Chapter seventeen - Dictatorship and Stalinism Flashcards
How is Ryutin significant?
He circulated a 200 page document which criticised Stalin among Party members in March 1932. He was imprisoned for ten years whilst Zinoviev, Kamenev and 14 others were expelled from the Party.
What were the three stages of the terror?
Chistka
Yezhovshchina
Show trials
How much of the Party was expelled during the chistka?
20%
Who led the NKVD?
Yagoda
Yezhov
Beria
What happened during the 17th Party congress?
1934 - split between Stalin and others in the Politburo, who wanted to stop forcible grain seizures and increase workers’ rations. Stalin and Kirov were given the title ‘secretary of equal rank’
When was Kirov’s murder?
December 1934. A decree was issued the day after the assassination giving Yagoda powers to arrest and execute anyone found guilty of terrorist plotting.
What was the Shakhty trial?
1928 - managers and technicians at the Shakhty coal mine who had questioned the pace of industrialisation were accused of counter revolutionary activity. 5 were executed and others received long prison sentences.
What was the trial of the sixteen?
1936 - Kamenev, Zinoviev and 14 others were put to death, including the NKVD agents who had given false confessions
What was the trial of the seventeen?
1937 - Radek, Sokolnikov and 15 others were put on trial for working with Trotsky. Radek and Sokolnikov were sentenced to ten years and the rest were executed.
What was the trial of the 21?
1938 - Bukharin, Rykov and 19 others were charged with attempting to assassinate Stalin, and they were all either executed or died in labour camps
What was order 00447?
July 1937 to purge anti-Soviet elements
The Stalin constitution?
1936 - drafted by Bukharin
Stalin declared it was the most democratic in the world. Congress of Soviets replaced by the Supreme Soviet. It also promised 4 yearly elections for those over 18 including all the former people. There was also freedom of religion, press and the right to free speech
