The Commanders of the Transcaucasian Military District During 1937-38 and Their Role within the Process of the Mass Political Repression of the Leadership Structure

Abstract

This article is about one of the most difficult periods for the Red Army before the Second World War — the period connected with mass political repressions. The authors present material about the activities of the command of the Transcaucasian Military District during 1937-1938 that illustrates the fates of prominent military leaders: the Army Commander of the Second Rank M. K. Levandovskiy, Corps Commander N. V. Kuybyshev, and Marshal A. I. Egorov and provides a deeper understanding of what happened to the country and the army at this time. Based off the example of this military district, there is uncovered a mechanism for changing such an organization’s leadership (its Commander, Vice-Chairmen and members of its Military Council); a mechanism which essentially eliminated the command and control system for a strategically important region on the verge of the Second World War. The content of the article is based off of archival documents. These include the orders and directives of the People's Commissar of Defense and the Political Directorate of the Red Army, as well as the official correspondence of Transcaucasian Military District’s Command with the People's Commissar of Defense and its personnel agencies, the District’s own orders, directives, and statistical reports, the correspondence of its commander with his underlings and with a Special Department of the NKVD, and summaries of the Main Directorate of State Security sent directly to Stalin. A number of documents from the archives are published here for the first time.