Matvei Bronstein: Theorical physicist. Pioneer of quantum gravity. Arrested, accused of fictional “terroristic” activity and shot in 1938
Lev Shubnikov: Experimental physicist. Accused on false charges. Executed
Adrian Piotrovsky: Russian dramaturge. Accused on false charges of treason. Executed.
Nikolai Bukharin: Leader of the Communist revolution. Member of the Politburo. Falsely accused of treason. Executed.
General Alexander Egorov: Marshal of the Soviet Union. Commander of the Red Army Southern Front. Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Arrested, accused on false charges, executed.
General Mikhail Tukhachevsky Supreme Marshal of the Soviet Union. Nicknamed the Red Napoleon. Arrested, accused on fake charges. Executed.
Grigory Zinoviev: Chairman of the Communist International Movement. Member of the Soviet Politburo. Accused of treason and executed.
Even the secret police themselves were not safe:
Genrikh Yagoda : Right-hand of Joseph Stalin. Head of the NKD Secret Police. He spied on everyone in Russia and jailed thousands of innocents. Yagoda was arrested and executed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genrikh_Yagoda
Nikolai Yezhov : Appointed head of the NKD Secret Police after the death of Yagoda. Arrested on fake charges, executed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Yezhov
Everybody was absolutely terrified during this period. At least 600 000 people were killed and over one million people were deported to Gulags in Siberia.
Yeah… if I’m not mistaken, basically Russia was pre-industrial society before the revolution, and needed Europe to revolutionize too for that industry; but viceversa might not have been true, because had Europe revolutionized first, we could have pushed through the hardships with our preexisting industry.
But that revolution didn’t come, so Russia was left crippled: still pre-industrial, and damaged from the revolution, from the World War, and from imperialists trying to stop them.
That crippling made workers enter survival mode, both morally and literally, not being able to participate in democracy, which is what ultimately let Stalin and his allies raise to power and do what he did.
And because the few other states who revolutionized were dependant on the USSR, the degradation towards Stalinism affected them as well and made them degrade into their own version of it.