5.2 The Yezhovshchina Flashcards
What was Order No 00447?
An order drawn up by Yezhov which established NKVD committees, which were tasked to:
- Classify Kulaks and other “anti-Soviet elements” into categories. Death by shooting or the GULAGs.
- Work via a system of quotas for each area and social class
What was the trial of the 17 in January 1937?
17 prominent communists were accused of plotting with Trotsky and 13 of which were sentenced to death.
What was the purge of the military May-June 1937?
Some commanding officers of the Army had been criminalised in the 1936 and 1937 trials.
Stalin feared they might try to coup and ordered the execution of leading military commanders.
This made way for the Great Purge, in which 50% of the Army were imprisoned or executed.
What was the trial of the 21 in March 1938?
21 prominent communists were accused of belonging to a Rightist and Trotskyite Bloc and were interrogated.
This included Bukharin, Rykov and Yagoda.
They were accused of plotting to kill Lenin in 1918 and conspiring with Germany and Japan to destroy the USSR.
What happened to Bukharin?
He proved the toughest Bolshevik to force a confession out of.
He held on for 3 months of torture but after the NKVD threatened to kill his wife and infant son he caved in.
How did the Purges increase Stalin’s security?
They provided an opportunity for Stalin to remove threats to his position or people he disliked.
By 1938, 1/3 of the party had been accused of “Trotskyite Conspiracy”.
What were the GULAGs?
GULAGs were labour camps built to provide cheap labour from Stalin’s huge industrial projects and house political opponents and class enemies.
In 1935, inmates number 800,000 and by 1938, there was between 5.5 to 9.5 million.
These camps had terrible conditions, with meagre rations, bad clothing, overcrowding and a lack of healthcare.
Mortality rates in GULAGs were 4-6 times higher than the rest of the whole USSR.
How did Stalin treat minorities?
In 1937, Koreans were deported from the far east to central asia when war with Japan was threatened.
Poles and Germans were deported away from the Western frontiers.
Annexed parts of Poland and the Baltics were purged during 1939-40.
400,000 Volga Germans were deported to Siberia in 1941.
Leaders of communist republics were purged and replaced with those more loyal to Moscow’s wishes.
Anti-Semitic views were revived and religious leaders were purged in Poland.
What happened to Yezhov in 1940?
The consequences of the Yezhovshchina threatened to destabilised the state, damaging industry and administration.
Stalin used Yezhov as a scapegoat, accusing him of going to far and declaring that “mass cleansings” were no longer necessary.
Yezhov was then arrested, tortured and secretly tried and shot in Feb 1940.
What happened to Trotsky in 1940?
Mercador, a hired assassin, posed as an admirer of Trotsky’s views but turned on Trotsky whilst in his study, plunging an ice pick into his head.
What were the consequences of the Great Purge?
The loss of many experienced officers. Around 23,000 were shot or dismissed.
There were a lack of teachers, managers, engineers and specialists too.
