Terror/Yezhovshchina

Question 1

When did Kirov become Secretary of Equal Rank?

Answer 1

17th Party Congress 1934.
166/1225 delegates crossed Stalin’s name out

Question 2

When was Kirov assassinated?

Answer 2

December 1934

Question 3

What and when was the Ryutin Platform? Why was this impactful?

Answer 3

In 1932, Ryutin wrote a document basically slating Stalin, calling for the reinstatement of expelled party members like Trotsky, calling for the end of collectivisation, slowing down industrialisation.
Stalin wanted to execute Ryutin for this, but was blocked by unwilling party members. This showed decreasing popularity for Stalin

Question 4

When did Stalin’s wife commit suicide and how did this impact him?

Answer 4

1932- he became more paranoid and felt as though he could trust nobody

Question 5

What and when was the Trial of 16?

Answer 5

August 1936- Key figures like Zinoviev and Kamenev involved in a show trial

Question 6

Who did Yezhov replace and when?

Answer 6

Yagoda in 1936

Question 7

When was the second major show trial and who did it involve?

Answer 7

January 1937- It involved Pyatakov (piano guy)

Question 8

When was the third major show trial and who did it involve?

Answer 8

March 1938- Rykov, Bukharin, Yagoda

Question 9

When was state terror basically officially announced and how?

Answer 9

NKVD order 00447 in July 1937

Question 10

How many people were roughly in Gulags in 1929, 1932, 1935 and 1936

Answer 10

1929- 100,000
1932- 1 million
1935- 2 million
1936- 5 million

Question 11

What is the Western estimate for the deaths in the Gulags between 1918 and 1956?

Answer 11

Between 15 and 30 million deaths

Question 12

Roughly how many members of the Red Army were killed in Summer 1937?

Answer 12

30,000

Question 13

How many leading members of the army were killed in the military purge (1537)

Answer 13

8

Question 14

Why did Stalin fear the military?

Answer 14

The military had always been Trotsky’s thing

Question 15

By the Summer of 1937, what percentage of officer corps had been arrested or killed?

Answer 15

Over 50%, however many were reinstated for the War

Question 16

Who replaced Yezhov, when, and why?

Answer 16

1940 by Beria. Yezhov was executed for being ‘too zealous’

Question 17

When did Trotsky die and what impact did this have?

Answer 17

1940- It halted the purges, however arrests and state repression continued until 1953

Question 18

How many party members were expelled between 1936 and 1938?

Answer 18

850,000
By 1939, less than 10% of party members had joined before 1920

Question 19

How were the national minorities treated during the Yezhovshchina?

Answer 19

There was a wave of national deportations from 1937
In 1937, a large Korean minority was deported to central Asia when when war with Japan threatened
Many rabbis and religious leaders were arrested when around 2 million Jewish people were incorporated into the USSR in 1939 and 1940 due to the invasion of East Poland and the Baltic republics

Question 20

What and when was the Stalin Constitution?

Answer 20

1936- Bukharin and Radek created this. It was supposed to move towards socialism and celebrate the ‘success’ of the previous years. Stalin declared that it was ‘the most democratic constitution in the world’.

Question 21

When did Stalin launch a Chistka and what did this do?

Answer 21

1932- This rooted out all passive elements of the party and those who were not implementing their policies (about 22% of members were non-violently expelled)