largest mass grave sites in Ukraine. After Ukraine’s independence and the declassification of [[KGB]] archives, thousands of graves were discovered in Bykivnia, leading to the establishment of the [[Bykivnia graves|Bykivnia Graves Memorial Complex]]. Soviet authorities had long denied the truth, claiming instead that [[Nazi]] atrocities had caused the mass burials.<ref name="Pearson">{{cite book |author=Raymond Pearson |author-link=Raymond Pearson |title=The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire |year=2002 |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=0333948076 |url=https://archive.org/details/risefallofsoviet00pear |page=[https://archive.org/details/risefallofsoviet00pear/page/n243 220] |url-access=registration }}</ref><ref name="Kuzio">{{cite book | author =Taras Kuzio |author2=Andrew Wilson | title = Ukraine: Perestroika to Independence |year=1994 |publisher=Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press |location=[[University of Alberta]] | isbn=092086287X }}</ref>

These purges were marked by infamous show trials, where prominent figures were coerced, often through brutal interrogation, into confessing to invented charges of anti-Soviet activity. The loss of Ukraine's educated and skilled citizens stifled intellectual, cultural, and social progress for decades, creating a legacy of fear that has hampered Ukraine's development and left a scar that is remembered in Ukraine to this day.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Purge  Britannica: Great-Purge]</ref>