Terror 1934+

Question 1

What year was the Seventeenth party Congress?

Answer 1

1934

Question 2

At the seventeenth party congress 1934, a split formed, what were the 2 sides of this split?

Answer 2

split between Stalin who wanted to maintain the pace of industrialisation and others within the Politburo who spoke about stopping forcible grain seizures and increasing workers’ rations

Question 3

At the seventeenth party congress, only two in the Politburo firmly supported Stalin while Kirov received a long standing ovation, who were the 2 that supported Stalin?

Answer 3

Molotov and Kaganovich

Question 4

The title of General Secretary was abolished, what was Stalin and Kirov and everyone instead given the title of which in theory meant that Stalin was no more important than the other secretaries?

Answer 4

Secretary of Equal Rank

Question 5

When was Kirov murdered?

Answer 5

December 1934

Question 6

Due to the suspicious nature of Kirov’s murder, a decree was published the next day which did what?

Answer 6

this gave Yagoda, as head of the NKVD, powers to arrest and execute anyone found guilty of ‘terrorist plotting,’

Question 7

After Kirov’s murder, how many party members were shot along with those thousands who were arrested and sent to prison camps?

Answer 7

over one hundred

Question 8

How many NKVD members in Leningrad were found guilty and imprisoned in a further round up after Kirov’s murder?

Answer 8

12

Question 9

In what year was the death penalty extended to anyone aware of subversive activity?

Answer 9

June 1935

Question 10

In what year did Yezhov replace Yagoda as head of the NKVD?

Answer 10

1936

Question 11

During Yezhov’s time as head of the NKVD between 1936-1938, what was he responsible for?

Answer 11

the Yazhovchina, a period of purges and terror

Question 12

Why was Yezhov removed and shot quietly in 1939?

Answer 12

to be made as a scapegoat for the excesses of the purges

Question 13

What did Kirov’s murder become the signal for?

Answer 13

for the regime to tighten its hold over the country and begin widespread purges

Question 14

When can Stalin’s intense suspicion and vindictiveness stem from?

Answer 14

Kirov’s murder in 1934

Question 15

What became a political tool in Stalinist Russia?

Answer 15

show trials

Question 16

What were show trials?

Answer 16

these were public trials to which foreign journalists were invited and their function was to provide that the USSR and Stalin were facing opposition from enemies of the state and their disposition justified

Question 17

In the month proceeding the show trial, what was the task of the NKVD?

Answer 17

to extract a signed confession

Question 18

When was the new law decreed that children over 12 who were found guilty of crimes would be subject to the same punishment as adults, including the death penalty?

Answer 18

April 1935

Question 19

How did the NKVD use the april 1935 decree (children over 12 who were found guilty of crimes would be subject to the same punishment as adults, including the death penalty) to coerce confessions from the accused?

Answer 19

they would suggest that false chargers would be brought against the accuseds children

Question 20

When was the first major showtrial?

Answer 20

August 1936

Question 21

Who were the defendants of the first major show trial in August 1936?

Answer 21

Kamenev and Zinoviev and 14 others

Question 22

When was Trotsky expelled from the party?

Answer 22

1929

Question 23

Who was the prosector at the 1936 Show trial>?

Answer 23

Vishinsky

Question 24

Where were the 16 shot from the 1936 Show trials?

Answer 24

in the cellars of Lubyanka Prison in Moscow

Question 25

Why was yagoda replaced by Yezhov?

Answer 25

as he had not been active enough in uncovering the conspiracy and failed to secure the confessions of Rykov and Bukharin whom Stalin was determined to implicate

Question 26

in 1936 who drafted the new constitution?

Answer 26

Bukharin

Question 27

When was the new constitution of 1936- drafted by Bukharin- said to have been intended to mark?

Answer 27

the progress towards socialism and triumphs of previous years

Question 28

What did the new constitution of 1936 declare?

Answer 28

that socialism had been achieved

Question 29

What did Stalin claim about his new 1936 constitution?

Answer 29

that it was ‘the most democratic in the world’

Question 30

What replaced the All Russian Congress of Soviets?

Answer 30

the new Supreme Soviet made up of the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities

Question 31

What did the new constitution of 1936 promise?

Answer 31

that there would be 4-yearly elections with the right to vote for all those over the age of 18 including the ‘former people’ who had previously been deprived of the vote.

Question 32

What did the 1936 new constitution say in regards to freedoms? (4)

Answer 32

• freedom of religion
• free speech
• press
• arbitrary arrest (random)

Question 33

What did central control over republic budgets mean?

Answer 33

that they had little real regional independence

Question 34

What happened to party leaders in Georgia when they allegedly planned secession (withdrawing membership) in 1951?

Answer 34

they were purged

Question 35

What was the reality of the Supreme Soviet?

Answer 35

it only met twice a year and it was more of a sense of participation rather than an actual involvement in policy making