You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.

Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast.

I want to invite you to join me on the voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world.

These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Vigllan, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark,

and so many other famous, and not so famous, adventures from throughout history.

Go to Explorerspodcast.com or just look us up on your podcast app.

That's the Explorers Podcast.

Music Hello everyone and welcome to history of the Second World War.

Episode 139, the Soviet Union Part 9, The Military Purges.

This week, a big thank you goes out to TK.D. Man, Tim, Chuck, James, Mike, Bella, Vladimir, Zach, and Rob

for choosing to support the podcast by becoming members. Head on over to History of the Second

World War.com slash members to find out more. I would also like to thank Vladimir for the donation.

Last episode covered some of the events that led to the Great Purge, a series of arrests

that would sweep through the Soviet Union from 1937 to 1938. While the wider purge was

occurring throughout society, there was also a focused purge

occurring of the Red Army, particularly among its officers.

This would be a critical event because it would see thousands of Red Army officers,

up to and including Marshal Tukachevsky, hero of the Civil War, and head of the Red Army

for much of the interwar period, removed from their position. The result of the leadership purges was that the strength of the Civil War and head of the Red Army for much of the interwar period removed from their

position. The result of the leadership purges was that the structure of the Red Army was gutted.

This would have a very negative impact on any military in the world. Experienced officers are a

precious commodity that are quite hard to replace, but it was particularly challenging for the Red Army to recover

...