Mishina E.M. Repression at the Barnaul Melange Combine on the Eve of the Great Purge: a Source Study of the Investigation Cases

Abstract: This article presents a source study examination of three investigation cases concerning workers at the Barnaul Melange Combine – one of the biggest enterprises of the second Five-year plan. Particular attention is given to the investigation case of the first director of the combine M. E. Goldberg and his subordinates – deputy director K. Butov and engineer-technologist K. Reznikov, accused of creating at the combine in the beginning of 1937 a counterrevolutionary cell of Siberian center-rightist, linked, according to the investigation, to N. I. Buhanin, A. I. Pykov and M. P. Tomsky. The article’s research methodology uses the microhistory approach, network analysis, analysis of semantic text structure, archival heuristics, and the general historical method (historical-comparative). On the basis of the testimony of the accused, the author conducts an analysis in the altering of the original charged article of violation. Due to the discovery of inconsistencies in the cases regarding dates of arrest, interrogation, testimonies, as well as evidence of violation of the criminal-procedural codex of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the author comes to the conclusion that the investigation cases were fabricated. In addition to the noted examples, the article presents other investigation cases concerning combine workers that were opened at the very beginning of its operation in 1934.

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