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NEWS > EVERYONE ELSE > MEDVEDEV BEGINS PURGE AFTER PITIFUL OLYMPICS
MEDVEDEV BEGINS PURGE AFTER PITIFUL OLYMPICS
March 1 2010
Moscow, Russia – The great purge, the great terror, Yezhovshchina. For people of a certain generation those words carry a heavy weight, a burden that nearly undid the Soviet Union. The Purges, occurring between 1936 and 1938, gutted the Russian 
military and the Communist party, sending hundreds of thousands to the Gulags or to the gallows. While repression was par for the course in the Soviet Union, the purges were a different beast altogether with more than a million people dying at the hands of their government and paving the way for Nazi Germany to invade, killing millions more.
Those days of course are long gone and the worst abuses of the Soviets mostly a memory, but as historical context, the purges are an important lesson. Later similar purges such as the cultural revolution in China or the mass slaughter by the Khmer Rouge showed that such brutality is not unique, either my culture or country. Such incidents have
abated in recent years with only a handful of attempts occurring since Cambodia. Russia, however, remembers her history well and if President Dmitry Medvedev has his way, that history will soon be repeating itself. At issue is the nation’s paltry medal count in the winter Olympics which saw the once dominant power in the games ranked sixth in medals, a result which has angered the head if state, prompting him to begin a purge of the entire sporting program.
“Those responsible should take the brave decision and sign a letter of resignation. If they can't we will help them. Things must change and change now for we must be victorious in 2014, we will accept no less,” said Medvedev. “Officials and trainers were not devoting all the money we have allotted them towards training. Such abuses will not be tolerated. The Olympic officials will be flown here to Moscow and they will come with resignations in hand, or they will meet with the sternest of reproaches.”
The 2014 games will be held in Sochi, Russia, and such a lowly medal total from one of the successful Olympics nations would be more than embarrassing for the hierarchy.
“To be fair, this isn’t South Korea or Greece, this is Russia. True, many of the medals they won were a result of having the union compete, but Russian athletes still won the vast majority of the hardware in those days. It was really quite a pitiful total and such a performance could not, and frankly should not, be tolerated when the games are in the Motherland,” said Scrape TV Historical analyst Lars Luger. “It’s perfectly reasonable that they would want to revamp their program, much like Canada did to great success for these games, but they have to careful with how far they go. The last time they did something like this, they nearly lost Stalingrad and they wouldn’t want to risk that again, not for the Olympics anyway.”
The Battle of Stalingrad (now St. Petersburg) was one of the pivotal conflicts in the Second World War they nearly allowed Nazi Germany to overrun Soviet forces. Hitler’s decision to attack the USSR was in part due to the purges, which had dramatically thinned their leadership ranks.
“Realistically, it is very unlikely that something like that will happen again. Sochi is fairly isolated in the north of the country and St. Petersburg is fairly northern. Plus, it’s unlikely that the German team will be bringing weapons and armour. I’m sure security and the IOC would frown upon that,” continued Luger. “The other issue is that the Germans have a really good Olympic program and finished second in the medal rankings, meaning that this could be a kind of come-uppance for them, a sweet revenge, which would very much anger the Russians.”
Russian officials have reportedly already begun cleaning out the old Gulags which have been disused for years.
Emil Uliya, International Correspondent
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