Corporate Solidarity in Stalin’s USSR: Arrests and Release of NKVD Officers in the 1930s–1940s

Russian Review. 2025. Vol. 84. No. 1. P. 88–102.

Khlevniuk O. V.

Purges and high-profile political cases were constantly, though with varying degrees of intensity, brought down on Soviet functionaries in the 1920s–1950s. However, judging by the latest research, repressions did not completely stop the stabilization and formation of corporate cohesion within the nomenklatura, convincing signs of which already had appeared under Stalin. This trend, which in many ways determined the nature of the Soviet system’s development, is significant. However, its study requires considerable effort, including analyzing new sources reflecting the practices of the nomenklatura’s resistance to repressive pressure from above. This article addresses this problem through the prism of a well-known phenomenon: the purges of NKVD officers, who themselves conducted mass repressions in 1937–38. Newly available archival documents make it possible to investigate several critical interrelated questions. First, what was the situation of convicted Chekists in the camps? Second, what were the mechanisms for the early release of former officers? Third, what were the subsequent trajectories of restoring the Chekists’ social status?

Keywords: корпоративизм, corporatism, soviet political system, советская политическая система