The first major purge of the Communist Party ranks (or simply executions, Russian: "чистка" – "cleansing") was performed by Bolsheviks as early as 1921. About 220,000 members were purged or left the party in 1921. The purge was justified by the necessity to get rid of the members that joined the Party simply to be on the winning side. The major criteria were social origins (members of working classes were normally accepted without question) and contributions to the revolutionary cause. In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical ideology based on Marxism. ... Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ...

Although this term is mostly associated with Stalinism, the first purge of the Stalin era was performed only in 1929–1930 according to the resolution of the XVI Party Conference. Over 10% of the Party members were purged. At the same time a significant number of new members, industrial workers, joined the Party. Joseph Stalin. ... Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვი&#4314... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ...

The next systematic Party purge in the Soviet Union was declared in December 1932 to be performed during 1933. This time on the period of purge new memberships were temporarily suspended. A joint resolution of the Party Central Committee and Central Revision Committee specified the criteria for purge and called for setting special Purge Commissions, to which every communist had to report. Also, this purge concerned members of the Central Committee, Central Revision Committee, which previously were immune to purges, because they were elected at Party Congresses. In particular, Bukharin, Rykov, and Tomsky had to try hard to defend themselves during this purge. At this time, of 1,9 million members, about 18% were purged. 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... The Central Committee, abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, Tseka, was the highest body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). ... The Congress of the CPSU was the gathering of the delegates of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and its predecessors. ... Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (Russian: ), (October 9 [O.S. September 27] 1888 – March 13, 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and intellectual, and later a Soviet politician. ... Alexei Rykov Alexei Ivanovich Rykov (1881-1938) was a Bolshevik and leader in the Soviet Union. ... Mikhail Tomsky (1880-1936) was a factory worker, trade unionist and Bolshevik leader. ...

In itself, the term was innocent enough: within 1921–1933 in the Soviet Union, for example, some 800,000 people were purged or left the Party, but suffered no worse fate. 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

But from 1936 onwards, during the Great Purge, the term changed its meaning, because being expelled from the Party came to mean almost certain arrest, imprisonment or even execution. 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Great Purge (Russian: , transliterated Bolshaya chistka) is the name given to campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the late 1930s. ...

Following Stalin's death, purges as systematic campaigns of expulsion from the Party stopped and loss of the Party membership meant only loss of possible nomenklatura privileges. Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვი&#4314... The nomenklatura were a small, élite subset of the general population of Party members in the Soviet Union, having more authority and claiming higher privileges as precisely the same kind of ruling class which Communist doctrine denounced in the Capitalist West. ...