Step 1 : Introduction to the question "3. Which leader oversaw the Great Purges?"
...1. Brezhnev 2. Stalin 3. Khrushchev 4. Gorbachev During the late interwar years, Stalin got rid of many civilian party members, "Old Bolsheviks", and Soviet Army officers. Sergei Kirov, the popular party chief of Leningrad, was assassinated in 1934 - probably on orders from Stalin. This assassination was then used as the excuse for the purges that followed. Included in those purged was Nikolai Bukharin, who was once Stalin's right-hand man. Stalin did this mostly because he wanted to ensure the docility, and he was deeply suspicious of many of many long standing Party members.
