Terror under Nikolai Yezhov

Question 1

1. What theory did Stalin put forward?
   - What was this in order to justify?
2. What did Stalin set targets for?
   - What happened to the NKVD in 1937?

Answer 1

1. Doctrine of Sharpening Class Struggle.
   - Ever increasing terror.
2. Arrests, executions and deportations.
   - Purged.

Question 2

1. This was because many NKVD agents had been communists since ____, and therefore were loyal to the _____ and sometimes Stalin’s _________.
2. Did the new NKVD agents have any loyalty to the party or ideological opposition to terror?
3. What system did Yezhov introduce to speed up the process of getting confessions?
   - What 2 trials did this lead to?

Answer 2

1. 1918, Party, opponents.
2. No.
3. Conveyor belt system.
   - Trial of the 17 and Trial of the 21.