Purges Flashcards
Shakhty trial
1928
Managers and technicians of the Shakty coal mine who had questioned the rapid pace of industrialisation. Five were exec and others imprisoned.
To warn others not to criticise 5 yr plans
The industrial party trial
1930
A group of sr industrialists and economists accused of planning a coup and plotting to wreck the sov econ
to link the 5 yr plans econ probs to wrecking.
Party purge
1933
the communist party had 3.2 mil membs, many of whom had joined aft the memb rules were relaxed in 1929. Over 570,000 ‘Ryutinites’ were expelled in the 1933 purge.
To try to restrict party memb to st supporters
The trial of the 16
August 1936
Featured Kamenev and Zinoviev (along w/ 14 others). Both accepted responsibility for Kirov’s murder (as well as pleading guilty to planning St’s murder), both were executed.
Show trial elim st’s old rivals and prov scapegoats for kirovs murder
NKVD order 00447
issued on 30 July 1937
no cen control over the NKVDs actions
aet up NKVD committees at regional and republic levels to search out ‘former kulaks, criminals, and other anti-sov elements’
outlined a quota syst. quota est for every region in the ussr how many anti-sov elements were expected to be arrested, dividing them into two categories (1st be exec, 2nd to the gulags)
Those arrested could be swiftly
Those sentenced could be swiftly sentenced by NKVD ‘troikas’ (three-man panels), w/out being present at the sentencing or given any proper trial.
Impact of order 00447
w/in a month, 100,000 ppl had been arrested and 14000 sent to the gulags.
By the start of 1938, around 575000 ppl had been sentenced, 258000 executed
NKVD targeted those who were dangerous to the regime, such as former membs of other pol parties, but many ‘innocent’ people were also caught up in the arrests
Pressure to meet and exceed arrest quotas was so great that ppl started to be arrested randomly. For ex, the NKVD picked names out of telephone directories, while ppl living near factories where there had been a lot of accidents were targetted as wreckers.
ppl were encouraged to root out ‘hidden enemies’. ppl denounced their colleagues, friends + fam in the hope of saving themselves.
The trial of 17
Jan 1937
17 sr membs incl Radek + Sokolnikov.
All confessed and 13 were sentenced to death, accused of plotting w/ trotsky, spying and sabotaging industry
Military Purge
May-June 1937
St feared that the mil might try to force him from power aft sev officers were caught up in show trials
Tukhachevsky and seven other top mil commanders, accused of spying and plotting w/ trotsky. ALl confessed and were executed in June 1937
The ‘Great Purge’ of the RA followed. Incl some of the most sr officers but also spread throughout the army ranks. Between 1937 and 1939, over 30,000 army leaders were sacked, w/ thousands arrested and executed
74 mil officials were shot for refusing to approve the execution of their colleagues.
Purge destroyed mil command structure at the time of incr threat from nazi germ
The trial of 21
March 1938
Bukharin, Rykov and 19 others (Tomsky com suicide b4 trial)
The charge was that Bukharin and the others had plotted to assassinate St and to overthrow the Sov Un on the orders of Germany + Japan. Accused were all found guilty and executed
By 1938 a third of all party members have been purged.
Gulags
The Great Purges from 1937 caused a huge surge in gulag pop from c800,000 in 1935 to between 5.5 and 9.5 million by 1938, according to some estimates
The aim was so longer to re-ed class enemies, prisonrs were worked to death or murdered outright
mortality rates in camps were 4-6x higher than the rest of the USSR, as a result of meagre rations, long working hours, and harsh conds
The treatment of national minorities
Stalin = suspicious of minorities from other countries living in the USSR for ex Koreans living in the USSRs far east and Germans living in the Volga region
When war w/ Japan became a threat in 1937, st had the Korean minority deported to Central Asia.
In 1941, over 400,000 Volga Germans were deported to Siberia and Central Asia
Stalin also replaced the party leadership of the non-Russian republics. Between 1937 and 38, virtually all were replaced by those more likely to accept central control from Moscow
Anti-seem persecution occurred after 2 mil Jews were incorporated into the USSR in 1939-40, following the invasion of e’ern Poland and the Baltic republics. Many rabbis and religious leaders were arrested in these areas
Impact of terror + purges
Nearly 650,000 were executed in 1937-38. Vast majority of were norm ppl who had done nothing ‘anti-Soviet’
Some sources say prisoners in gulags incr by 1 mil 1937-38, others put it much higher, 8 mil
The families of those exec or imprisoned for anti-Sov crimes were punished as well, they lost their jobs, were evicted from their homes, oft exiled or sent to the gulag
850,000 party membs were expelled between 1936 and 1938. By 1939, less than 10% of party had joined b4 1920
Mil purges = loss of ab 23,000 experienced officers. Many new officers had to be recruited as RA incr
Skilled personnel (such as engineers, planning specialists, teachers and academics) were purged at the time when rapid Ind dep on their skills
By end of purges, St was in a position of supreme power. Dictator w/ absolute control.
Renewed terror under high Stalinism
Around 15% of 1.8 million returned prisoners of war were sent to the gulags. (It was an offence for any RA soldier to surrender, suspicions they might have collaborated w/ germs)
Any contact w/ foreigners could get a person denounced and arrested. A 1947 law outlawed marriage to foreigners.
For travel by Sov citizens was tightly controlled. Few were allowed to leave the USSR
Sense of terror was pervasive and tens of thousands Sov citizens cont to be arrested during St’s last years, sometimes for no more than a careless few words. In total ab 12 mil wartime survivors were sent to the gulags
Zhdanovism and the cultural purge
Zhdanov insisted that soviet writers and artists followed party lines: Soc realism, the praise of St and Sov achievements, and criticism of American commercialism and inequalities
Those who did not embody Soc realism had to publicly apologise to cont working.
Prokofiev accused of ‘rootless cosmopolitanism’ and his wife was imprisoned
Impossible to get non-western newspapers
The Leningrad Affair
St was suspicious of the Party’s base in Leningrad bc his rivals had oft built a power base there (including Trotsky, ZInoviev, Kirov, and by 1948 Zhandov)
St did not like the way the leningraders glorified their heroic struggle to survive the 872 day siege during the Great Patriotic War. There had been accusations St could have done more to help the city such as airdrops of food or large scale evacuations.
In 1948, Zhandov appeared out of favour, when he died in Aug, launched full scale purge of the Leningrad party.
Leading offs such as Voznesenski were arrested + interrogated in 1950. Most owed pos to Z.
By 1950, 2000 party offs had been dismissed + replaced by pro-Stalin coms
