Political Reprisals Against the Intelligentsia of the European North of Russia in the 1920s-1930s

The aim of the article is to identify the dynamics and scale of political reprisals against the intelligentsia of the European North of Russia in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as to analyze the complex of reasons that predetermined them. The authors interpret intelligentsia as employees of the sphere of intellectual labor within the framework of the sociological approach. The territorial scope of the study is defined by Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Severodvinsk, and Murmansk Provinces (Severnyy [Northern] Krai). During the analyzed period, the authors identified three key stages in the dynamics and complex causes of political reprisals against the intelligentsia of the European North of Russia. The first stage, 1922-1927, compared to the period of the Oivil War in Russia, can be called a stage of easing the pressure on the intelligentsia of the European North of Russia, which was due to the rejection of military command methods of governing the country and an acute shortage of highly qualified specialists in the region. However, at the same time, the authorities took preventive measures in order to maintain their leading positions in politics, ideology, and economy. All specialists holding responsible positions were put under personal observation. The purge of “class-alien” elements deprived of voting rights under the Constitution of the USSR began. An essential condition for the employment of intellectuals was the check by the GPU authorities for loyalty to the Soviet government and political reliability. The second stage started in the late 1920s. Under the slogan “Intensification of the class struggle along with the development of socialism”, the country's leadership sought to strengthen its position and at the same time use forced labor for building socialism. In 1928-1929, in the region, especially in Vologda and North Dvina Provinces where agriculture was developed, the struggle with NEP adherents began. In order to identify the “unreliable”, a total personnel check was carried out, as a result of which many intellectuals were arrested or dismissed without the right to professional activity. Mass political reprisals against the intelligentsia in the second half of the 1930s mark the beginning of the third period. By the mid-1930s, a new Soviet generation of intelligentsia had formed in Severnyy Krai, which was the trigger for the beginning of repression against the “old bourgeois” intelligentsia. The authors found that the greatest reprisals were inflicted on the intelligentsia of Arkhangelsk Province - about three thousand people were arrested during the period from 1935 till 1941. The reprisals affected not only pre-revolutionary specialists, but also the intelligentsia of the Soviet generation. By the end of the 1930s, the socioeconomic and cultural image of the region had changed radically.

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