SOVIET MARSHALS

Not all of Stalin's senior military commanders proved as fortunate as Comrade Colonel Professor Winters (see blogposts passim). Here are the five Marshals of the Red Army in November 1935, when the rank was first instituted:

LtoR - Tukhachevsky, Budyonny, Voroshilov, Blyukher, Yegorov.

By the Spring of 1939, three out of these five Marshals would be dead - liquidated by the NKVD on the orders of Stalin:

Marshal Tukhachevsky. Arrested 22nd May 1937. After a show trial on
11th June 1937, shot in the back of the head in the early hours of 12th June 1937.

Marshall Blyukher. Arrested 22nd October 1938. During 18 days of torture,
was blinded and beaten to death by Lavrentiy Beria and his
  NKDV interrogators. Died 9th November 1938.

Marshal Yegerov. Arrested February 1938. Shot by the NKVD
without benefit of show trial on 23rd February 1939.

Notes

(1). Tukhachevsky's interrogation was overseen by Nikolai Yezhov, then head of the NKVD. In a telling and particularly horrible detail, the Marshal's written "confession" (to having been a German agent) was found by modern examination to be "dappled with a brown spray...blood splattered by a body in motion.." Yezhov was himself subsequently liquidated, shot on 4th February 1940 after a secret trial, and replaced by Beria. In turn, Beria was eventually liquidated, shot on 23rd December 1953 - after yet another secret trial.

(2). Tukhachevsyk's trial was presided over by Vasili Ulrikh, a senior military judge, and included Marshals Blyukher, Budyonny, and Yegerov, Army Commanders Aksnis, Shaposhnikov, Belov, Dybenko and Kashirin, and Corps Commander Goryachev. All of these individuals were subsequently liquidated themselves, saving only Ulrikh, Budyonny and Shaposhnikov.

(3). "Liquidations" extended to family members. By way of example - Tukhachevsky's wife was shot. His two brothers, both instructors in a Soviet military academy, were shot. Three of his sisters were sent to the Gulag, as was his daughter.