The Case of Anti-Soviet Baptist Group in Shchuchye-Ozersk District of Perm region: an Ethno-Confessional Aspect of Mass Operations in 1937-1938
Mass repressive operations of the 1930s are really remained one of the most relevant topics for research. At the present stage of development of historical science, key attention is paid to the direction of mass operations of the 1930s-Kulak, national lines (Polish, German, etc.), and the identification of local features of their realization. Recently, historians have paid great attention to the implementation of the internal logic and mechanisms of mass repressive actions. We can say that the focus of research is shifting to the micro-historical field: to individuals who suffered from repression, to small settlements in which arrests were especially widespread. This approach allows us to see important details and features which could not be found in the generalized works devoted to mass operations of the 1930s: distortions of central directives on the ground, the influence of local specifics, and so on. In this study the author has made an attempt to determine and analyze the specifics of ethno-confessional aspect of mass operations by the example of the case of the anti-Soviet Baptist group in the Shchuchye-Ozersk district of Perm region. The aim of the work was to identify and analyze the directions of repressive actions by the example of this case, to study the role of ethnic and confessional factors in the course of mass operations in places of compact residence of Germans. Both narrative and traditional analytical methods were used as methodological tools of the research: historical-genetic, historical-comparative, historicaltypological. The main sources the author relied on were the written ones which were included in archival and investigative cases: questionnaires of arrested persons, interrogation protocols, indictments, materials of court sessions, etc. As a result, the author identified several areas, or storylines, of the case of the anti-Soviet Baptist group in Shchuchye-Ozersk district of Perm region: espionage, Kulak, ethnic and confessional; the internal logic of the case was reconstructed, it has been shown as accusation accents shifted due to the influence of political conjuncture, also the author has mentioned the influence of natural factors on the outcome of the trial.