Secret police/ use of terror -> Lenin to khrushchev Flashcards
Lenin summary
secret police
Lenin established the first real Soviet secret police force, initially seeing it as a short-term necessity, but it quickly became a powerful tool, especially during the Civil War.
Lenin Organisation
secret police
1) Cheka established 1917
Leader felix Dzerzhinsky
2) Cheka replaced by GPU 1922
3)1923 GPU -> OGPU
Imp: indicates increased indp. From other state instititutes
Lenin targets
Political opponents (Socialist Revolutionaries (SRS) and Mensheviks)
> other targets = tsarists, Tu’s, deserters
Lenin key events
secret police
- civil war
- August 1918 - attempted assasination of Lenin
- !921-22 Red terror
- grain requisitioning
civil war
cheka given powers to act miiimal interference from legal bodies
Aug 1918- attempted assassination of Lenin
wave of arrests/intensified chekas action
1921-22 - Red Terror
> actions against political opponent
up to 200,000 shot + executions common (rule>exception)
Lenin Methods
Arrests
Executions’
Purges
‘Class War’ against the bourgeoisie = Red Terror
Removal of ‘unreliable elements’ from the party
Chistka 1918 + early 20’s -> non-violent
Approx ⅓ Party purged
Set up labour camps 1920s
stalin summary
secret [p;ocr
Under Stalin, the secret police’s power exploded, and terror became a central part of how the Soviet Union was run. Millions were arrested, tortured, and sent to forced labor.
organisation - Stalin
secret police
1934 OGPU merge with Interior ministry = NKVD
targets under Yagoda
Communist party itself and ordinary people
Kulaks (wealthier peasants) + other peasants (opposed collectivisations)
GreatPurge -> arrest party members with links to Trotskyite Opposition
targets under yezhov
Yezhov -> anyone who failed to show sufficient commitment to revolutionary cause
Mssg to soviet ppl, stepping out of line = threat to freedom
targets under Beria
Disloyal + desertions red army
Crimean tartars, volga germans, chechens
Traitors. Deserters + cowards
- anyone suspected of co-op germans
POWs
Key events under Yagoda
- 1934 Yagoda head of secret police
- 1936 - show trials - i.e zinoviev + Kamenev
- Construction of the white Sea canal
- 1936 Great Purge
White sea canal
141 mile canal
-180,000 gulag laborers by hand
Under budget + less than 2 yrs
Cost 10,000 lives
12 ft (3.6m) useless for most shipping
Grandiose project
key events under Yezhov
- 1936 Niklai Yezhov head of NKVD
- 1937 + Yezhovshchina begins (most excessive of purges)
- Process of arrest, trial and imprisonment sped up
- Troikas (courts) established -> 3ppl, 1 local NKVD boss
- 1937: Karelian Troika process 231 prisoners a day
- 1938 execution of Yagoda
- 1938 S concern terror demoralising for soviet population
- 1938 Yezhov dismissed
what were troikas
courts) established -> 3ppl, 1 local NKVD boss
in 1937 - Karelian troika…
process 231 prisoners a day
key events under Beria
1938 Yezhov dismissed
1938 Beria
1939 food rations for inmates increased to max their work
1940 Secret police murder trotsky mexico
1941 powers of supervision over red army -> monitor disloyalty + deal w/ dertions
NKVD given control over deportation of suspect national minorities -> crimean tartars, volga germans, chechens -> forcible removal to designated areas harsh
1943 set up special dep. To deal with traitors, deserters and cowards
- 1949 - leniningrad branch of party -> over 2000 party members imprisoned or exiled
Mingrelian affair 1951 - warning to beria -> purge targeted mingrelian ethnicity -> same as beria
key people - yagoda
Yagoda head of police 1934
Oversaw rapid expansion of Gulags
Transformed into vast system of forced labour for industrialisation, aimed to exploit resources where no one worked or lived - siberia
Influence ^ GP 1936
Accused of not moving fast enough + removed office
Executed 1938
Key people Yezhoz
Yezhov 1936 head NKVD
No. of detectives quadrupled
Hired extra staff to torture ppl
NKVD officers carried out execution = medals
Delight in torturing himself -> turned up to a politburo meeting with fresh blood on cuffs of shirt
Dismissed 1938 -> blamed for excess
1.5 million people arrested
680,000 died
635,000 deported to the gulags.
under yezhov how many arrested, dead, deported to gulags
1.5 million people arrested
680,000 died
635,000 deported to the gulags.
key ppl beria
Impress org. + unsavoury characteristics
Felt indiscriminate arrests were inefficient + waste of manpower -> productive method necessary
Arm of Soviet SP long reach – Beria oversaw the murder of Trotsky in Mexico in 1940
- Post war rivalry - beria launch wave of purges to gain stalins favour
Enormous power - politburo removed him 1953
K underestimated as ‘ moon faced idiot’ by beria
how did beria make gulags profitable
aim make gulag profitable
- Use technical skills of inmates for projects = 1000 scientist various projects -> Beria say new hardware designed by them -> i.e Tupolev TU-2. 1 of most imp. Aircraft WW2 + Korolev -> develop rockets there
- Growth in Gulag economic activity = 2bn roubles (1937) to 4.5bn roubles (1940)
- Over 1/3 of country’s gold and much of its timber and coal produced through the Gulag
