(2001) - Color - 1 min
The LikeTelevision™ History channel proudly presents, This Day In History - December 28! On December 28, 1934, Stalin begins his purges. Before his death, V.I. Lenin advised that Joseph Stalin be removed from the General Secretariat because of a tendency to abuse power. But Stalin prevailed and forced out Leon Trotsky and his followers. On December 28, 1934, Stalin used the assassination of an aide, Sergei Kirov to execute more than 100 officials, beginning a series of purges that exterminated most of the old Bolsheviks. Stalin wanted no resistence to his drive to industrialize Russia, which in fact produced the armaments necessary to repulse Hitler and greatly expand the Soviet sphere of influence. Tremendous transformations were made under Stalin, a pseudonym that means Man of Steel, but at a cost of great despotism and cruelty.

Related Links: See more: Soviet - Stalin - Bolshevik

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