3.2 Use of Terror under Stalin Flashcards
What did the government use when inflicting terror?
Mass arrests, imprisonments and force and violence.
Why did the government inflict terror?
To destroy real or imagined enemies to terrify the population so become incapable of oppposing the government
1931
Ex mensheviks shot as wreckers
1932
Stalin fails to persuade Politburo to have Ryutin shot
1934
Murder of Kirov
1936
Explosion at Kemerovo coal mines
When did the first show trials happen and who was shot?
1934, Zinoviev and Kamenev were shot
When was the start of Yezhovschina?
1937
1937
Operational Order 00447 issued to NKVD and the purge of military and mass arrests started.
When was the last great show trial?
1938 and Bukharin was shot
1938
Yezhov arrested end of him and his time
1939
About 7 million people are imprisoned in labour camps.
What did the NKVD do?
Destroyed anyone considered to be an enemy of communist rule
What happened to OGPU in 1934?
They were reorganised and chnaged their initials to NKVD
Type of work the NKVD did.
Intimidating people, arresting people, forcing confessions out of arrested people, running prisons, executing people.
What was the converyer system?
Repeated interrogation to make arrested person confess.
What were the troikas?
NKVD officers that were put into three man teams to decide on people’s guilt and punishments.
What happened in 1935 Under Article 58 of the Criminal Code?
People were arrested for betraying Soviet Union as ‘enemies of the people’.
What type of things were people arrested for?
Stamp collecting (link to foreign countries), speaking to foreigners, failingto cut Trotsky’s photos out of textbooks, accidently scribbling on photos of Stalin in newspaper, failing to meet factory production targets.
Why did they arrest so many people?
They had strict quotas they needed to reach so they would just kill random people just to fulfill their target.
What were the reasons behind the purges?
To cover up problems in the economy, to control peasants and workers better, to remove old rivals within the Communist Party, to control local Communist Party bosses, to protect the government if a war broke out, to blame others for the assassination of Kirov in December, the weakness of the communist government.
What did the government do when an accident happened?
They made it seem like ‘enemies’ were doing this and directed the blame on anyone they disliked.
What were the labour camps called?
Gulags
Why was Stalin paranoid?
He had made it to the top but then became paranoid about any possible rivals,this was one of many reasons for the purges.
Use of Gulags?
The Gulags was the state system of labour camps. By 1941 there were 8 million in the camps, with perhaps a further million in prisons.
Why were the ‘old Leninists’ destroyed?
The Bolsheviks who had built the Communist Party with Lenin were dead. No one now could challenge Stalin. New party members all owed their position to Stalin
Why was there chaos in the government and economy after the purges?
The loss of so many experienced managers,administrators and specialists left the government and industry with a serious shortage of skills.
How were the armed forces weakened?
There was no evidence of any millitary plot against Stalin, but the purge of the military killed off most of Stalin’s experienced officers. Soldiers arrested by the NKVD often accused their officers in turn.This loss of military leadership and experience seriously weakened the armed forces and was to prove a significant setback when Germany invaded Russia in 1941.
What did people do in the Gulags?
Prisoners were slave labourers and had to extract resources and build infrastructure for the Soviet Union.
Where were the prisoners from?
The people sent to Gulags were from all parts of Soviet society.
What was life like in the Gulags?
Inmates had only thin uniforms,miserable food and shacks to live in.They endured long hours of hard physical labour. The death toll was very high perhaps 2 million people.
Where were the camps situated?
Camps were spread right across the USSR, including many in northern and eastern parts of the Soviet Union, where winters were severe.
Why were show trials significant?
They were important because they justified all mass arrests. Ordinary people were convinced that the enemies were everywhere.They also gave ordinary workers the power to denounce their managers and the people they did not like to the NKVD.
Who would have show trials?
Only high profile leading party members.
What was the purpose of show trials?
The public declarations of guilt were meant to make the Soviet people believe the country really was under attack by enemies of the people.These enemies could then be blamed for all the Soviet Union’s problems.
What was a Stakhanovite?
A super keen enthusiatic worker who gained rewards by producing more than other workers.
Why were executions used to to control people better?
So they could remove any people who were not trusted by the state.For example new people to the country using false papers in order to reinvent themselves had started to come to the cities.
Why did Stalin want to remove people within the Communist Party?
Although Stalin had won the power struggle other leading communists became critical of Stalin due to problems in the country so Stalin did not feel secure
Why did Stalin need to control Communist Party bosses?
Because there were many corrupt people within the Party as they were friendly with the NKVD commanders and would be able to cover their mistakes and punish others.
Why was Stalin desperate to blame people for Kirov’s assassination?
Kirov resisted any attempts by Stalin to move him from Leningrad to Moscow thus highlighting that Kirov was a barrier to Stalin getting what he wanted so it is highly likely that Stalin had him assassinated.
How did the purges have a faltering start?
Whoever refused to implicate Zinoviev and Kamenev were arrested the shot.The head of the NKVD Yagoda was arrested then later on shot for being too slow to track down enemies of the Soviet Union.
When did the ‘Time of Yezhov end’?
November 1938 when he was shot.
How was the development of the Soviet Union brought back?
Experienced members of the government,factory managers and skilled scientists had been swept away along with huge numbers of other. Causing a loss of skills and experience.
How many people died during ‘The great terror of the 1930s’?
One million people were shot,two million died in camps and also about seven million people died during the 1930s due to collectivistaion.
