«Purge» in a Naval Academy in 1937-1938

The article considers the repressions in the Naval academy of Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in 1937-1938. The subject of the research is rather topical in the context of the introduced reforms in the Armed Forces, at the time when the question of officers' role in public life of the country, the principles of the relationship between the military and political management are of particular concern. The authors studied the reasons, driving mechanisms and consequences of Stalin purge in the Naval academy. The historiography of repressions is analyzed, a brief overview on the history of the educational institute is given. It is shown that both the officers of old fleet and the commanders of a proletarian origin were purged. Mutual hostility among the military men substantially added to the purge. The tragic destiny of the staff of the Naval academy could be traced through the materials of the Russian State Archive of sociopolitical history, the Russian State Military Archive and Archival and Investigatory Affairs. The words of I. S. Isakov, the Admiral of Fleet of the Soviet Union, the shorthand report of meeting of the Council of War at the national commissioner of defense in June, 1937, are analyzed as well. The names of many witnesses - A. P. Aleksandrov, V. P. Bogolepov, M. A. Krupsky, K. A. Migalovsky, V. V. Selitrennikov - are little known to a modern reader. Among others, the biographies of M. A. Petrov and I. M. Ludri, the Chiefs of a higher educational institute were reconstructed - these naval commanders who had contributed a lot into the construction of Navy were unfairly forgotten. The article is a part of a big research that the authors devoted to the repressions in the Soviet naval educational institutions in different years.