3. Totalitarian Regime

Question 0

How did Lenin’s use of the NKVD differ from Stalins use?

Answer 0

Lenin used them against his political enemies, Stalin too did this but he also used them against the communist part itself.

Question 1

What was ‘The Great Terror’?

Answer 1

Stalin using the secret police to persecute all those he believed to be a threat to the regime between 1936-1938.

Question 2

Why was Stalin paranoid?

Answer 2

He feared he would fall from power just like the opponents he had just beaten had done, he feared opposition from groups loyal to his formal rivals such as soldiers from the Red Army who were loyal to Trotsky. Also Moscow and Leningrad had power bases of Zinoviev and Kamanev. Bukharin had also Ben sided by Genrikh Yagoda, head of the NKVD.

Question 3

What did Stalin use as a scapegoat for the FYP’s?

Answer 3

He blamed ‘wreckers’, who were publicly tried and punished. He also needed a large labour force for industrial projects so those arrested during the Great Terror were sent to gulags and they worked as slaves.

Question 4

What was significant about the seventeenth party congress held in 1934?

Answer 4

It was to elect a new central committee and Stalin came second to Kirov, who Stalin was already concerned about after he forced him to change his policies of the second FYP. Theses results confirmed to Stalin that the party wanted a new leader.

Question 5

When and how was Kirov murdered?

Answer 5

At the end of 1934, Kirov was assassinated by a lone gunman in Leningrad. Stalin used this as a pretext to arrest his former rivals Zinoviev and Kamanev. Stalin argued Kirov’s murder was due to a widespread conspiracy to restore Russia to capitalism. His murder was a trigger for the Great Terror.

Question 6

What were the show trials?

Answer 6

Trials of enemies of the government to deal with them whether they were guilty or not.

Question 7

What was the trial of the sixteen?

Answer 7

In 1936, Zinoviev and Kamanev were accused of the murder of Kirov, plotting to murder Stalin and restore capitalism to Russia. They were found guilty and executed.

Question 8

What was the trial of the seventeen?

Answer 8

In 1937 Trotsky and his supporters were charged with the same crimes as Zinoviev and Kamanev. They all confessed and the majority were executed apart from 4 who were sent to labour camps. Trotsky was sentenced to death but was exiled in Mexico at the time.

Question 9

What was the trial of the twenty-one?

Answer 9

In 1938 Bukharin and Yagoda were also charged with the same crimes as Zinoviev and Kamanev. Bukharin was charged with plotting to kill Lenin which he refused but confessed to being ‘politically responsible’ for most the crimes since Stalin threatened to kill his family if he didn’t. They were all executed following the trial.

Question 10

What was the ‘secret trial’?

Answer 10

The trial of eight army generals in 1937 but kept in secret as war was looming and Stalin did not want to alarm the public. They were accused of plotting against Stalin and following brutal torture they confessed. Over the next 18 months 34’000 were purged from the army.

Question 11

What was the significance of the show trials?

Answer 11

• They removed Stalin’s rivals from the 1920s
• They silenced people who knew of Lenin’s critical view of Stalin from his testament
• It removed people from power who had been appointed by Lenin and therefore had authority independently of Stalin
• They acted as propaganda proving to Russo a that Stalin alone could be trusted with the future of Russia

Question 12

What was Yezhovschina?

Answer 12

A period when Nicolai Yezhov became head of the NKVD and took the great terror to another level and extending across the country.

Question 13

Why was a doctrine of sharpening class struggle introduced in 1937?

Answer 13

Stalin believed the closer Russia got to communist the harder capitalists would fight so the doctrine justified increasing repression. It became an official policy at a meeting of the central committee in 1937.

Question 14

What reforms did Yezhov introduce to make the NKVD more efficient?

Answer 14

• He purged the army and replaced older less harsh agents with ones willing to torture communist members, 23’000 members of the NKVD were executed
• A conveyor belt system was introduced so that around the clock tortures could take place to make suspects confess
• He set targets for the numbers of arrests and executions to speed up the terror

Question 15

Who were the final victims of the Terror?

Answer 15

Yezhov himself who was arrested in 1938 and executed in 1940 for terrorism and collaboration with other countriesand. Lavrenti Beria replaced him as head of the NKVD and in 1940 he masterminded the murder of Trotsky whilst he was in exile in Mexico.

Question 16

How did the terror impact the economy?

Answer 16

• The removal of Kirov allowed Stalin to change the direction of the second FYP in 1936
• Fear of the NKVD led to industrial managers lying about production figures
• Purges of Gosplan led to the third FYP never being published making it chaotic and confusing
• Removal of local managers reduced efficiency in Russia’s industry
• The Gulag helped industrialise Russia on a large scale

Question 17

What were the political consequences for Stalin of the terror?

Answer 17

His rivals from the 1920s were removed using the show trials. Kirov’s supporters were removed. Stalin was also able to deflect criticism of economic policy by accusing others of sabotage.

Question 18

What were the political consequences for the communist party?

Answer 18

Communist officials were so scared of being purged they stopped making decisions. Junior members, who were loyal to Stalin, were promoted as their bosses were purged.

Question 19

What were the social consequences of family life from the terror?

Answer 19

• 20 million died from 1936-39 (highest estimate)
• 10% of adult males came victim to the terror, the majority of which were husbands and fathers
• The children of those arrested were persecuted and humiliated in school and in the Komsomol (communist youth organisation)

Question 20

How was the terror escaped?

Answer 20

People became a member of the working class and gained new identities. The daughters if victims tried to begin new lives by marrying members of the working class.

Question 21

How did Stakhanovites operate fear from below?

Answer 21

They removed their managers to gain promotion to express their frustration.

Question 22

What was socialist realism?

Answer 22

This was an artistic form created by Stalin to promote collectivisation, socialism and Stalin, but it was painted in a realistic way, so it looked like a photograph. With literature it needed to describe the lives of the working people and architecture needed to be traditional.

Question 23

What was the impact of socialist realism?

Answer 23

It showed to achievements of Stalin’s Russia and act as a form of social control, this was an important part of his totalitarian regime because it persuaded workers to make sacrifices so Russia could become better.

Question 24

What was the cult of personality?

Answer 24

An attempt in the media to idealise Lenin and Stalin and heroes and show them as heroes and geniuses.

Question 25

What was the significance of Stalin’s cult of personality?

Answer 25

It emphasised the greatness of Stalin as the leader of Russia. It helped make the Russian people feel that the destiny of Russia was in safe hands and Stalin was an infallible leader who was carrying on the work of Lenin, who had been turned into a secular saint.

Question 26

How did Stalin fake history?

Answer 26

He rewrote history by doctoring photos and creating paintings that removed people such as Trotsky. One example is a painting showing Stalin as the leader of the October revolution but in actual fact Trotsky was.

Question 27

Why did the Great Terror occur?

Answer 27

To create a personal dictatorship by eliminating all opposition and ruling by fear.

Question 28

Why did the Great Terror occur that wasn’t caused by Stalin?

Answer 28

It was driven from below and happened because of public involvement. This is a revisionist view that challenges the top-down, Stalin-centric and totalitarian view. Institutions such as the NKVD also helped the Great Terror. This is a structuralist approach.