The campaign to “cleanse” the party and state apparatus in the satirical magazine “Crocodile” (1929–1930)

Abstract

The article discusses the campaign to “purge” the party and state apparatus, which was planned in 1928 and carried out in 1929. That campaign was personally directed by Stalin, general secretary of the Central Committee of the VKP(b). The article studies the mechanism of adapting party decisions on “purges” with respect to propaganda in the satirical magazine Crocodile, which was published in huge circulations. Party decisions on paper are one thing; their implementation in images and symbols of Soviet daily life understandable to a mass audience is another. The campaign had one goal – to intimidate society and create conditions for the transition to a more mass repression, while abandoning the new economic policy. The fundamental differences between the purge of the party apparatus and the purge of the state apparatus are explored.