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AQA A Level History Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-1953 (2N) > Chapter 18 - The Yezhovshchina 1929-1941 > Flashcards

Chapter 18 - The Yezhovshchina 1929-1941 Flashcards

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1
Q

What was the Yezhovshchina?

A

Also known as the Great Purge or the Great Terror

A wave of mass purges in 1937

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2
Q

Who became the new head of the NKVD in 1936?

A

Nikolai Yezhov
Led the NKVD from 1936-38

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3
Q

What was NKVD Order 00447?

A

A top-secret directive that massively increased the NKVD’s power

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4
Q

When was NKVD Order 00447 issued?

A

30 July 1937

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5
Q

What did NKVD Order 00447 remove?

A

Central control over the NKVD’s actions

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6
Q

What did NKVD Order 00447 set up?

A

NKVD committees at regional republic levels to search out ‘former kulaks, criminals, and other anti-Soviet elements’

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7
Q

What impact did NKVD Order 00447 have on arrests?

A

Those arrested could be swiftly sentenced by NKVD ‘troikas’ (three-man panels), without being present at the sentencing or given any proper trial

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8
Q

What was the quota system outlined by the NKVD Order 00447?

A

It estimated for every region in the USSR how many anti-Soviet elements were expected to be arrested, dividing them into two categories

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9
Q

What was the impact of NKVD Order 00447 after one month?

A

Around 100,000 people had been arrested, 14,000 sent to gulags

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10
Q

What was the impact of NKVD Order 00447 by the start of 1938?

A

Around 575,000 people had been sentenced, 258,000 of them were executed
All executions and disposals of bodies were carried out in secret

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11
Q

Who did the NKVD target?

A

People who were considered dangerous to the regime, such as former member of other political parties, but many ‘innocent’ people were also caught up in the arrests

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12
Q

What did the pressure to meet and exceed quotas result in?

A

People started to be arrested randomly
e.g. the NKVD picked names out of telephone directories and people living near factories where there had been lots of accidents were targeted as wreckers

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13
Q

How did civilians contribute to arrests?

A

People were encouraged to root out ‘hidden enemies’. They denounced their colleagues, friends and family members in the hope of saving themselves

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14
Q

What were the Great Purges?

A

A series of show trials of senior Party members and the military

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15
Q

Who was targeted in the trial of 17 January 1937?

A

17 senior Party members, including Karl Radek and Gregorii Sokolnikov. They were accused of plotting with Trotsky, spying and sabotaging industry

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16
Q

What was the outcome of the trial of 17 January 1937?

A

All confessed and 13 were sentenced to death

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17
Q

What is a likely explanation for the trial of 17 January 1937?

A

To eliminate potential rivals

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18
Q

How did Trotsky respond to the trial of 17 January 1937?

A

He asked ‘who can believe such accusations’ of these Old Bolsheviks, who were condemned in ‘monstrous, impossible, nightmarish trials’ from exile

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19
Q

Why did the military purge of May-June 1937 happen?

A

Stalin feared that the military might try to force him from power after several officers were caught up in the show trials

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20
Q

Who was targeted in the military purge of May-June 1937?

A

Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky and 7 other top military commanders were accused of spying and plotting with Trotsky

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21
Q

What was the outcome of the military purge of May-June 1937?

A

All confessed and were executed in June 1937

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22
Q

What is a likely explanation for the military purge of May-June 1937?

A

Stalin’s fear of a military coup

23
Q

What was the reason given for the ‘Great Purge’ of the Red Army?

A

A ‘military-fascist’ plot with the USSR’s enemies in Germany and Japan, as well as a plot to overthrow Stalin

24
Q

Who was targeted in the ‘Great Purge’ of the Red Army?

A

Some of the most senior officers and people from throughout the Army ranks
Between 1937 and 1939, 30,000+ army leaders were sacked, thousands were arrested and executed

Anyone objecting to the trials and purges was arrested too
74 military officials were shot for refusing to approve the execution of their colleagues

25
Q

What was the impact of the ‘Great Purge’ of the Red Army?

A

It destroyed the Red Army’s command structure at the very time the USSR was increasing military spending against the threat of Nazi Germany

26
Q

Who was targeted in the trial of 21 March 1938?

A

Bukharin, Rykov and 19 others were charged of plotting to assassinate Stalin and to overthrow the Soviet Union on the orders of Germany and Japan

27
Q

What was the outcome of the trial of 21 March 1938?

A

They were all found guilty and executed

28
Q

What is a likely explanation for the trial of 21 March 1938?

A

To eliminate potential rivals

29
Q

Why were more gulags built during the 1930s?

A

To house political prisoners and class enemies, and to provide prison-camp labour for Stalin’s huge industrial projects

30
Q

What impact did the Great Purges have on the gulag population?

A

It caused a huge surge
Around 800,000 in 1935 –> 5.5-9.5 million by 1938

31
Q

What impact did the Great Purges have on the purpose of the gulag?

A

The aim was no longer to re-educate class enemies; prisoners were worked to death or murdered outright

32
Q

What impact did the Great Purges have on the gulag mortality rates?

A

Between 4-6 times higher than in the rest of the USSR, as a result of meagre rations, long working hours and harsh conditions

33
Q

Who did Stalin deport after the German invasion in 1941?

A

Over 400,000 Volga Germans to Siberia and Central Asia

34
Q

Who did Stalin deport after war with Japan became a threat in 1937?

A

The Korean minority to Central Asia

35
Q

What other aspect of the Party did Stalin purge?

A

The Party leadership of the non-Russian republics
Between 1937 and 1938, virtually all were replaced by those more likely to accept central rule from Moscow

36
Q

What group was incorporated into the USSR in 1939-40, why and what happened as a result?

A

2 million Jews were incorporated following the invasion of Eastern Poland and the Baltic republics. Many rabbis and relgious leaders were arrested in those areas and the Jews in Russia faced anti-semetic persecution

37
Q

What was declared at the Eighteenth Party Congress?

A

‘Mass cleansings’ were no longer needed

38
Q

What happened to Yezhov?

A

He was blamed for the destabilisation of the Soviet state and economy by Stalin and was secretly tried and executed in 1940

39
Q

Who replaced Yezhov?

A

Lavrentii Beria

40
Q

When was Trotsky assassinated?

A

August 1940

41
Q

What was the significance of Trotsky’s death for Stalin?

A

It ensured that the last of the old Bolsheviks who might’ve had a greater claim to leadership than him, and could act as a figurehead for other Stalinist opponents, was no longer a threat

42
Q

Why might Stalin be responsible for the Terror?

A
  • The suicide of his wife in 1932 might’ve been the trigger for the start of the Terror
  • His vindictive and paranoid nature meant he was determined to eliminate potential rivals and seek revenge against old opponents
  • He was personally responsible for promoting the purges
  • He had the power to end the purges sooner but chose not to
43
Q

Why might Bolshevik leaders be responsible for the Terror?

A
  • The Bolsheviks had always used terror to consolidate and maintain power
  • They believed all means were justified to defend the revolution
  • Stalin simply escalated this, applying terror on a more ruthless and larger scale
44
Q

Why might local Party activists be responsible for the terror?

A
  • Some over-zealous local officials acted on their own agendas
  • Some local Party activists promoted terror but knew their actions wouldn’t be checked
45
Q

Why might ordinary individuals be responsible for the Terror?

A
  • Terror escalated out of control as individuals chose to denounce others, who in turn denounced others, and so on
  • Individuals denounced others for a variety of reasons, such as out of self-preservation, to settle scores or to remove rivals
46
Q

How many people were executed during the Terror?

A

There are no exact figures
According to figures released from the KGB archives released in 1995, nearly 650,000 people were executed 1937-38
The vast majority were ordinary people who hadn’t done anything ‘anti-Soviet’

47
Q

What happened to the families of those executed or imprisoned for anti-Soviet crimes?

A

They lost their jobs, were evicted from their homes, often exiled or sent to the gulag for being ‘a member of the family of a traitor to the Motherland’. Children were discriminated against as ‘a child of an enemy of the people’

48
Q

How was Party membership affected by the purges?

A

By 1938, 1/3 had been expelled
850,000 members expelled 1936-38
By 1939, less than 10% of the Party had joined before 1920

49
Q

What impact did the purges have on the army?

A

Lost around 23,000 experienced officers
Many new officers had to be recruited as the Red Army got bigger (under 1 million in 1938 –> 5 million by 1941)

The military failures of the first months of war are likely linked to the loss of these experienced officers

50
Q

What impact did the purges have on skilled personnel?

A

e.g. engineers, planning specialists, teachers, academics
They were purged at a time when rapid industrialisation depended on their skills

51
Q

What were the positive impacts of the purges?

A

They created a lot of opportunities for others to progress in their careers
The fear of denunciation made bureaucrats and managers do their jobs more carefully

52
Q

What were the three main focuses of the Yezhovschina?

A

The Party, the military and national minorities

53
Q

Why was the pace and scale of the purges significantly reduced from the end of 1938?

A

Due to the damage being done to industry and administration
Mass repression continued right up to the German invasion

AQA A Level History Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-1953 (2N) (51 decks)

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