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In history
HIStory

HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I is a double album by Michael Jackson, released on June 20, 1995, and is Jackson's ninth. The first disc, named "HIStory Begins" consists of a selection of Jackson's greatest hits from the singer's past fifteen years, while the second, named "HIStory Continues" features new songs, with the...
 and political science
Political science

Political science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior....
, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
, from another organisation, or from society as a whole. Purges can be peaceful or violent; many will end with the imprisonment or exile
Exile

Exile means to be away from one's home while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened by prison or death upon return....
 of those purged, but in some cases they will simply be removed from office. Restoring people who have been purged is known as rehabilitation
Political rehabilitation

Political rehabilitation is the process by which a member of a political organization or government who has fallen into disgrace is restored to public life....
.

earliest use of the term itself was the English Civil War
English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Roundhead and Cavalier. The First English Civil War and Second English Civil War civil wars pitted the supporters of Charles I of England against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the Third English Civil War saw fighting between supporters...
's Pride's Purge
Pride's Purge

Pride?s Purge took place in December 1648, when troops under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly removed from the British House of Commons all those who were not supporters of the Grandee s in the New Model Army and the Independents....
.






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In history
HIStory

HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I is a double album by Michael Jackson, released on June 20, 1995, and is Jackson's ninth. The first disc, named "HIStory Begins" consists of a selection of Jackson's greatest hits from the singer's past fifteen years, while the second, named "HIStory Continues" features new songs, with the...
 and political science
Political science

Political science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior....
, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
, from another organisation, or from society as a whole. Purges can be peaceful or violent; many will end with the imprisonment or exile
Exile

Exile means to be away from one's home while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened by prison or death upon return....
 of those purged, but in some cases they will simply be removed from office. Restoring people who have been purged is known as rehabilitation
Political rehabilitation

Political rehabilitation is the process by which a member of a political organization or government who has fallen into disgrace is restored to public life....
.

Historical use of the term

The earliest use of the term itself was the English Civil War
English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Roundhead and Cavalier. The First English Civil War and Second English Civil War civil wars pitted the supporters of Charles I of England against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the Third English Civil War saw fighting between supporters...
's Pride's Purge
Pride's Purge

Pride?s Purge took place in December 1648, when troops under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly removed from the British House of Commons all those who were not supporters of the Grandee s in the New Model Army and the Independents....
. In 1648, the moderate members of the English Long Parliament
Long Parliament

The Long Parliament is the name of the List of Parliaments of England called by Charles I of England, on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars....
 were purged by the army. Parliament would suffer subsequent purges under the Commonwealth including the purge of the entire House of Lords
House of Lords

The House of Lords is the second house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". The Parliament comprises the British monarchy, the British House of Commons , and the Lords....
. Counter-revolutionaries such as royalists were purged as well as more radical revolutionaries such as the Levellers
Levellers

The Levellers were members of a mid 17th century England political movement, who came to prominence during the English Civil Wars. They were not a political party in the modern sense of the word, and did not all conform to any specific manifesto....
. After the Restoration
English Restoration

The English Restoration, or simply The Restoration began in 1660 when the English monarchy, Scottish monarchy and Irish monarchy were restored under Charles II of England after the Interregnum that followed the English Civil War....
, obstinate republicans were purged while some fled to New England
New England

New England is a region of the United States located in the northeastern corner of the country, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and New York State, and consisting of the modern U.S....
.

The term "purge" is often associated with the Stalinist
Stalinism

File:Joseph Stalin.jpgStalinism is a term that purportedly describes the political system of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929?1953....
 and Maoist
Maoism

Maoism, variably and officially known as Mao Zedong Thought , is a variant of Marxism derived from the teachings of the late People's Republic of China leader Mao Zedong , widely applied as the political and military guiding ideology in the Communist Party of China from Mao's ascendancy to its leadership until the inception of Deng Xi...
 regimes. Those who were purged (among them artists, scientists, teachers, people in the military, but also many long-time communists
Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
 who dared to disagree with the party leadership) were sent to labor camp
Labor camp

A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons....
s or executed. The most notorious of CPSU purges was the Great Purge
Great Purge

Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin in 1936-1938. Also described as a "Soviet holocaust" by several authors, it involved the purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, repression of kulaks, Red Army leadership, and the persecution of unaffiliat...
 initiated by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953....
 during the 1930s. Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping was a prominent Chinese revolutionary, politician, pragmatist and reformer, as well as the late leader of the Communist Party of China ....
 was known for having returned to power several times after having been purged.

After France's liberation by the Allies
Allies of World War II

The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis powers of World War II during the World War II. Within the ranks of the Allies powers, the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the United States of America were known as "The Big Three"....
 in 1944, purges were processed by the Free French and mostly the French Resistance
French Resistance

File:Croix de Lorraine2.svgThe French Resistance is the collective name used for the French resistance movements which fought against the Nazi Germany German occupation of France in World War II and the collaborationist Vichy Regime during World War II....
 against former collaborationnists, the so-called "vichystes
Vichy France

Vichy France, or the Vichy regime are the common terms used to describe the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944. This government, which succeeded the French Third Republic, officially called itself the French State , in contrast with the previous designation, "French Republic." Marshal of France Philippe P?tain pro...
". The legal term was known as épuration légale
Épuration légale

The ?puration l?gale was the wave of official trials that followed the Military_history_of_France_during_World_War_II#Liberation_of_France and the fall of the Vichy Regime....
 ("legal purge"). Similar processes in other countries and on other occasions were denazification
Denazification

File:Denazification-street.jpgDenazification was an Allies_of_World_War_II initiative to rid Germany and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the Nazism regime....
 and decommunization
Decommunization

Decommunization is a process of overcoming the legacies of the communist state establishments, culture, and psychology in the post-Communist states....
.

See also

  • Political repression
    Political repression

    Political repression is the persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take part in the politics of society....
  • Political cleansing
    Political cleansing

    Political cleansing refers to systematic elimination of political enemies. Specifically, the term may refer to one of the following*Party purge, cleansing of a party of perceived undesirables...
  • Proscription
    Proscription

    Proscription is the public identification and official condemnation of enemy of the state. It is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a "decree of condemnation to death or banishment" and is a heavily politically-charged word frequently used to refer to state-approved murder or persecution....