3B: The Secret Police.

Question 1

What were the initial features of the Cheka and how was it changed by the N.E.P.?

Answer 1

• based on the premise of the French revolution, which used terror to enforce new regimes; however, it is important to note that Lenin hoped this would be a temporary measure.
• est. Dec 1917. to combat counter-revolutionaries.
• originally headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky, 1917-26.
• role: Cheka protected communist territory during the Civil War, dispensed ‘revolutionary justice’ unbeholden to law, carried out grain requisitioning, closed down opposition newspapers, suppressed uprisings, ran concentration camps, enforced economic policy.
• Under the N.E.P., terror was much smaller scale; the GPU were commissioned to monitor press, survey tsarist officers, deport intellectuals, intercept public communication, imprison N.E.P.men, harass women following Western trends and persecuting priests.

Question 2

Outline the features of Stalin’s terror.

Answer 2

• Yagoda: appointed head of NKVD Jul 1934, did not meet Stalin’s expectations in terms of scale of terror, helped turn political police against party by organising the trial of Zinoviev and Kamenev.
• Nikolai Yezhov: helped Stalin stimulate class struggle by setting targets for arrests and executions, purging the NKVD and recruiting careless new office. Methods like the ‘conveyor belt’ system came to encompass the whole of society, a phenomena known as Yezhovshchina; 10% of the adult male population was arrested and popular participation was encouraged.
• Beria was placed in charge of the NKVD around WWII when he policed ethnic minorities, even interrogating returning POW’s. He oversaw the Leningrad affair and Doctor’s Plot. Beria’s execution following the death of Stalin symbolised the end of mass political terror.

Question 3

How did Andropov look to suppress dissidents?

Answer 3

• in 1967, Brezhnev promoted Andropov as head of the KGB. Andropov was keen to restore power to a role that had declined under Khrushchev, though his focus was smaller scale: the suppression of known dissidents without unnecessary violence.
• conservative and suspicious but no return to previous wide spread terror
• looked to promote discipline within the KGB, discouraging corruption and injustice, e.g. not allowed to accept gifts, Directorate V.
• preferred to encourage emigration than enforce imprisonment, or prescribe repressive psychiatry, especially among small ‘heretic’ groups like Protestant christians.
• from 1972 KGB to issue warnings = focus from repression to prevention.
• 1979 Law and Order campaign: introduced to combat economic slowdown, poor harvests, war, corruption and non-conformity.

Question 4

How did Andropov monitor popular discontent between 1982-1985?

Answer 4

• KGB continued to monitor public opinion, e.g. by posing as Western infiltrators or tapping phones as Andropov concerned about anti-communist feeling
• causes of discontent = stagnating living standards, lack of consumer goods, lack of opportunity, resentment of corruption
• = social malaise
• to deal with this, A introduced Anti-Corruption and Anti-Alcohol campaigns, e.g. trying Nikolai Schelokov, fines for drunkenness and Operation Trawl to combat absenteeism
• Chernenko didn’t continue anti-corruption movements so as to placate his supporters therefore policies didn’t last.