Bored to death: Stalin’s investigators draw flowers in case materials (photos)


About 40,000 people were executed only in Moscow; tens of thousands were arrested during the Great Terror in the Soviet Union (summer 1937 — autumn 1938).

The project Big Museum notes that the monthly performance of an ordinary Moscow-based NKVD investigator could be more than 30-40 political criminal cases.

Photo: «Большой Музей»

Studying the investigation documents of 1937-1938, the researchers suggested that probing into each case was nothing but as day-to-dayness for representatives of the Stalin secret police who might have felt stuck in ruts. If a person is bored, they usually make some drawings, and there are many of them in the materials of political cases, experts stress.

The Lithuanian underground case: Iosif MitskevichYushko and Bronislav Pushinis-Leonas were arrested in 1938. It was reconsidered in 1939.

Photo: «Большой Музей»

The Glavryba case: Ivan Targulov, Ilya Razumovsky, Ivan Krasovsky-Solovei (aka Vygarnitski), Boris Y. Vostrikov were arrested in the winter of 1938. In 1939, Targulov was sentenced to six years in the labour camp.

Photo: «Большой Музей»

The defendant, Mefody Shcherbakov, was dekulakized and exiled in 1928. In 1932, he was re-arrested, the case was reviewed.

Photo: «Большой Музей»

The defendant, Pyotr Zhivin, was arrested in 1938, he spent two years in prison, but was acquitted in 1940.

The Glavryba case.

Photo: «Большой Музей»

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