LAUSR

ABSTRACT The purge of the Latvian national communists was the most extensive of the Khrushchev era. This article offers the first comprehensive examination of the purge, based on research in Russian and Latvian archives, and utilizing recently released Communist Party personal files. Previous works rarely proceed beyond the beginning of the purge in July 1959 or provide only a cursory overview. This article, however, identifies patterns in the purge with a comprehensive analysis. The methodology of Arvīds Pelše, the purge’s architect, is explored, exposing the purge’s six distinct phases, which ousted the national communists and defined Latvian politics for a quarter-century.