purge

thumb|Russian Count Nikolay Yevdokimov, who organized the extermination campaigns of "[[Tsitsekun", designated Russian military operations targeting Circassian natives by the term ochishchenie ("cleansing").]] In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an effort is labeled as purging itself.

Purges can be either nonviolent or violent, with the former often resolved by the simple removal of those who have been purged from office, and the latter often resolved by the imprisonment, exile, or murder of those who have been purged. Governments who enact purges but want to obscure that they are doing so, may often justify their actions as dealing with security threats or corruption.