Definition of Political Purge

In medicine enemas and laxatives are used to facilitate the evacuation of waste substances from the body. This action is a purge and with it it is possible to cleanse the body itself. The therapeutic use of the word purge has been extended to the context of politics In this sense, we speak of a political purge to explain the physical elimination or removal of those political leaders who are accused of being traitors to the homeland and to the interests of the nation. nation.

Whoever promotes a political purge process is normally a dictator, who launches a systematic campaign to eliminate any internal opposition that puts his absolute power at risk.

The Stalinist purges

For a totalitarian leader to eliminate his enemies is a common practice and is part of the logic of all dictatorships. However, the political purge has a singularity: it is not about eliminating or imprisoning the enemies but the members of the party in power themselves. This phenomenon occurred in a very striking way in the stage when Stalin ruled the Soviet Union, as well as in other communist regimes.

The Stalinist purges were especially intense between 1936 and 1940. During this period, a systematic persecution of senior political leaders was launched. Most of the persecuted were tortured and killed or ended up in the gulags, concentration camps scattered throughout the world. territory. The victims of this "cleansing" process received all kinds of accusations, most of them false or without. foundation (they were accused of spies in the service of foreign powers, enemies of the people or counterrevolutionaries).

The purges in China and Cambodia

In the so-called Revolution Chinese Cultural (1966-1976) Mao unleashed a political purge against all kinds of "enemies": intellectuals, political leaders, members of the army, small farmers, and so on.

The strategy of Mao to consolidate his power and eliminate any opposing element was based on the use of the Red Guards who were touring the country and eliminating all the supposed enemies. As in Stalin's Soviet Union, it was necessary to use a credible excuse and in this case the argument that served as an alibi was to eliminate any indication capitalist or contrary to the true revolution.

In the wake of Stalin and Mao, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia also activated a political purge when they ruled the country between 1975 and 1979. In this case, it was not about the assassinations of political leaders or the imprisonment of intellectuals, but rather an extermination of a large part of the population. population with the aim of creating a new society based on the ideals of communism.

Photo: Fotolia - Sirikornt / Mopic