Quote:
Originally Posted by dragoon500ly
You hear in a lot of histories of the effect of Stalin's pre-war purges of the Soviet military, so just how bad were the purges.
Stalin purged some 67% of the generals in the Red Army: 3 of the 5 marshals, all 11 vice commissars of war; 75 of the 80 members of the Supreme War Council, 13 of the 15 army commanders, 51 of the 85 corps commanders and 110 of the 195 division and brigade commanders. The result of this was the dismal performance of the Red Army in the opening months of World War Two. Fortunately for Russia, Stalin did not actually kill all of the purged officers, but many had ben sent to the gulags in Siberia. As a result, after the debacle of the summer of 1941, many of the survivors were relased from the gulags and back to their former commands.
"Dirty Little Secrets of WWII"
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And one famous officer was among them: Marshal K.K. Rokossovosky. Arrested in 1937, had his teeth knocked out-among other tortures-by Beria's thugs, condemmed to death, but released in 1940, promoted to Major-General and told "Take command of this mechanized corps, prisoner, and we'll see about your death sentence later." The suspended death sentence was not formally lifted until after Stalin's death in 1953.