Terror & Repression - The Secret Police (1855-1964)

Question 1

What was the name of the Secret Police under Alexander II,III & Nicholas II?

Answer 1

The Okhrana

Question 2

Name two methods the Tsarist Secret Police adopted to deal with opposition.

Answer 2

Surveillance, Case files on suspects, spying & Exile.
(It was rare to see widespread exterminations of opponents)

Question 3

Gulags and Labour Camps were used to house opponents during the Tsarist Era - Why did this fail?

Answer 3

The aim was to re-educate political opponents (dissidents), however by keeping them all in one location it allowed revolutionary zeal and political groups to flourish

Question 4

What was the name of the Secret Police under Lenin?

Answer 4

Cheka

Question 5

Give a description of why the Secret Police was formed under Lenin

Answer 5

Lenin faced multiple challenges after seizing power and as such a secret police was necessary:
- Establishing his new government (Sovnarkom)
- Fighting a Civil War & First World War & needed to root out opponents
- Assassination attempt in 1918 and the imposition of the Red Terror which the Secret Police was part of.

Question 6

In what way was Lenin’s Secret Police different from the Tsarist Secret Police?

Answer 6

They differed because they were used to terrorise people based on ‘who’ they were and not just on their activities.

“Your first duty is to ask him to which class he belongs, what are his origins, his
education, and his occupation. These questions should decide the fate of the prisoner” - , Dzerzhinsky

Question 7

Name three features of the Red Terror enacted out by the Leninist state

Answer 7

• War Communism (Civil War restrictions, such as grain requisitioning that saw grain stolen by the state. Murder and Rapes occurred as a result)
• Enforcing the Labour Code (Rules for the deployment of labour)
• Elimination of the Kulaks (Those successful peasants that were labelled as class enemies
• Administering Labour Camps.
• Militarisation of Labour (Forced adaption of people working in factories and/or front line in Civil War)

Question 8

What was the name of the revised Secret Police under Lenin formed in 1922?

Answer 8

OGPU (United State Police Administration)

Question 8

In what ways was Lenin’s reformed 1922 Secret Police different?

Answer 8

It was not as brutal. There were concerted efforts to end the brutality shown during the Civil War

Question 9

Why did Lenin adapt his Secret Police from 1922 until his death in 1924?

Answer 9

The Civil War had seen 6 million deaths through famine, state brutality and deaths in the Civil War.

Lenin feared that if the Secret Police carried on as it did it would see revolt, opposition grow. It would also see splits in the party. It could see the gains made during the civil war in ruins.

Question 10

What was the name of Stalin’s Secret Police that began in 1934?

Answer 10

NKVD

Question 11

In what ways was Stalin’s Secret Police similar to his predecessor Lenin?

Answer 11

The NKVD was similar to the Cheka as it was used to terrorise people based on ‘who’ they were and not just on their activities.

Question 12

In what ways was Stalin’s Secret Police radically new to any Secret Police that went on before?

Answer 12

It was a part of Stalin’s ‘personal dictatorship’ and used as a ‘Permanent’ force of terror

Lenin = A necessity to hold onto power and win Civil War

Tsars = To deal with those committing activities against the state.

Question 13

What is a Chitska?

Answer 13

This was a type of purge. It was done during Lenin’s rule but also Stalin’s.

It was the removal of party cards and kicking out of the party.

Question 14

What were the Great Purges of the 1930’s and 1940’s?

Answer 14

These were the mass removals of members of the party.
After the power struggle those that challenged Stalin had been demoted and then tried as enemies of the party.

Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin were examples of people put on trial and then executed.

Question 15

What was the December Law of 1934?

Answer 15

This law was passed after the mysterious death of Kirov (a rival of Stalin’s who was gaining power within the party)

After his death, Stalin passed a law that allowed him to arrest anyone without reason or trial if deemed a threat to the state.

Question 16

What was the effect of the December Law of 1934?

Answer 16

Over 40 million people were sent to Gulags.

Show trials of leading figures occurred where summary executions were given out.

20,000 members of the party had been purged by the eve of the second world war.

Question 17

The Secret Police under Khrushchev was split into two - What were the names?

Answer 17

MVD = Internal Affairs
KGB = External or Foreign Affairs

Question 18

Give a reason why there was an adaptation of the Secret Police from 1954 by Khrushchev.

Answer 18

1. There was a Cold War in place. Foreign interference from Western/US spies was deemed as a threat to the regime.
2. USSR entered a new phase with De-Stalinisation. Khrushchev wanted to distance himself from the brutality of Stalinism

Question 19

What was the biggest shift in the Secret Police from 1954?

Answer 19

The Secret Police was no longer the fiefdom or personal toy for the leader of Russia, as it had been under Stalin.

Its power was now controlled by the party rather than Khrushchev himself.

Question 20

How did the Secret Police have a different impact on the ordinary Russian from 1954?

Answer 20

Brutality & Fear still existed but there was a reduction in its severity

The number of political arrests plummeted; the use of Gulags largely disappeared; and torture of dissidents appeared to be a thing of the past.

By 1960, it is estimated that there were only about 11,000 counter-revolutionaries
in captivity, a far cry from the 1930s and 1940s.