10) The Great Terror 1928-1938

Question 1

Why was Stalin paranoid?

Answer 1

• saw people as potential threats.
• fearful of ‘old communists’ because they knew Lenin’s view of him.
• feared Red Army and secret police had too much power. His lack of power over the red army made him fear assassination.
• Yagoda, 2nd in command of secret police in 1930s attempted to win over Stalin by fuelling his suspicions.

Question 2

What two economic functions did the great terror 1928-1938 serve?

Answer 2

1) blame economic grievances on political enemies, saying they were deliberately sabotaging the Russian economy.
2) huge reservoir of cheap labour - prisoners in gulags were effectively a source of slave labour.

Question 3

What started the wave of terror against the communist party?

Answer 3

• Kirovs death in December 1934. His murderer was claimed to be working for a secret terrorist group. Zinoviev and Kamenev were imprisoned.
  Stalin could claim that the murder showed political members were plotting acts of terror.
  It was his excuse to launch a wave of terror against the communist party.
  Within hours, a decree was published allowing execution of political rivals.

Question 4

What were the three Moscow show trials?

Answer 4

• trial of the sixteen (1936): Zinoviev and Kamenev were trialed for kirov’s murder.
• trial of the seventeen (1937): Trotsky’s former allies were tried with terrorism and plotting with foreign powers.
• trial of the twenty one (1938): Bukharin and accomplices. They were charged with trying to overthrow socialism - Bukharin was also personally charged for the attempted assassination of Lenin. Yagoda was also tried himself, Stalin never fully trusted him and he had been replaced by Yezhov in 1936.

Question 5

What were the effects of the Moscow show trials?

Answer 5

• showed he had no mercy for those who opposed his power

- finally removed older high profile communists

Question 6

What was wrong with the secret police?

Answer 6

• 1936 when Yezhov was made head, Stalin announced the NKVD was “four years behind”
• he set targets for executions, arrests and exiles
• 1937: purged NKVD. It had communists since the civil war that had loyalties to Bukharin.

Question 7

What was Yezhovschina?

Answer 7

The years 1937-1938. Ended the great terror.

• younger members and minority groups
• NKVD set targets: Yezhov “better to overdo it than not do enough”
• 1934-1938 330,000 party members convicted
• red army (because of Trotsky): 340,00 soldiers
• many Russians denounced their friends as a survival strategy.

Question 8

Which two people were executed in 1940, ending the great terror?

Answer 8

Yezhov himself and Trotsky.

Question 9

What was the impact of the terror on family?

Answer 9

-children were often left orphaned and were expected to disown parents if arrested. 1937-1938 formal renunciations were common.

Question 10

What was the impact of the terror on the economy?

Answer 10

• eliminated many of Russians most experienced economic planners
• coal production, which had quadrupled the years leading up to 1936 barely grew from 1936-1940

Question 11

What were the political impacts of the great terror?

Answer 11

• removed any political threat (totalitarian state)
• also encouraged ‘populist terror’: distraction from hardships of the 1930s. ‘Little people’ were told to target their bosses and local show trials were held.

Question 12

What was the ‘Congress of Victors’?

Answer 12

Congress voted to elect central committee. Kirov rather than Stalin topped the vote - the party could no longer be trusted