Editing Death squad (section)

===== Soviet Union =====
{{Main|Political repression in the Soviet Union|Purges of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}
Following the [[Bolshevik Revolution]], the former Russian Empire spent 74 years as the [[Soviet Union]], a one-party state ruled by the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]. Especially between 1917 and 1953, the CPSU routinely ordered the abduction, torture, and execution of massive numbers of real and suspected anti-communists. Those with upper class origins were routinely targeted in this way during the early years of the Soviet Union.

Most of the repression was committed by the regular forces of the state, like the army and the police, but there were also many cases of clandestine and covert operations.

During the interwar period, the [[NKVD]] routinely targeted anti-Stalinists in the West for abduction or murder. Among them were the CPSU's former Commissar of War, [[Leon Trotsky]], who was assassinated in [[Mexico City]] on 21 August 1940 by NKVD officer [[Ramon Mercador]]. Furthermore, former [[White Army]] Generals [[Alexander Kutepov]] and [[Evgeny Miller]] were abducted in Paris by the NKVD. Kutepov is alleged to have had a [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]] before he could be smuggled back to Moscow and shot. General Miller was not so fortunate and died in Moscow's [[Lubyanka Building|Lubianka Prison]]. [[Yevhen Konovalets]], the founder of the [[Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists]], was blown to bits by NKVD officer [[Pavel Sudoplatov]] in [[Rotterdam]] on 23 May 1938.

In the post-war period, the Russian Orthodox Church collaborated with the Soviet State in a campaign to eliminate [[Eastern Rite Catholicism]] in the newly annexed regions of the [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic]].<ref>Rev. Christopher Zugger, ''Finding a Hidden Church'', Eastern Christian Publications, 2009.</ref> Priests and laity who refused to convert to Orthodoxy were either assassinated or deported to the [[Gulag|GULAGs]] in [[Karaganda]].<ref>''Finding a Hidden Church'', pages 33–212.</ref> On 27 October 1947, the NKVD staged a car accident in order to assassinate the [[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church|Ukrainian Greek-Catholic]] Bishop [[Theodore Romzha]] of [[Mukachevo]].<ref>''Finding a Hidden Church'', pages 78–82.</ref> When the "accident" failed to kill the Bishop, the NKVD poisoned him in his hospital bed on 1 November 1947.<ref>''Finding a Hidden Church'', page 82-86.</ref>

Even in the post-Stalin era, the Soviet secret police continued to assassinate [[Anti-communism|anti-communists]] in the West. Two of the most notable victims were [[Lev Rebet]] and [[Stepan Bandera]], [[Ukrainian nationalism|Ukrainian nationalists]] who were assassinated by the [[KGB]] in [[Munich]], [[West Germany]]. Both deaths were believed to be accidental until 1961, when their murderer, [[Bohdan Stashynsky]], defected to the West with his wife and voluntarily surrendered to [[West Germany|West German]] authorities.