They did not even specify the names but simply assigned quotas of deaths by the thousands. On 2 July 1937, the Politburo ordered local Secretaries to arrest and shoot ‘the most hostile anti-Soviet elements’ who were to be sentenced by troikas, three-man tribunals that usually included the local Party Secretary, Procurator and NKVD chief. The aim was ‘to finish off once and for all’ all Enemies and those impossible to educate in socialism, so as to accelerate the erasing of class barriers and therefore the bringing of paradise for the masses.
