He was arrested and executed a year later for counterrevolutionary activities and spying for Japan. In 1937 Luvsansharav received five months of political and organizational training in Moscow to prepare him to manage the purges that Stalin was planning to unleash in Mongolia. On October 2, 1937, he was appointed one of three members (along with Interior Minister Khorloogiin Choibalsan and Minister of Justice Tserendorj) of the Extraordinary Purge Commission or troika, that presided over arrest cases, investigations, and show trials involving “lamas, espionage and counterrevolution.” At the first show trial on October 18, 1937 at the Central Theater, thirteen of the fourteen facing the troika, including former prime minister (1921) and chief abbot of the Manzushir Monastery Sambadondogiin Tserendorj, were sentenced to death. From October 1937 to April 1939, Luvsansharav's troika investigated 25,785 cases and condemned 20,099 persons, including over 16,000 lamas, to execution. 25 persons from the top leadership of the party, 187 persons from the military leadership, and thirty six of the fifty one members of the central committee were executed. Although described as an “unremarkable person who rarely attracted notice, a coward with latent sadistic tendencies”, Luvsansharav became known as a skilled “extractor of confessions.” By early 1939 Stalin was eager to replace the popular Prime Minister Anandyn Amar with Choibalsan, his new favorite. At meetings with Soviet leadership in Moscow, Choibalsan was instructed to have Luvsansharav launch a propaganda campaign against Amar. Luvsansharav denounced Amar at an enlarged meeting of the MPRP Central Committee on March 6, 1939. Once Choibalsan seconded the condemnation, opinions within the Central Committee rapidly turned against Amar, who was arrested on the spot and transported to Moscow where he was sentenced to death by a Soviet troika on July 10, 1941. With most internal opposition extinguished and the threat of Japanese military expansion rising on Mongolia's eastern borders, Stalin ordered Choibalsan to bring the purges to an end. During a special conference at Interior Ministry on April 20, 1939 both Choibalsan and Luvsansharav faked tears of regret for allowing overly zealous Interior Ministry officials and renegade Soviet advisors to carry out the purges. Official blame fell on Deputy Interior Minister Natsantogtoh and Soviet advisor Kichikov.