Editing Purge

{{short description|Forceful removal of people considered undesirable}}
{{other uses}}
{{Discrimination sidebar|state=collapsed}}
[[File:Evdokimov Nikolay Ivanovich.jpg|thumb|Russian Count [[Nikolay Yevdokimov]], who organized the extermination campaigns of "[[Tsitsekun]]", designated Russian military operations targeting Circassian natives by the term “''ochishchenie''” (cleansing).]]
In [[history]], [[religion]] and [[political science]], a '''purge''' is a position removal or [[execution]] of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an effort is labeled as purging itself. Purges can be either nonviolent or violent, with the former often resolved by the simple removal of those who have been purged from office, and the latter often resolved by the [[imprisonment]], [[exile]], or [[murder]] of those who have been purged.{{sfnp|Goldring|Matthews|2022|pp=575–593}}

==Characteristics==
The [[Shanghai massacre of 1927]] in China and the [[Night of the Long Knives]] of 1934 in Nazi Germany, in which the leader of a political party turns against a particular section or group within the party and kills its members, are commonly called "purges". Mass expulsions of populations on the grounds of [[racism]] and [[xenophobia]], such as the [[deportation of the Crimean Tatars]] in the Soviet Union, are not.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

Though sudden and violent purges are notable, most purges do not involve immediate execution or imprisonment, for example the periodic massive purges of the [[Communist Party of Czechoslovakia#Membership|Communist Party of Czechoslovakia]] on grounds of apathy or dereliction, or the [[Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service|purge of Jews]] and [[German resistance to Nazism|political dissenters]] from the German Civil Service in 1933–1934.

Beginning in 1966, [[Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party|Chairman]] [[Mao Zedong]] and his associates purged much of the [[Chinese Communist Party]]'s [[Generations of Chinese leadership|leadership]], including the [[head of state]], [[President of the People's Republic of China|President]] [[Liu Shaoqi]] and the then-[[Secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party|Secretary-General]], [[Deng Xiaoping]], as part of what the leaders termed the [[Cultural Revolution]]. In [[Maoism|Maoist]] states, sentences usually involved hard labor in ''[[laogai]]'' camps and executions. Deng Xiaoping acquired a reputation for returning to power after he had been purged several times.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

==Historical use of the term==
===English Civil War purge, 1648–1650===
{{Main|Pride's Purge}}
The earliest use of the term dates back to the [[English Civil War]]'s [[Pride's Purge]]. In 1648–1650, the moderate members of the English [[Long Parliament]] were purged by the [[New Model Army]]. The [[Parliament of England]] would suffer subsequent purges under [[Oliver Cromwell]]'s [[Commonwealth of England]], including the purge of the entire [[House of Lords]]. Counter-revolutionaries such as royalists and more radical revolutionaries such as the [[Levellers]] were purged. After the [[Stuart Restoration]], obstinate [[Republicanism in England|republicans]] were purged while some{{which|date=December 2013}} fled to the [[New England Colonies]] in [[British America]].

===Soviet Union===
{{Main|Red Terror|Great Purge|Political repression in the Soviet Union|Purges of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Mass killings under communist regimes|Mass operations of the NKVD}}
Purges were frequent in the Soviet Union.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Matthews |first=Austin S. |date=2024 |title=Elite Threats and Punitive Violence in Autocratic Regimes: Evidence from Communist Eastern Europe |url=https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cuny/cp/pre-prints/content-jcpo23170 |journal=Comparative Politics |volume=56 |issue=4 |doi=10.5129/001041524X17078378055516 |language=en|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In the Soviet Union, military and internal security elites were more likely to be detained than civilian elites.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Saijo |first=Harunobu |date=2025 |title=How the Strategic Purges of State Security Personnel Protect Dictators |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09636412.2025.2468755 |journal=Security Studies |doi=10.1080/09636412.2025.2468755 |issn=0963-6412|doi-access=free }}</ref>

The term "purge" is often associated with [[Stalinism]]. While leading the USSR, [[Joseph Stalin]] carried out repeated purges which resulted in tens of thousands of people sentenced to [[Gulag]] labor camps and the outright executions of rival communists, military officers, [[ethnic minorities]], [[Wrecking (Soviet Union)|wreckers]], and citizens accused of plotting against [[communism]].<ref>{{cite book |last= Hunt |first=Lynn |title=The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures |volume=C: Since 1740 |publisher= Bedford/St. Martin's |isbn= 9780312465100 |year=2008 |edition=3rd |page=846 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> Stalin together with [[Nikolai Yezhov]] initiated the most notorious of the [[Purges of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU purges]], the [[Great Purge]], during the mid to late 1930s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bukovsky |first=Vladimir |title=The Permanent Purge. The Purge as a Technique of Soviet Totalitarian Politics from the Rise of Stalin to the Fall of Malenkov |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=  |year=1956 |edition=1st |page=7 |display-authors=etal}}</ref>

===Nazi Germany===
{{Main|Night of the Long Knives}}
In 1934, Chancellor [[Adolf Hitler]] ordered the execution of [[Ernst Röhm]], other leaders of the ''[[Sturmabteilung]]'' militia, and political opponents.

===France after WWII===
{{Main|Épuration légale|Pursuit of Nazi collaborators}}
After [[Liberation of France|France's liberation]] by the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] in 1944, the [[Provisional Government of the French Republic]] and particularly the [[French Resistance]] carried out purges of former [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaborationists]], the so-called "[[Vichy France|vichystes]]". The process became known in legal terms as ''[[épuration légale]]'' ("legal purging"). Similar processes in other countries and on other occasions included [[denazification]] in [[Allied-occupied Germany]] and [[decommunization]] in [[Post-communism|post-communist states]].

===Japan after WWII===
The [[Red Purge]] was an [[anticommunist]] movement in [[Occupation of Japan|occupied Japan]] from the late 1940s to the early 1950s.<ref>{{harvnb|Kumano|2010|p=513}}: "The notorious "Red Purge" was instituted nationwide in the final phase of the occupation, from July 1947 to April 1951, and proved to be a critical test for the survival of academic freedom."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Dower|Tetsuo|2007|p=3}}: "The Red Purge was a series of arbitrary layoffs by government agencies and corporations aimed at heavy-handedly eliminating from the workplace those workers who had been unilaterally branded 'Red'. [...] The purge occurred during the US occupation of Japan from 1949 to 1951."</ref><ref name="Kingston1">{{harvnb|Kingston|2011|p=13}}: "From 1947, the Japanese government, supported by MacArthur, unleashed a Red Purge that targeted those Japanese considered to have left-wing views."</ref> Carried out by the [[Japanese government]] and private corporations with the aid and encouragement of the [[Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers]] (SCAP), the Red Purge resulted in tens of thousands of alleged members, supporters, or sympathizers of left-wing groups, especially those said to be affiliated with the [[Japanese Communist Party]], removed from their jobs in government, the private sector, universities, and schools.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=10}} The Red Purge emerged from rising [[Cold War]] tensions and the [[Red Scare]] after World War II,<ref>{{harvnb|Kumano|2010|p=514}}: "Eells's anticommunist speeches echoed America's Cold War policy [...] during the ideological struggle of the Cold War."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Kumano|2010|p=529}}: "Since Eells's address in July 1949, the dilemma over communist teachers had become a national obsession, verging in some quarters on hysteria."</ref> and was a significant element within a broader "[[Reverse Course]]" in Occupation policies.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|pp=9–10}} The Red Purge reached a peak following the outbreak of the [[Korean War]] in 1950,{{sfn|Kapur|2018|pp=9–10}} when communist China supported North Korea. It began to ease after General [[Douglas MacArthur]] was replaced as commander of the Occupation by General [[Matthew Ridgway]] in 1951, and came to a conclusion with the end of the Occupation in 1952.

===Communist Cuba===
{{Main|Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution}}
After the [[Cuban Revolution]] in 1959, [[Fidel Castro]] of [[Cuba]] often purged those who had previously been involved with the [[Fulgencio Batista|Batista regime]]. Purges usually involved the execution of the condemned. Castro periodically carried out purges in the [[Communist Party of Cuba]] thereafter. One prominent purge was carried out in 1989 when a high-ranking [[Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces]] general named [[Arnaldo Ochoa]] was sentenced to death and executed by [[firing squad]] on charges of [[Illegal drug trade|drug trafficking]]. Purges became less common in Cuba during the 1990s and 2000s.

=== United States: Red Scares, HUAC and McCarthyism ===
{{see also|Red Scares|House Un-American Activities Committee|McCarthyism}}
In the period 1938–1975, the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] (HUAC),  an investigative committee of the [[United States House of Representatives]], carried out a campaign of purging alleged "communist sympathizers" from positions in public life. While non-violent, HUAC's campaign destroyed the careers of many individuals, particularly in the entertainment industry, where HUAC attempted to purge left-wing voices entirely from the industry through the [[Hollywood blacklist]].

While not part of HUAC, U.S. Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]] was a major driver of efforts to purge perceived communist sympathizers through the 1940s and 1950s, which ended in his condemnation and censure in 1954.

==In the 21st century==
=== China ===
{{main|Anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping}}Some observers consider the [[anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping]] to be a purge.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-41670162|title=Charting China's 'great purge' under Xi|date=2017-10-23|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-china-investigations-and-purges-become-the-new-normal/2018/10/21/077fa736-d39c-11e8-a275-81c671a50422_story.html|title=In China, investigations and purges become the new normal|last=Shih|first=Gerry|date=2018-10-22|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> A far-reaching campaign against corruption began in [[China]] following the conclusion of the [[18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party]] in 2012. The campaign, carried out under the aegis of [[Xi Jinping]], [[General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party]], was the largest organized purported anti-graft effort in the [[History of the People's Republic of China|history of Communist rule]] in China.

===Iran===
{{Main|Consolidation of the Iranian Revolution|Cultural Revolution in Iran}}
The Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution of the Iranian government purged universities.

In August 2023, the government reportedly had a program to hire 15,000 replacements for people in universities and to place clerics in schools.<ref>{{Cite web |title=یک استاد دانشگاه شریف، جذب مخفیانه پانزده هزار استاد همسو با حکومت را "فاجعه" خواند |url=https://ir.voanews.com/a/iran--starting-of-employing-fifteen-thousand-pro-regime-lecturers/7231274.html |access-date=2023-09-26 |website=Voice of America}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-09-26 |title=پیشنهادات جدید از لایحه حجاب؛ از ممنوعیت کاشت ناخن و اجباری شدن چادر در دانشگاه و مدارس تا استخدام طلاب در مدارس و اعطای مجوز شوکر و اسپری به بسیجیان |url=https://www.etemadonline.com/%D8%A8%D8%AE%D8%B4-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D8%A7%D8%B3%DB%8C-9/628321-%D9%84%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%AD%D9%87-%D8%AD%D8%AC%D8%A7%D8%A8-%DA%A9%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%AA-%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%AE%D9%86-%DA%86%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%BE%D8%B1%DB%8C-%D8%B4%D9%88%DA%A9%D8%B1-%D8%A8%D8%B3%DB%8C%D8%AC |access-date=2023-09-26 |website=اعتمادآنلاین |language=fa}}</ref> It also removed Tehran [[University of Art]]’s major curricula for sculpting, music and cinematography/filmmaking.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://jahanesanat.ir/%d9%87%d9%86%d8%b1-%d8%af%d8%b1-%d8%aa%d8%a7%d8%b1%db%8c%da%a9%d8%ae%d8%a7%d9%86%d9%87-%d9%81%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%85%d9%88%d8%b4%db%8c/390210/ | title=هنر در تاریکخانه فراموشی | date=20 August 2023 }}</ref>
The government added Islamic studies even more so.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-08-27 |title=تغییرات وسیع کنکور امسال؛ به ضرر رشته‌های هنری و علوم انسانی و به نفع "علوم اسلامی" |url=https://www.bbc.com/persian/articles/cp98r0234vjo |access-date=2023-09-26 |website=BBC News فارسی |language=fa}}</ref> Many academics were terminated/fired.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Motamedi |first=Maziar |title='Academic decline': Why are university professors being expelled in Iran? |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/30/academic-decline-why-are-university-professors-being-expelled-in-iran |access-date=2023-09-26 |website=www.aljazeera.com |language=en}}</ref> On 14 December 2023 the Ministry of Education announced that it would hire 7000 clerics instead of teachers.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.iranintl.com/202312148203 | title=وزیر آموزش و پرورش: ۷ هزار نیروی جهادی و مربی قرآن برای جبران کمبود معلم جذب کردیم | date=14 December 2023 }}</ref>

===Iraq===
{{Main|De-Ba'athification}}
[[De-Ba'athification]] was undertaken by the [[Coalition Provisional Authority]] (CPA) and subsequent Iraqi governments to remove the [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region|Ba'ath Party]]'s influence in the new [[Politics of Iraq|Iraqi political system]] after the [[2003 invasion of Iraq|U.S.-led invasion]] in 2003.<ref name="Order Number 1" /> It was first outlined in CPA Order 1 which entered into force on 16 May 2003.<ref name="Order Number 1">{{cite web|title=Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 1: De-Ba'athification of Iraqi Society|url=http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/20030516_CPAORD_1_De-Ba_athification_of_Iraqi_Society_.pdf|publisher=Coalition Provisional Authority|access-date=24 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040621014307/http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/20030516_CPAORD_1_De-Ba_athification_of_Iraqi_Society_.pdf|archive-date=21 June 2004|url-status=usurped}}</ref> The order declared that all [[public sector]] employees affiliated with the Ba'ath Party were to be removed from their positions and to be banned from any future employment in the public sector.<ref name= "Order Number 1" />

It is estimated that, before 2007, 50,000 civil government employees, as well as employees of other organizations [[Coalition Provisional Authority Order 2#Dissolved entities|listed in Annex A of Order No. 2]], were removed from their positions as a result of de-Ba'athification.<ref>Ferguson, C. ''No End in Sight: Iraq's Descent into Chaos.'' New York: PublicAffairs, 2008.</ref> Another estimate places the number, also before 2007, at "100,000 civil servants, doctors, and teachers", who were forcibly removed from the public sector due to low-level affiliation.<ref name="SSI Reconstruction Wirtz Chapter">{{cite book|last=Wirtz|first=James|title=The Interagency and Counterinsurgency Warfare: Aligning and Integrating Military and Civilian Roles in Stability, Security, Transition, and Reconstruction Operations|year=2007|publisher=Strategic Studies Institute|pages=275|editor=Joseph Cerami and Jay Boggs|chapter=The Exquisite Problem of Victory: Measuring Success in Unconventional Operations}}</ref>

===North Korea===
{{Main|Political repression in North Korea}}
Members of the [[Kim family (North Korea)|Kim family]] have each periodically purged their political rivals or perceived threats since consolidating their control over [[North Korea]], beginning in the 1950s. The most senior Kim purged those who opposed his son's succession to the supreme leadership of North Korea. [[Kim Il Sung]]'s most prominent purge occurred during the "[[August Incident]]" in 1956, when the pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese [[Yanan faction]]s of the [[Workers' Party of Korea]] (WPK) attempted to depose Kim. Most of those involved in the plot were executed while some others fled to the USSR and China. While some purges were carried out under [[Kim Jong Il]], they were not as common as they were under his father/son. [[Kim Jong Un]] purged several high-ranking officials and generals installed by his father Kim Jong Il in the former's first years in power, including, most prominently, his uncle [[Jang Song-thaek]].

===Turkey===
{{main|2016–present purges in Turkey}}
After the failed [[2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt]], the [[Government of Turkey]] under [[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]] began a purge against members of its civil service and the [[Turkish Armed Forces]]. The purge ostensibly focused mainly on public servants and soldiers alleged to be part of the [[Gülen movement]], the group the government blamed for the coup. As part of the purge, about 200,000 public officials, including thousands of judges, were dismissed and detained. Politicized [[Kurds in Turkey]] have also been a major target of the [[Justice and Development Party (Turkey)|Justice and Development Party]]-led purge.

==See also==
* [[Genocide]]
* [[Lustration]]
* [[Extrajudicial killing]]
* [[Political cleansing of population]]
* [[Political repression]]
* [[Proscription]]
* [[Reign of Terror]]
* [[Martial law under Ferdinand Marcos]]
* [[Dirty War]]
* [[1979 Ba'ath Party Purge]]

==References==
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===Citations===
{{reflist|40em}}

===Sources===
{{Refbegin|60em}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Dower |first1=John |author1link=John W. Dower|last2=Tetsuo |first2=Hirata |title=Japan's Red Purge: Lessons from a Saga of Suppression of Free Speech and Thought |journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus |date=12 July 2007 |volume=5 |issue=7 |url=https://apjjf.org/-John-W.-Dower/2462/article.html |access-date=8 July 2021}}
* {{Cite journal|last1=Goldring |first1=Edward|last2=Matthews|first2=Austin S.|date=2022|title=To Purge or Not to Purge? An Individual-Level Quantitative Analysis of Elite Purges in Dictatorships|journal=British Journal of Political Science|volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=575–593|language=en|doi=10.1017/S0007123421000569|s2cid=245290566|issn=0007-1234|doi-access=free}}
*{{cite book |last = Kapur |first = Nick |year = 2018 |title = Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo |publisher = Harvard University Press |location = Cambridge, MA |isbn = 978-0674984424 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Re5hDwAAQBAJ}}
* {{cite book |last1=Kingston |first1=Jeff |author1link=Jeff Kingston |title=Japan in transformation, 1945-2010 |date=2011 |publisher=Longman |location=Harlow, England |isbn=9781408234518 |edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XqMuAgAAQBAJ |access-date=8 July 2021}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Kumano |first1=Ruriko |title=Anticommunism and Academic Freedom: Walter C. Eells and the "Red Purge" in Occupied Japan |journal=[[History of Education Quarterly]] |date=2010 |volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=513–537 |doi=10.1111/j.1748-5959.2010.00292.x |jstor=25799354 |s2cid=141683333 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25799354 |access-date=8 July 2021 |issn=0018-2680|url-access=subscription }}

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{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Political and cultural purges| ]]
[[Category:Political repression]]
[[Category:Persecution]]
[[Category:Informal legal terminology]]
[[Category:Historical negationism]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:Racism]]