DS10 Terror and Propaganda

Question 1

How did Stalin maintain control of the USSR?

Answer 1

• Industrialisation
• Collectivisation
• Purges
• Show-trials
• Propaganda

Question 2

What were the Purges?

Answer 2

• The purges, which began in 1932, were a series of campaigns of repression, carried out by the NKVD on the orders of Stalin
• Democides and cleansing of ‘saboteurs’, ‘kulaks’ (as a continuation of dekulakisation), and other political opponents were carried out as a public response by Stalin to Kirov’s death
• Those arrested by the NKVD were either sentenced to death or to work in the gulags (labour camps with harsh conditions)
• The ‘decree against terrorist acts’ gave the NKVD the right to sentence arrested comrades with either no trial or a show-trial
• In 1938, the NKVD purged itself to remove all first-hand memory of the events

Question 3

Who was Kirov?

Answer 3

• Kirov was looked to as an option to replace Stalin
• However, Kirov didn’t want this as it put a bounty on his head
• Kirov was killed in December 1934 by a random person, who was likely trained by the NKVD
• Stalin used the death of Kirov to start the purges, saying that there were enemies both on the inside and on the outside

Question 4

Describe the course of the Purges

Question 5

What was the gulag?

Answer 5

• The gulags were prison labour camps with bad conditions
• Most prisoners in gulags died from cold, hunger and ill-treatment
• Living conditions were very bad
• In 1928, there were around 300,000 prisoners in labour camps, and by 1938 there were around 7 million

Question 6

What were ‘show trials’ and who were tried in them?

Answer 6

• The show trials began in 1936
• Stalin began purging the communist party of any possible opposition
• Stalin got rid of many old Bolsheviks such as Zinoviev and Kamenev
• Along with 14 others, they were accused of plotting and organising Kirov’s murder
• The accused were put on trial in full view of the world
• They were forced to confess to many improbable crimes including a plot to murder Lenin
• The confessions showed Stalin to be doing right by the USSR
• Trotsky, now in exile, was accused of leading the plotters
• The last major show trial in March 1938 had Bukharin and Rykov accused, found guilty, and shot

Question 7

What was the course of the purges?

Answer 7

The Communist Party (1934-36)
* ‘Show trials’ for leading old Bolsheviks, including Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bukharin
* 500,000 party members were shot or sent to the gulag

The Red Army (1937-38): Yezhovschina / Great Terror
* Approximately 37k officers shot or imprisoned

The Secret Police (1938-39)
* Yezhov, the architect of the ‘Great Terror’ was executed in 1940 after the other secret police

The Rest of Society
* Throughout 1934 - 1939, the Purges affected all people from all parts of society
* Everyone was potentially a ‘class enemy’, ‘enemy of the people’, ‘saboteur’, ‘kulak’ or ‘NEPman’ / ‘NEPwoman’

Question 8

What were the results of the purges?

Answer 8

• Stalin was secure in power by 1938
• Stalin had weakened the USSR
• As many as 20 million people had been killed or sent to the gulag
• ~10-12 million died in the gulag
• Many of those purged had been skilled or educated
• The armed forces were seriously weakened by the purges, and struggled against the German in 1941
• Stalin had destroyed the concept of independent thinking