Was it a good idea for Stalin to purge the Red Army?
Stalin thought that anyone with an education was a threat to him since these were the sort of people who could see through his propaganda and organize resistance effectively. What Stalin wanted were drones who were easily controlled to do his bidding, i.e. uneducated people. It was not a good idea. By removing the Red Armies officers he effectively removed all the leaders. This lead to huge problems, look a the invasion of Norway; the much smaller army of Norway (they only had 32 tanks!) defeats a much larger but badly organized Soviet Army and inflicts many times the causalities received. Sure, the Norwegians had huge defensive works and so on, but the key here is the fact that the Red Army was a disorganized rabble of peasants with no leaders. The Purge also affected other areas. Scientists, teachers, engineers, doctors, many educated people ‘disappeared’, greatly damaging the union in the long run.
