Terror and the purges Flashcards
Who was mainly targeted in the purges between 1930 and 1933?
Opponents of Stalin’s economic policies (and party members)
What percentage of Moscow party members lost their membership cards between 1932 and 1935?
22%
How did Martemyan Ryutin criticise Stalin in 1932?
Circulated a 200-page document calling Stalin the ‘evil genius of the Russian revolution’ and urging him to be removed from power
Outline the three main reasons why Stalin turned to terror
Whole Country: unite the country
Economy: support economic policies
Paranoia: Stalin became increasingly paranoid
How many members of the party were expelled between 1933 and 1934?
Nearly a million
What was Ryutin’s sentence for his opposition to Stalin? Why is this significant?
10 years in prison
In 1932, executions were not used as part of terror - it became a thing later on
Why were party membership cards so important to people?
They allowed members access to quality accommodation, higher food rations, access to healthcare and education for their children
Who controlled the police, labour camps and border guards by 1934?
The NKVD
What role did OGPU play in the terror state?
Secret police - would arrest people from the streets and from their homes for no obvious reason
Who was the first commissar in charge of the NKVD from 1934?
Genrikh Yagoda
Give three responsibilities of the NKVD
Imposed purges
Gathered evidence against high-ranking communists
Managed the Gulag camps
How many members of the NKVD had been purged by 1939, on the grounds that Stalin thought that they were conspiring against them?
20,000 members
Why was the Seventeenth Party Congress called the Congress of Victors?
It consisted of all the members who hadn’t been purged!
What happened during the Central Committee election during the Seventeenth Party Congress?
Stalin was rumoured to have received at least 150 negative votes, but the ballot papers were destroyed and only 3 votes were recorded against him
Who did regional party secretaries want to replace Stalin with at the Seventeenth Party Congress?
Kirov
What happened to Sergei Kirov on 1 December 1934
Murdered by Leonid Nicolaev at Leningrad’s Party headquarters
Why was Kirov’s murder beneficial to Stalin?
Kirov was elected to the Politburo in 1934, popular with party members, disagreed with the Five-Year Plans, and opposed extreme discipline against Party members - dissatisfied members could have rallied round him
What did Stalin do within two hours of Kirov’s murder?
`Signed a “Decree on Terrorist Acts” giving the NKVD unlimited powers to pursue enemies of the state and the Party
Who became party bosses in Leningrad and Moscow in 1935? What position did they have on Stalin?
Leningrad: Zhdanov
Moscow: Khrushchev
Both dedicated Stalinists
Who became state prosecutor in 1935?
Andrei Vyshinsky
What percentage of delegates at the “Congress of Victors” in 1934 were executed in the next three years?
56%
What percentage of the Central Committee members in 1934 survived the purges?
29%
What happened to Kamenev and Zinoviev in August 1936?
Pulled out of prison and put on a show trial (with 14 others), then executed
What was ground-breaking about the executions of Kamenev and Zinoviev?
The first executions of people who had belonged to the Central Committee
Why did Stalin use show trials?
Able to broadcast, to a large audience, the scale of the conspiracy against him. Created a culture of fear - if leading Communists were being executed, ordinary people would fall into line
Who wrote the confessions of the accused at the show trials?
The government
Why were the accused made to read confessions at their show trial?
Made it harder for anyone else to plead innocence - innocent victims would submit to false charges
Why was Yagoda removed as head of the NKVD?
Accused of being too lenient in dealing with Kamenev and Zinoviev
Why was Radek not sentenced to death in the trial of the Centre?
He incriminated his colleagues (including Bukharin) during his confession
Why didn’t Tomsky go on show trial with the rest of the Right Communists?
He had already killed himself
What did Bukharin do during his show trial that was unique?
Tried to defend himself
Between 1937 and 1938, how many Poles were deported, imprisoned or executed?
Almost 140,000
Why was Stalin so keen to purge the army?
It was the only state institution left (by 1937) that could stand up to Stalin
Who was Tukhachevsky? What was he accused of? What was the outcome?
Marshal in the Red Army - one of the founders and a Civil War hero
Accused of spying for Japan and Germany
Shot along with his fellow generals
How many Red Army generals were shot in the Trial of the Generals, between May and June 1937?
8
How many of the 101 members of the Supreme Military Council were executed between June 1937 and December 1938?
80
How many commissioned officers were imprisoned or shot between June 1937 and December 1938?
35,000
How many senior commanders of the Soviet Air Force survived the purge of the armed forces?
Only one
What was the long-term impact of Stalin’s purge of the armed forces?
By 1939, they were seriously undermanned and staffed by inexperienced or incompetent replacements - unprepared for German invasion
How many prisoners were in the Gulag in 1941, for an average sentence of how long?
8 million
Average sentence of 10 years
Why were Russians sent to the Gulag? Give three reasons
Failing to meet agricultural or industrial targets
Telling anti-Stalin jokes
Theft (especially of grain)
Murder
Sabotage
Conspiracy
What was the death rate in the Gulag by the end of the Great Terror?
9.1%
What was the NKVD’s order 00447?
A resolution calling for the arrest of over 250,000 ‘elements’, including scientists, artists, writers, musicians and historians
In July 1937, what percentage was set as the proportion to be shot in geographical areas and in public bodies (the quota)?
28%
What percentage of the population was arrested during Stalin’s purges?
12.5% (1/8)
What purpose did the village of Butovo have during the terror?
It was a specially designated zone for mass shootings - bodies were buried in mass graves here
Could the quota for arrests/executions be changed by local officials?
Yes - it could be increased (but never decreased)
What social impact did the Yezhovshchina have? Give two examples
People would not contact the families of arrested ‘enemies’
Wives renounced arrested husbands to make survival for them and their families more likely
Failure to publicly renounce relatives meant you could be expelled from the party or lose your job
Who replaced Yezhov in charge of the NKVD?
Beria
How many convictions were overturned from the Yezhovshchina by 1940?
450,000
Why were 1.5 million cases from the Yezhovshchina reviewed by 1940? (Two reasons)
Stalin could claim that he had corrected Yezhov’s ‘mistakes’ and uncover Yezhov as an ‘enemy of the people’ by arresting innocent people
Stalin could also claim that anyone who was not released was definitely guilty so should be executed
Between February 1937 and November 1938, how many executions did Stalin personally approve?
38,697
Explain the “totalitarian interpretation” of terror
Stalin had personal control over the terror - the NKVD carried out orders from the top - purges were a tool for Stalin to establish control over the Party
Explain the “revisionist interpretation” of the terror
Stalin was not fully responsible for the terror and had little idea about what was going on in some areas. People were selected at random by local officials
Explain the economic arguments behind terror
Production figures had slowed down by the mid-1930s and so the leadership needed scapegoats
