THE VOLGA GERMAN REPUBLIC POLITICAL ELITE AND ITS DESTINY (1931-1938)
The author shows in the article that by the end of the 1920s, the radical wing representatives of its political elite were in power in the ASSR of VG. The government’ policy towards its own population was sharply tightened. The most striking example was the brutal forms and methods of collectivization. All the property the peasants, including small cattle, poultry, and household utensils, was collectivized. The fight against religion was sharply tightened. Unbridled violence of authorities led to mass peasants demonstrations, which were brutally suppressed. The massive dispossession of wealthy peasants and the expulsion of their families to North and Kazakhstan caused great damage to the economy. The author makes comes to the conclusion that the policy of socialism forced construction did not achieve the set results, and this became one of the main reasons for mass repressions against the most radical elite. Almost all of its representatives were exterminated or exiled to camps in 1937-1938. Replacing the “old guard”, a new political new political elite of the «third wave» began to form itself.