Terror 1917-1953

Question 1

Why was terror used ?

Answer 1

Keep army units loyal
Prevent political opposition
Ensure the people of Russia remained loyal to the regime

Question 2

Why did Trotsky appoint political commissars to army units during the civil war ?

Answer 2

They were committed party loyalists who could be relied upon to obey their political masters

Question 3

What was discipline in the Red Army like?

Answer 3

Any sign of disloyalty or desertion was punishable by death
Summary executions carried out in order to discourage any wavelets in the ranks
Cheka members used behind the lines to shoot deserters

Question 4

What happened in the Shooting of the Romanovs 1918?

Answer 4

Lenin’s orders, local Cheka detachment executed the ex-tsar and his family July 1918

Question 5

When was the Red Terror?

Answer 5

1918-1920

Question 6

What did the Cheka do in regards to the SRs, Mensheviks, anarchists and other threats during the red terror?

Answer 6

Round them up and execute them, around half a million shot

Question 7

Why did the Cheka carry out class warfare ?

Answer 7

Overall policy of using arbitrary terror simple as a means of frightening all sections of society into compliance with the regime

Question 8

What were the causes of the Great Terror 1928-1934?

Answer 8

Political Opposition (eg: Kirov and Ryutin)
Kirov’s murder
Stalin’s paranoia
Economic functions

Question 9

How many lives were lost and how many were sent to forced labour camps at the end of 1934?

Answer 9

1 million lives lost

12 million sent to forced labour camps

Question 10

What was Stalin’s paranoia fed by?

Answer 10

His secretive police system, the NKVD

Question 11

How did the purges benefit Stalin?

Answer 11

Bound up with his economic goals

Allowed Stalin to remove political opposition

Question 12

What was the role of Ryutin?

Answer 12

Les the call for changes in the policy, circulated a 200 page document entitled ‘Stalin and the Crisis of the proletariat dictatorship’ among Party members in March 1932

THE RYUTIN PLATFORM

Question 13

What happened as a result of the Ryutin Platform?

Answer 13

Ryutin imprisoned for 10 years

Zinoviev, Kamenev and 14 others expelled from party for failure to report the existence of the document

Question 14

What happened at the 1934 Congress of Victors ?

Answer 14

Kirov rather than Stalin topped the poll for the Central Committee

A group of old bolsheviks wanted Kirov to stand as General Secretary, refused yet Stalin had a reason to purge the untrustworthy party

Question 15

Why did Stalin’s paranoia lead to the Great Terror?

Answer 15

Felt unable to trust many within the Communist Party and acted to remove those he saw as potential threats

Question 16

Why did Stalin worry about his position due to past events?

Answer 16

Trotsky, Zinoviev and Bulgarian has all led leading positions in the Party and had then fallen from power

Question 17

What was the role of the Red Army and Secret Police in Stalin’s paranoia?

Answer 17

Believed they held too much power

His lack of control over these bodies led him to fear assassination attempts

Question 18

What happened at the Shakhty coal mine in 1928?

Answer 18

Managers and technicians who had questioned the pace of industrialisation were accused of ‘counter revolutionary activity’

Question 19

What was the result of the Shakhty show trial?

Answer 19

Of the managers and technicians, 5 were executed and others received long prison sentences when they were forced to confess

Question 20

What happened in the ‘industrial party’ show trial or Nov 1930?

Answer 20

A random group of industrialists, Mensheviks and SRs we’re accused of sabotage

Question 21

What was the outcome of the 1933 Metro-Vickers trial?

Answer 21

British specialists were found guilty of wrecking activities

Question 22

Who were ‘wreckers’ apparently employed by?

Answer 22

Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev to deliberately sabotage Russia’s economy

Question 23

How did the purges benefit the labour force?

Answer 23

Provided cheap slave labour through prison camps

Question 24

What decree was published a day after the murder of Kirov 1934?

Answer 24

A decree giving Yagoda powers to arrest and execute anyone found guilty of ‘terrorist plotting’