Its subsequent defeat resulted in a new wave of Tsarist mass repressions and punitive actions. Repressions, executions and mass deportations followed after that in the Baltics. The Soviets instituted Sovietization policies and repressions. The persecution of the Home Army was only part of the Stalinist repressions in Poland. In 1960 he was expelled from CPSU for complicity in the Stalin-era political repressions. The Soviets sought to forestall dissent in these new East European territories with mass repressions. This led to conflicts and intensified repressions. Human rights activists in the Soviet Union were regularly subjected to harassment, repressions and arrests. Stalin did not cause most of the repressions personally. The 1930s marked the peak of Soviet repressions in Belarus. Soviet repressions of Polish citizens occurred as well over this period. Another 16,000 deaths were caused through Soviet repressions in the years following 1944. This strained the Bielskis' relations with local Poles, who were subjected to Soviet repressions. Reports of the extent of the repressions caused an outcry among socialists abroad. By the mid-1950s standards of living rose significantly and political repressions eased.