Who did Josef Stalin set out to eliminate in the "great purge" of 1936?

In the Great Purge of 1936, Josef Stalin set out to eliminate political opponents.

The purge was a campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union from 1936 to 1938. Stalin used show trials, arrests, executions, and forced labor camps to remove people considered threats to his authority.

Its targets included former Bolshevik leaders, Communist Party members aligned with the left or right opposition, government officials, and senior Red Army officers. Leon Trotsky and Nikolai Bukharin represented major opposition currents associated with the purge's targets.

The campaign later expanded beyond party politics. The NKVD also persecuted intellectuals, professionals, wealthy peasants, ethnic minorities, religious figures, and people accused of sabotage or counter-revolutionary activity. Thus, political opponents is the most direct canonical answer, while the broader purge affected many other groups.