Answer:
In politics, purge refers to the removal of undesirable people from their positions. Purges are used to describe the removal of some of the ruling elites or those in charge of various state structures by monarchs or dictators. They were usually characterized by massiveness and ruthlessness. The most common motivation for carrying out them was the obsessive suspicion of the ruler and an overwhelming desire to eliminate even alleged enemies.
In the Soviet Union, purges were carried out against opposition leaders, intellectuals, officers, artists, Trotskyists, rightists and their relatives, friends and namesakes. Randomly chosen ordinary citizens also fell victim to Stalin's purges. Many of these people ended up in Gulag camps, but also dozens of prominent party members and soldiers were executed after mock trials in Moscow.
