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Russia A-LEVEL History! Lenin to Yeltsin 1917-91 > Control - Terror > Flashcards

Control - Terror Flashcards

1
Q

Outline uses of terror by different leaders:

A

Lenin = established use of terror - set a precedent

Stalin = key feature of the Stalinist regime

Khrushchev = reeled it in, part of destalinisation and socialist legality

Brezhnev = no return to terror on such a scale but quelled any counterrevolution

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2
Q

When and where was Cheka established?

A

December 1917
In Moscow - based in the Lubyanka building

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3
Q

Who established Cheka

A

Lenin

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4
Q

Cheka leader:

A

Dzerzhinsky

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5
Q

What powers were the Cheka given in the civil war? 1918-21

A

Powers to operate outside of the law - little interference with other government bodies
Means quick and effective to eliminate any “threats”
But also helped the bolsheviks hold power

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6
Q

When were the waves of arrests under Lenin?

A

August 1918 - after assassination attempt by Fanya Kaplin

1921-22 = RED TERROR (socialist revolutionaries and Mensheviks attacked

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7
Q

How many ‘opponents were killed by the end of the civil war?

A

200,000

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8
Q

When was the Cheka reorganised into the GPU?

A

1922 - after the civil war

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9
Q

When did the secret police become the OGPU

A

1923

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10
Q

What changed as the Cheka became the GPU then OGPU

A

Growing independence from other government organisations - soon it only took orders from the leaders in the politburo.

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11
Q

Under Stalin what was the secret police called and what power did it have?

A

1934 OGPU merged with an enlarged interior ministry and became more powerful - now known as NKVD

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12
Q

Who were the main opponents under Stalins collectivisation?

A

Kulaks (wealthier peasants) and peasants who opposed collectivisation - all deported to gulags

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13
Q

Who were the gulags run by?

A

The secret police

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14
Q

When did number of identifications do political opponents increase under Stalin?

A

1936 - After show trials of Zinoviev and Kamenev
And after purges of the right of the party like Bukharin - members of the red army accused of working with foreign countries = denunciations to the secret police.

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15
Q

Describe arrests by the secret police:

A
  • opponents taken in middle of the night - disorientating
  • taken to Lubyanka building
  • tortured until confessed
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16
Q

What would happen for high profile victims?

A
  • show trials
  • admit trials on camera to be used as propaganda
  • then sentenced to death
    (Would admit in exchange for family not being arrested OR naming associates)
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17
Q

When did Yagoda become head of the secret police?

A

1934 - ambitious and keen to prove loyalty to Stalin

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18
Q

Describe Yagodas time as head of the NKVD

A
  • rapid expansion of gulag (transformed into system of forced labour)
  • influenced Stalin to agree to no interference form courses
  • achieved building of White Sea Canal
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19
Q

Gulags under Yagoda:

A
  • provided a pool of labour and economic resource
  • hostile environments (Siberia) = die from extreme cold or starvation
  • even guards died from cold
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20
Q

White Sea Canal - Yagoda

A
  • 141- mile canal
  • 180,000 labourers
  • hand dug
  • under budget and completed in 2 years

TOO shallow to be useful though so FAILURE

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21
Q

Yagodas influence in the Great Purge 1936:

A

Increased:
- tasked with arresting party members with Trotskyite links

22
Q

How did Yagoda fall from power?

A
  • accused of failing to safeguard Kirov (murdered)
  • didn’t peruse opposition with enough enthusiasm
  • Yagoda removed from office
  • shot in 1938
23
Q

Who was Yagodas replacement?

24
Q

How was yezhov noticed by Stalin?

A

Had an affinity for personally torturing opponents

25
Yezhovs nickname
The “Bloody Dwarf”
26
What was characteristic about Yezhovs time as head of the secret police?
Most excessive phase of purges - framed the purges as ideologically fuelled by accusing those arrested as opposed to communism and the government.
27
Arrests under Yezhov:
- process sped up - Trioka courts dealt with cases - eg: Karelian Trioka in sept.1937 processed 231 prisoners every day
28
Quota arrests:
July 1937 : - Introduced by Yezhov - considered the gulags to be underused and underfilled - quotas for executions of prisoners - medals given to officers who fulfilled BUT executed if didn’t meet
29
Surveillance of general public:
By NKVD increased under Yezhov - plain clothes officers - number of staff recruited quadrupled (needed more for torture!)
30
Who was considered as opponents under Yezhov?
Anyone who didn’t show sufficient commitment to revolutionary cause! Nobody was safe - including the secret police
31
When was NKVD leadership purged?
Under yezhov
32
Why was Stalin concerned over Yezhov
- Too enthusiastic for torture! - terror had gone slightly too far - demoralising the population (bad for when war was looming) - excessive drinking and over worked
33
How was Yezhov dismissed?
- 1938 - Stalin accused him of being responsible for the excesses of the purges - Beria undermined him - used as a scapegoat to reduce level of terror
34
Berias personal qualities:
- good at organisation - flatterer - pervert - presented as uncle-like figure - reformed secret police
35
How/why did Beria reform the NKVD?
- indiscriminate/quota arrests and executions = waste of time and manpower - public trials only held when solid evidence stood - made police more conventional - made gulag more profitable
36
Murder of Trotsky:
Oversaw by Beria - Mexico 1940 Killed with ice pick
37
How did Beria make the gulag more efficient?
- wanted to make gulag profitable - 1939 = improved food rations for max work effort - matched prisoners to jobs = max work - put scientists (1000) to work - including in aviation and soviet space program - early released cancelled for continued use of expertise
38
Evidence for a more effective gulag under Beria:
Gulag economic activity grows from 2 billion roubles (1937) to 4.5 billion (1940). By 1950 1/3 of gold and timber produced by gulag.
39
Secret police during WWII:
- 1941 - powers to supervise Red Army (monitor disloyalty and desertion) - forcibly removed/deported national minorities with dubious connections to the soviet state - 1943 departments to root out traitors in areas fallen to the Germans (including SMERSH - spies) - Order 270 names all returning prisoners captured by the Germans as traitors - detention camps and to clear minefields
40
SMERSH
- Branch of NKVD in the war to root out hostile enemies in the Red Army - spies rooted out - 1943 - later became branch of KGB to arrange assassinations of opponents and dissidents.
41
How did Beria use the post war rivalry?
- rivalry began as Stalins health failed - Beria used role to launch new wave of purges (gain Stalins favour) - targeted Leningrad branch of the party - 2000 members imprisoned in 1949
42
Migrelian affair
- 1951 - purge of Mingrelian ethnicity (Beria was Mingrelian) - took place in Georgia
43
Doctors Plot
- January 1953 - group of Doctors arrested for ‘trying to assassinate Stalin’ - most of the accused were Jewish
44
Berias position after Stalins death:
- huge power and influence - part of power struggle within collective leadership - controlled secret police, gulags, links to industry (Politburo eliminated him - lead by khruschev 1953)
45
What happened after Beria was removed from power?
Politburo moved quickly to limit the secret police Converted it into the Soviet Security and Intelligence Service - the KGB Khrushchev dismantled gulag system, freed prisoners, forced labour never used again
46
What was the KGB
- committee for state security (1954) - controlled the secret police, brought them back under party control - dealt with internal security, intelligence gathering, espionage - run like the military with ranks
47
Who was the head of the KGB after 1967?
Yuri Andropov
48
Did people inn the gulags think that Stalin was responsible for terror?
No, they thought he’d put a stop to it if he knew - Stalin was completely separated from terror (helped by the fact he didn’t create the camps - Lenin did)
49
What evidence is there for Stalins personal involvement on terror?
- signing death warrants, adding personal comments, adding names himself - Stalin set the NKVD quotas - if not met he added names to lists - integral to policies of collectivisation (eg: elimination of kulaks) - Stalin set parameters for the purges (eg: illegally eliminating Kirov to kick off Great Purge of the Party and to get rid of Yezhov) - all very calculated - after Stalin died the gulags were dismantled - doctors plot is example of Stalins paranoia and atisemitism
50
Were Yagoda, Yezhov and Beria responsible for developing terror?
Stalin more responsible: - all powerful leaders BUT got to that point via willingness to follow Stalins wishes - none had much influence on target (decided by Stalin) Each were to blame: - all 3 had sadistic tendencies and didn’t seem to have a moral conscience - named those on ‘lists’ who were a personal threat to position - had influence in implementing terror and operating the gulag

Russia A-LEVEL History! Lenin to Yeltsin 1917-91 (19 decks)

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