Stalin's Terror State Flashcards
When did Stalin become that vozhd (supreme leader) of the Soviet Union?
1929
When did the purges begin?
1932
How many ‘anti-bolsheviks’ had been arrested under Lenin?
tens of thousands
What was the trial of the Ryutin group in 1932?
Had published an attack on Stalin:
- were publicly tried and expelled from the party
How many members of the party were excluded between 1933-1934 on the grounds that they were ‘Ryutinites’?
1 million = 1/3rd of total membership
What were the methods of early party purges?
Get any suspected members party cards and not hand them back if they were suspected
Why is 1934 an important year in the purges?
When Stalin began to terrorise not just obvious opponents but colleagues and party members
Who was the NKVD directly answerable to?
Stalin
What new type of court was set up in 1934?
A special military court to deal with ‘serious crimes’ = similar to AIII
Why might it be the case that Stalin was involved in Kirov’s murder?
- he was a highly popular figure in the party
- was elected into the politburo by the CA in 1934
- was known to be unhappy with many of Stalin’s policy
= dissatisfied members may rally around him in opposition
What was the Decree against Terrorist Acts?
Signed 2 hours after Kirov’s death
- gave the NKVD limitless powers in pursing enemies of the state and the party
= hunting down Kirov’s murderers caused a fresh purge on the party to begin
Why were new members of the party during ‘the Stalin enrolment’ eager to support the elimination of the anti-stalinist elements of the party?
- owed their position directly to Stalin
- improved their chances of promotion
Out of 1996 delegates who attended the Party Congress in 1934, how many were executed in the next 3 years?
1108
Out of the 139 Central Committee members elected at the 1934 PC how many survived?
41
When was the Great Purge?
1936-39
What did the secret letter sent from the CPSU headquarters in 1936 contain?
Warning all the local party branches of a terrorist conspiracy by the ‘Trostkyite-Kamenevite-Zinovievite-Leftist Counter-Revolutionary Bloc’
- instructed party officials to begin rooting out suspected agents and sympathisers
Why were Kamenev and Zinoviev put on trial?
Charged with involvement in Kirov’s death + plotting to overthrow the Soviet state
= both men pleaded guilty
Why did Kamenev and Zinoviev confess?
- revealed that torture was used
- sense of demoralisation of having been accused and disgraced by the party
What did the confessions of Z and K create?
An atmosphere in which innocent victims submitted in open court to false charges = if great men accepted their fate then lesser men would also have to
Who were the ‘anti-Soviet Trotskyist Centre’?
17 communists, denounced as this, were charged with spying for Nazi Germany
What happened during the third of the major show trials 1938?
Bukharin and Rykov and 18 other ‘Trotskyite-Rightists’ were publicly arraigned on a variety of counts, including sabotage, spying and conspiracy to commit murder
What were 2 of the major things claimed in the 1936 Constitution?
- Socialism had been established - no longer ‘classes’
- The basic civil rights of freedom of expression. assembly and worship were guaranteed
Why were the parties powers not described in the Constitution?
Meant they could not be restricted
What happened in May 1937 when Vyshinsky announced that ‘a gigantic conspiracy’ had been uncovered in the Red Army?
Tukhachevsky the talented Chief of General Staff was arrested along with 7 other generals, all of whom had been ‘heroes of the Civil War’
- accused of having spied for Germany and Japan
