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History - USSR 1917 - 1991 > 3.2 The Secret Police > Flashcards

3.2 The Secret Police Flashcards

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1
Q

What did Lenin establish in 1917? And what was its role?

A

Lenin established a Bolshevik secret police , the Cheka in 1917. Its role was to act against counter-revolution and sabotage - they were very ruthless

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2
Q

How did the role of the secret police change during the Civil War?

A

During the civil war, the Cheka were given powers allowing it to act with minimal interference from other legal bodies. This meant it could act quickly to deal with actual and perceive enemies.

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3
Q

How did the Secret Police evolve after the civil war?

A
  • Secret police reorganised
  • Cheka replaced by the GPU in 1922
  • Growing independence of the secret police from interference from other state institutions
  • Became a body that only took instructions from the head of the communist party
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4
Q

Who were the different types of dissidents?

A

1) Intellectuals - Professions who complained about restrictions on their freedom of professional practice
2) Political - Concerns with abuses of human rights that broke Soviet law and internal agreements
3) Nationalists- Groups of different national dissident called for greater status for their own languages and culture and some even independence from the USSR
4) Religious - Baptists, Catholics, Jews faced restrictions on worship and religious practice

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5
Q

What actions were taken against the dissidents?

A

Houses were searched and items were confiscated and arrests would follow. Dissidents were put into psychiatric hospitals until they were ‘cured’ meaning they had changed their views on the state. Patients were treated with electric shocks. Some dissidents were sent into internal exile

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6
Q

What law was passed in 1960 to do with the treatment of dissidents?

A

A law that limited the power of the KGB and the limited the use of night time interrogations

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7
Q

When was Yagoda the head of the secret police?

A

1934 - 1936 (shot in 1939)

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8
Q

What were the main things Yagoda did?

A
  • Expanded gulags and used prisoners as labour for industrialisation, those deported to labour camps either starved or froze to death whilst working
  • The white sea canal was hand dug by labourers from gulags, 10,000 died
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9
Q

Why was Yagoda dismissed?

A

He could not get confessions out of people and was accused of not pursuing opposition with enough enthusiasm

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10
Q

When was the Red Terror and how many people were shot?

A

1921 - 1922, 20,000

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11
Q

What did the GPU become in 1923?

A

OGPU

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12
Q

Under Yagoda, what was the new name of the secret police, and when did the change happen?

A

1934 - NKVD

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13
Q

In what year did the NKVD become the KGB?

A

1954

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14
Q

Who replaced Yagoda?

A

Yezhov

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15
Q

What was Yezhov’s nickname and how did he get it?

A
  • The bloody dwarf
  • During his time the NKVD indulged in the most excessive purged of all time. Yezhov also widely used torture to extract confessions from people, including Zinoviev and lameness which Yagoda failed to do
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16
Q

Give an example of the process of trial, arrest and imprisonment being sped up

A

In 1937, one court processed 231 people a day

17
Q

How were the purges expanded?

A
  • Quotas were made for how many people had to be arrested
  • Opponents were considered to be any who was not showing enough enthusiasm and commitment to the cause
  • Members of the NKVD themselves were purged
  • Surveillance of the public increased as did a network of ‘informers’
18
Q

Why was Yezhov dismissed and when?

A
  • Yezhov was dismissed in 1938 and blamed for the excessive use of terror
  • Stalin was worried that the purges were demoralising people with the German invasion threat looming
19
Q

How did Beria ‘improve’ things after Yezhov?

A
  • Surveillance continued but arrests were only made with sufficient evidence
  • Improved food rations for inmates in 1939 (although only to get the maximum work out of them)
20
Q

Outline some of Beria’s achievement

A
  • Oversaw the murder of Trotsky 1940
  • Gulag economic productivity increased 2.5 bill roubles 1927 to 4 bill roubles 1940
  • In 1949 he purged 2,000 members of the Leningrad party branch to gain Stalin’s favour
21
Q

How did the role of the secret police change during the Second World War?

A
  • NKVD given control over deportations of national minorities who’s loyalty was under suspect
  • 1943 started to overrun areas previously captured by the Germans
  • Department SMERSH dealt with suspected spies and murdered 4000+ polish officers
  • Any soviet troops who surrendered during initial invasion were held in camps, some were made to clear mine fields simply by walking through them
22
Q

What was the Mingrelian affair and when was it?

A
  • 1951
  • A purge targeted at a minority which Beria belonged to in order to threaten him for trying to secure power during power struggle with Stalin’s declining health
23
Q

When was the Cheka established?

A

1917

24
Q

Who led the Cheka?

A

Felix Dzerzhinsky

25
Q

What was the task of the Cheka?

A

To act against counter-revolution and sabotage

26
Q

What powers were the Cheka given during the civil war?

A

Could act with minimal interference from other legal bodies

27
Q

Why was the Cheka given special powers during the civil war?

A

So they could quickly deal with actual and perceived enemies

28
Q

When did the Cheka intensify its attacks against the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks?

A

Red Terror of 1921-22

29
Q

How many opponents did the Cheka execute during the Red Terror?

A

200,000

30
Q

What replaced the Cheka originally?

A

GPU

31
Q

What did the GPU quickly become?

A

OGPU

32
Q

When was the OGPU merged with an enlarged Interior Ministry?

A

1934

33
Q

What replaced the OGPU?

A

NKVD

34
Q

What was a significant change that came along with the introduction of OGPU?

A

Growing independence of the secret police from interference of other state institutions

History - USSR 1917 - 1991 (16 decks)

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