1972–1973 Ukrainian purge

1972–1973 Ukrainian purge
Part of the Brezhnev era and the Russification of Ukraine
	Ukrainian KGB resolution signed by Petro Shelest confirming the start of Operation Bloc, 13 January 1972
Date	12 January 1972 – 1973
Location	Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union; (primarily Kyiv and Lviv)
Also known as	Operation Bloc
Motive	Anti-Ukrainian sentiment, opposition to Ukrainian national expression
Target	Ukrainian Soviet dissidents, Kharkiv Clan (Petro Shelest)
Perpetrator	Dnipropetrovsk Mafia (Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, Leonid Brezhnev), KGB
Outcome	Shelest removed from power; Most Ukrainian dissidents arrested; Ukrainian dissident movement pushed underground; Between 1.5% and nearly 5% of Communist Party of Ukraine members removed from the party;
Arrests	Disputed; 87 – "thousands"
Convicted	193

From 12 January 1972 to 1973, a wide-reaching purge of Ukrainian society and intelligentsia was organised by Leonid Brezhnev and the KGB. Codenamed Operation Bloc (Russian: Операция «Блок», romanized: Operatsiya «Blok»; Ukrainian: Операція «Блок», romanized: Operatsiia «Blok»), the purge resulted in the arrest of 193 people, including most of the leaders of the Ukrainian dissident movement, as well as the removal of Petro Shelest and the installation of Volodymyr Shcherbytsky as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine.