Pre-war Stalin - Terror

Question 1

Stalin and opposition pre 1932

Answer 1

-industrial terror, hundreds deprived of jobs, accused of sabotage, accused of wrecking, gosplan critics removed
-yagoda created labour camps of 50,000 prisoners each

Question 2

Opposition within the party/government

Answer 2

-june 1930, bukharin re-elected to central committee
-1932, 2 opposition groups within party elite
-old bolsheviks involving smirnov, arrested by ogpu
-ryutin platform, disapproved of stalins politics

Question 3

Party/government terror

Answer 3

-ryutin and others arrested, stalin called for execution but was overruled by politburo and sergei kirov
-24 expelled from party and old bolsheviks, zin and kam
-april 1933, announced party purge, 18% of membership branded ryutinites and purged

Question 4

Kirov affair

Answer 4

-17th party congress, stalin, kirov, kaganovich and zhdanov all made secretary of equal rank
-kirov murdered december 1934
-stalin gave nkvd power to arrest suspects of terrorist plotting
-6500 arrested in december with this law

Question 5

Further party purges

Answer 5

-jan 1935, zin, kam and 17 others arrested
-843 former associates of zin arrested jan/feb 1935
-11k former people arrested, exiled, sent to camps
-250k party members expelled as anti-leninists

Question 6

The great purges 1936

Answer 6

-aug 1936, show trial of zin, kam and 14 others
-all 16 found guilty of a plot to murder stalin
-executed with 160 accomplices
-yezhov replaces yagoda as nkvd chief

Question 7

The great purges 1937

Answer 7

-jan 1937, 17 big communists show trial, 13 sentenced to death
-bukharin accused, expelled from party and arrested
-may/june, 8 military commanders arrested, tortured
-512/767 high command executed, 88 jailed, 13 suicide

Question 8

The great purges 1938

Answer 8

-largest show trial march 1938, 21 bolsheviks
-charged with conspiring with trotsky/zinoviev
-bukharin, rykov and yagodha shot with 16 others

Question 9

Yezhovshchina

Answer 9

-july 1937, politburo resolution drew up 250k arrest list
-350k from ethnic minorities put on trial
-yagoda and 23k nkvd men put on trial
-70% of central committee arrested and shot
-1108 of 1966 congress delegates arrested

Question 10

End of the purges

Answer 10

-18th party congress declared end to mass cleansing
-450k convictions quashed, 128k cases closed, 30k released from jail and 327k from gulags
-yezhov arrested and shot feb 1940, trotsky murdered