Secret Police Flashcards
GPU- when?
Replaced Cheka by 1923
GPU- What did it become?
1934- NKVD
Arrests- when?
In the middle of the night to avoid conflict
Where were they taken to?
Lubyanka
How were confessions gained?
Torture and the promise that families would be spared (even though this was not always kept)
Yagoda- when?
1934
Yagoda- what happened to the Gulag?
Transformed into a vast system of forced labour to support industrialisation
Yagoda- How did he use his influence with Stalin?
Ensured no intervention from regular courts
Yagoda- What did the emphasis change to?
Ideology to economy
Yagoda- What were the camps used for?
Pool of labour for economic resources. No free will & hostile environment
Yagoda- Achievements
White Sea Canal
Yagoda- What happened to him?
1936- Accused of incompetence in safeguarding Kirov so shot
Yezhov- About
Nicknamed the ‘bloody dwarf’, he was 5 foot tall and enjoyed personally torturing suspects- once attended a Politburo meeting with cuffs of his shirt covered in fresh blood
Yezhov- Main skill
Framing purges in ideological terms
Yezhov- Achievements
Sped up process of arrest, trial and imprisonment. E’g’ courts (Troikas) made up of 3 people. 1937- Karelian Troika processed 231 prisoners each day
Yezhov- use of gulags
Considered them to be underused, number of inmates and deaths increased considerably
Yezhov- quotas date
July 1934
Yezhov- surveillance of general public
Increased. Plain clothed police offices used and informers from general public collected info
Yezhov- Staff
Number of detectives quadrupled and extra staff employed to torture subjects
Yezhov- Opponents
Widened to anyone who did not show sufficient commitment to the revolutionary cause. NKVD even had own membership purged
Yezhov- What happened to him?
Dismissed 1938 for being responsible for excess of purges. Stalin worried about demoralising effect on population as war loomed
