During the Great Terror , the distortion of interests , whereby unions fought for state production interests rather than workers ' direct interests of compensation and safety , reached the point of absurdity , as no degree of unsafe working conditions or low pay could be countered by the unions if the party and state decided that the sacrifices must be made . The head of the trade union council during the 1920s , Mikhail Tomsky , first was deposed and some years later committed suicide to avoid the false persecution of the purges . He was rehabilitated decades later under de-Stalinization
Great Terror
Great Purge
Trade unions in the Soviet Union