Purge (communist)

From Wikinfo

The term purge in Soviet political slang was an abbreviation of the expression "purge of the Party ranks", the Party being, of course, the Communist Party. In itself, the term was innocent enough, until the time came when being expelled from the Party was a short notice of horrible changes in the fate of the person.

After the Great Purge, a period in the late 1930s, the term "purge" gradually ceased to be a synonym of death warrant, especially after Stalin's death, but the consequences still remained unpleasant. For a party functionary it meant being delisted from nomenklatura and loss of numerous perks. Rank-and-file members were left with no chance of future advancement. A wife's threat to complain to her husband's Party Committee was therefore a serious weapon in family quarrels.