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a-a-ra-s-s-s-s-a-s-s-a-s-a-s- Welcome to the Russian rulers history podcast. Episode 81, Invasion.

Before I start, I like to tell you that I'll be making what I hope is an exciting announcement

at the end of this podcast, so listen all the way through everyone.

Last time we recounted the story of the great purge and the millions of deaths

ordered by Joseph Stalin and carried out by his henchmen, many of whom ended up being executed themselves.

The year is 1838, and the Great Purge has taken its toll on Russia, but it wasn't just in the homeland that the killings were taking place.

Anywhere in the world there was an old Bolshevik. The NKVD was sent to take them out.

Raskolnikov, Riz, Krievitsky, and of course Leon Trotsky were murdered on foreign

soil.

The terror had taken on an international flavor. A large

number of scientists and engineers were arrested, but interestingly enough many

were spared the executioner's bullet.

Stalin locked them away, but used them to design his war machine.

Molotov writes the following about the arrests of these important people.

Quote, people have said all sorts of things.

Tupalev belonged to that part of the intelligentsia, which the Soviet regime very much needed. But at the heart they were very much

against us. It was as natural as breathing to them. So a way was found to make sure that they had the best possible conditions.

Let them eat cake, but don't let them out.

Let them work, construct things the country needs, things for the army.

By March of 1939, the 18th Congress was being held where Stalin admitted that the NKVD may have overstepped the terror.

By April, Yajov disappeared, sent to the horrific torture chamber known as the Sukhanov prison.

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