«Тихий терор» проти «колишніх людей» у середині 1930-х рр.
“Silent terror” against “former people” in the mid-1930s

Summary/Abstract: Objective. To reconstruct the events related to the repressive measures of the communist regime against ‘former people’ who lived in the republic during the period 1934–1936 based on archival and newspaper sources. Methodology is founded on the principles of scientific rigour, historicism, and comprehensive analysis of archival sources. The research employed biographical, problem-chronological, specific-search, historical-genetic, and linear-chronological methods. Conclusions. The Kirov assassination was the reason for the repressive measures taken in the mid-1930s in the republic against “former people”. At the same time, the repressions of this period went far beyond the arrests of so-called “White Guard terrorists”. In the Ukrainian SSR, on 13–15 December 1934, well-known Ukrainian writers and cultural figures were sentenced to death and imprisonment. State security officers conducted a large-scale check of the records of former officers and imperial officials, as well as ordinary participants in the armed struggle against Soviet power. A significant number of them were arrested. In particular, such a mass special operation took place in Kyiv on the night of 5 to 6 April and in Odesa on the night of 14 to 15 April 1935. During the arrests and searches, weapons, awards, documents, photographs and prerevolutionary literature were seized. The materials found were interpreted by the investigating authorities as evidence of their owners' participation in anti-Soviet activities. A significant number of those arrested were subsequently sentenced to prison terms or deported to other regions of the USSR. A thorough check of ‘former people’ was also carried out by the communist regime in 1936, in particular, persons who were on social security due to their age. The ‘former people’ were finally exterminated during mass operations during the Great Terror of 1937–1938.

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