Persecution And Control Flashcards
When was Kirov elected chairman of the Leningrad party?
1927
How is totalitarianism different to a dictatorship?
It demands enthusiasm and commitment form its citizens
Tsarist just expects a lack of opposition
What factors were the cause of the Great terror?
The congress of victors
Stalins paranoia
Terror economics
Kirov’s murder
When was the congress of victors?
February 1934
How many votes did Kirov receive in the congress of victors compared to Stalin?
(K) 1225 votes:927 votes (S)
What did a group of old bolsheviks try and persuade Kirov to do?
Stand as general secretary although he refused
Why was Stalins paranoia growing?
Concerned he would suffer the same fate of T, Z and B (fall from power)
Distrusted his former rivals/old communists
Yagoda fuelled suspicions to try and win Stalins favour
How did the great terror serve great economic functions?
1) allowed Stalin to blame economic problems on his old rivals
- industrial ‘wreckers’ under employ of Z, T and B according to Stalin
2) mass of cheap labour
- prisoners in gulags formed slave labour
Name of a trial/s where the accused were tried and found guilty of economic sabotage?
Trail of the Shakhty engineers
Menshevik trial of 1931
Trial of state agricultural and farm officials in 1933
When did the OGPU become the NKVD?
July 1934
When was Kirov assassinated?
December 1934
Who was blamed for the murder of Kirov in 1934?
Leonid Nikolayev-supposedly working for a ‘Trotskyist-zinovite’ terror group
Which major rivals did Stalin arrest for the murder of Kirov in 1934?
Zinoviev and kamenev
How many people were rooted out and exiled as ‘Trotskyites’ in party organisations in Leningrad?
30,000-40,000
When did yagoda become head of the NKVD?
July 1934
How many people had been convicted, executed and sent to prison camps in 1931-6?
Convictions: 180,600 -> 274,600
Executions: 10,600 -> 1,100
Prison camp: 105,600 -> 219,400
When was the trial of the 16?
- who was convicted?
- what happened to Z and K?
August 1936
- Z, K and 14 other comrades were convicted for Kirovs murder and conspiracy with foreign governments
- Z and K were shot after ‘confessing’ (they believed they would be pardoned after ‘confessing’)
When was the trial of the 17?
- what were the charges?
- how many were executed?
January 1937
- plotting with foreign powers, terrorism, sabotage
- 13 of the 17 were executed, the last 4 sent to gulags
When was the trial of the 21?
- who was convicted?
- what were the charges, particularly on B?
- what happened to B?
March 1938
- bukharin, rykov and their ‘accomplices’
- attempting to overthrow socialism, B was charged with attempts at assassinating Lenin
- B was shot
How did Stalin justify the increasing terror in Russia 1936-38?
The doctrine of 'sharpening class struggle' -theory that as socialism advanced, class struggle intensified
When was the doctrine of sharpening class struggle officially adopted by the communist party?
Feb-march 1937
When did yezhov become head of the NKVD?
September 1936
Why had Stalin never fully trusted Yagoda?
Thought the way the trial of the 16 and Kirovs murder had t been firm enough
Yezhov played on Stalins paranoia and suggested yagoda step down
Allowed Tomsky to commit suicide before his trial
Secret report in 1928 claimed Yagoda supported the right-wing
How did Stalin try and speed up the NKVD?
Set targets for arrests, executions and exiles
Purged the NKVD in 1937
How many party members were convicted of being enemies of the people between 1934 and 1938?
330,000
How many were convicted in the purge of the red army?
8 generals
34,000 soldiers
What was Order no. 00447 issued by the politburo?
It demanded the removal of ‘anti-socialist’ elements in Russian society
How many people were on the NKVD list of anti-soviet involvement?
250,000
How did the Russian people contribute to the state-sponsored executions?
Many chose to denounce their friends and neighbours in order to prove their loyalty
Workers would denounce their bosses in the hopes of getting promoted
When did yezhov resign from the NKVD?
November 1938
When was yezhov arrested?
-when was he executed?
April 1939
-February 1940
When was Trotsky killed?
20th august 1940 by an NKVD agent
Who took over the NKVD from yezhov?
Beria
How many NKVD agents were killed in purges?
Over 23,000
How many did yagodas NKVD convict?
Over 500,000 of which:
- 2,300 shot
- 405,000 sent to prison camps
Which nationality groups did he NKVD have specific arrest targets for?
Poles, Romanians and Latvians
At the height of the terror, how many were arrested by the NKVD?
1.5 million of which:
Over 635,000 were exiled
Over 680,000 were shot
What could happen to older children of the arrested?
Likely to be expelled from university
What could happen to school age children of the arrested?
Subjected to ritual humiliation form teachers and peers
What were children of the arrested expected to do?
Expected to publicly disown and renounce their parents
What happened to the existing management of soviet industry?
Accused of being wreckers, scapegoated for problems, turned over to the NKVD
What did junior party members do to those who sought election the 1937 spring elections?
Interrogated them and unmasked many as ‘enemies of the people’
How did he party committee at the Yaroslavl factory decide who to elect?
Their 800 members attended meetings every evening for over a month
How could victories of the terror try and create a new identity?
Women could change their class origins by marrying members of the working class
Forged identity papers-since official documents contained no photos they could be easily faked
Destroy existing documents and bribe a local official to invent a new biography
How did kulak daughter Aanna dubova escape exile?
Married a working man and enrolled in a factory school
Who was Vladimir Gromov?
-how was he punished?
He impersonated a prize-winning architect and engineer, using his false identity to persuade the government to pay him a million roubles in advance for a government project
-sentenced to 10 years in a gulag
How did the purges impact on economic planing?
Made it possible to plan effectively
-many party members felt compelled to lie about the economy to avoid arrest/execution
In 1929, what % did the Donbas region account for in Russian coal production?
77%
Between 1939 and 1938 how much of the Donbas coal mining management had been purged?
-what happened to coal production?
1/4 of management
-coal production fell dramatically
What did The Moscow show trials ‘prove’ about Stalins opposition?
Hat they had all opposed him for corrupt reasons
How did Stalin divert people’s attention form the economic problems during the great terror?
Encouraged Russia’s “little people” to hold their bosses to account
How were Kazan party bosses targeted in local show trials?
They were accused of misusing governments funding
Their luxurious lifestyles were attacked (deposits this being part of the position anyway)
How many in the army were executed between February 1937 and November 1938?
39,000 officers
3,000 naval officers
Why did Stalin purge military intelligence?
He blamed them for not warning him of Germany’s plan to invade Russia
Why did Stalin have to retract his policy of shooting under-performing generals?
Russia needed military expertise to fight Germany
-2 generals w being tortured in the gulags were released onto the front against Germany
What happened to the 130,000 kalmyks in regions under threat of German invasion?
They were forcibly moved to Siberia
By 1953, only 53,000 survived
What happened to the 460,000 Chechen people in regions threatened by German invasion?
Beria ordered them to be move in 7 days but this was halted by harsh weather
Those who hadn’t been moved were locked in barns and burned alive
What did the Yalta conference agree?
POWs would be returned to their country of origin
How many Russian soldiers were returned home?
-how were they treated?
- 5 million
- they were treated like traitors
- hey had disobeyed Stalins order not to get captured
- they had been exposed to western culture
- many were interrogated and exiled
What happened to Jews under ‘cosmopolitan’ purges?
Removed form diplomacy and military
1945- 12% of senior gov and industrial Mangers were Jewish -> 4% by 1951
What did Stalin regard Leningrad as?
Like ‘an Island in the pacific’
How many Leningrad party members were sacked?
Over 1000 of which 200 were arrested and charged with being traitors to the motherland
How many top physicians were arrested after Stalins doctor suggest he reduce his workload?
-why did the doctors survive?
30 including Stalins physician prof. Vinogradov
-Stalin died before they could be executed
What was socialist realism?
Full of party spirit, national spirit and art reflecti new thinking
What was introduced in April 1932?
The ‘decree on the reformation of literary-artistic organisations’-established the union of soviet writers
What was established in 1929 to refocus the attention of artists?
The All-union co-operative of workers in representational arts
What did the all-union co-operative do in spirit of the five year plans?
Set targets for the number of art works predicted and their subject matter
In July 1930, where were 200 artists sent in their 2 month placements?
To collective farms and construction sites
-meant to record the heroic work they witnessed
What was the KPDI and when was it created?
A committee for art affairs’ which began a purge of soviet artists
-established in 1936
What did Stalin believe revolutionary art should express?
Government opinion rather than individual creativity
When was socialist realism officially adopted by the all-union congress of soviet writers?
1934
What was Gustavs klucis commisoned to produce for the third 5 year plan?
A poster portraying heroic workers mining
-“In the storm of the third five year plan”
What did valentine kataev write?
A novel celebrating the production of steel “Forward, oh time!”
What was the union of soviet architects commissioned to do?
Redesign Russia’s cities
What happened to Moscow under the 1935 general plan?
The Moscow metro stations were transformed into palaces with crystal chandeliers and grand marble columns
Which government buildings were rebuilt in a grand style?
The peoples commissariat for defence
The Frunze military academy
What was the ‘myth of two leaders’?
Stalin putting himself alongside Lenin in soviet history and eliminating other important communists eg Trotsky
What two histories were published in 1938?
The short course of history of the all-union communist party
The short biography of Stalin
Which communists were removed from photographs, art and history?
Trotsky, zinoviev, other former leaders and purged communists
In Maria Krickova’s “The tale of Lenin” how are Lenin and Stalin described?
Lenin= the sun Stalin= the light hat overcomes the darkness (Lenin's death)
What was the cult of personality?
The cult of Lenin
Created a powerful new symbol allowing Russian citizens to connect with the regime
Often used religious language to describe him
1930-Lenin’s tomb in Moscow rebuilt
What was the cult of impersonality?
The cult of Stalin
Link him in importance to Lenin
Very little of Stalins history known
Emphasised his leadership in the war
What did Stalin write in 1950 to promote himself as an intellectual?
‘Marxism and problems of linguistics’
What did the cult of Stalin focus on as opposed to Stalins history?
The glamour of the soviet regime
-stalk often photographed with Air Force Heros, stakhanovites, and Russian explorers
What did Stalins birthday become?
A national holiday with parades of marching troops
What new ideology was suggested to support the ‘myth of two leaders’?
‘Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism’
What was created to inspire workers in industry?
Sculpture for Moscow ball-bearing factory-a 10m diameter ball-bearing
Sculpture for Dniester power station more than 70m wide
