purge: Definition, Synonyms and Much More from Answers.com

In history and political science, to purge is to remove people considered by the group in power to be "undesirable" from a government, political party, a profession, or from community or society as a whole, often by violent means. Restoration of people from a purge is known as rehabilitation.

Notable purges in history

The purge has been a political tool throughout recorded history.

Rome

In the era of Republican Rome, Gaius Marius proscribed Sullan supporters after he and Cinna ousted Gnaeus Octavius; Sulla followed with even more brutal proscriptions against Marian supporters when he came into the dictatorship. The Second Triumvirate instituted more proscriptions some forty years afterward after taking control of Rome from Caesar's murderers.

England

The earliest use of the term itself was the English Civil War's Pride's Purge. In 1648, the moderate members of the English Long Parliament were purged by the army. Parliament would suffer subsequent purges under the Commonwealth including the purge of the entire House of Lords. Counter-revolutionaries such as royalists were purged as well as more radical revolutionaries such as the Levellers. After the Restoration, obstinate republicans were purged while some fled to New England.

France

The French Revolution saw revolutionary factions purging each other. The most famous purge was Robespierre's Terror which ended with him being purged as well. After the fall of Napoleon, all those associated with revolutionary activity were purged.

Soviet Union

Purges are often associated with the Stalinist and Maoist regimes. Those who were purged (among them artists, scientists, teachers, people in the military, but also many long-time communists who dared to disagree with the party leadership) were sent to labor camps or executed. The most notorious of CPSU purges was the Great Purge initiated by Joseph Stalin during the 1930s. Deng Xiaoping was known for the distinction of returning to power multiple times after surviving multiple purges.

Germany

The Nazis also engaged in purges, most notably in the Night of the Long Knives (1934) and the mass reprisals against Adolf Hitler's opponents following the July Plot (1944).

France

After France's liberation by the Allies in 1944, purges were processed by the Free French and mostly the French Resistance against former collaborationnists, the so called vichystes, its legal phase was known as épuration légale.

Japan

Under the instructions by the American Occupation Force as part of its directions to democratize Japan, the Japanese government purged over 200,000 individuals, including former military leaders, members of the parliament, high-ranking bureaucrats, regional politicical leaders, labor union leaders, business leaders, educators, journalists, and spiritual leaders, who had been associated with the nation’s efforts to establish the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The purge was carried out in one year period as of February 1, 1946, and most of those who were designated as war-sympathizers were banned from holding public offices until the end of occupation on April 28, 1952.

United States

In the United States, the events that took place during the period of McCarthyism in the (1950s) were anti-communist purges. A valid argument can be made that the United States engaged in the systematic purging of Native American people. Evidence for government participation in Indian removal can be found in many official state and historical documents.

Purge in fiction

• In the Star Wars films, an event called Great Jedi Purge happened, when Sith Lord turned ruler of the galaxy. Palpatine ordered his troops to chase and kill his enemy, the Jedi, under Order 66. Few survived the purge.
• In the TV series Lost, most DHARMA Initiative members were killed by a group they called "Hostiles" on an event called "The Purge" by Mikhail Bakunin.

See also

• Political repression