The Great Terror

Question 1

what was the purpose of the purges in theory

Answer 1

to cleanse the party of those who were not committed to the ideals of building communism but to promote their own personal interests in a one party state

Question 2

what was the purpose of the purges in reality

Answer 2

stalin used the purges to get rid of any member that was thought to be a threat to the power of stalin or in opposition to him or his policies

Question 3

Give the 7 other reasons why the terror was introduced

Answer 3

• rapid industrialisation
• ryutin platform
• 17 party Congress
• terror economics
• the shakhty trials
• Stalin’s paranoia
• murder of Kirov

Question 4

What did the great terror help transform Russia into?

Answer 4

A totalitarian dictatorship

Question 5

During the 17th party congress, how many votes were won by stalin and Kirov

Answer 5

Stalin: 927
Kirov: 1225

Question 6

What did Ryutin create and circulate?

Answer 6

A 200 page document highly critical of Stalin

Question 7

What did Ryutin call Stalin?

Answer 7

The “evil genius of the Russian revolution”

Question 8

What did Ryutin urge?

Answer 8

Stalin’s removal from the party

Question 9

How did Stalin want to punish Ryutin and who opposed him?

Answer 9

He wanted the death penalty for Ryutin

Kirov and Ordzhonikidze opposed him

Question 10

What did Kirov’s opposition to Stalin over Ryutin lead to?

Answer 10

Stalin felt betrayed and became increasingly paranoid about opposition from within his own party

Question 11

When was Ryutin arrested?

Answer 11

22nd September 1932

Question 12

When was the Ryutin platform

Answer 12

1932

Question 13

What was Ryutin found guilty of and how long was his sentence

Answer 13

Being an enemy of the people

Sentenced to 10 years in prison

Question 14

Why were Zinoviev and Kamenev expelled from the party?

Answer 14

For failing to report the existence of the Ryutin report

Question 15

When was Ryutin executed?

Answer 15

10th January 1937

Question 16

What happened to Ryutin’s two sons and wife?

Answer 16

The sons were executed

The wife was sent to the gulag

Question 17

What was the congress of the victors intended to be?

Answer 17

A celebration of Stalin’s economic achievements

Question 18

What did the result of the congress of the victors show?

Answer 18

That stalin was not as popular as Kirov in the Communist party

Question 19

As a result of the seventeenth party congress what title were Stalin and Kirov given?

Answer 19

Secretary of equal rank

Question 20

How did the title of equal rank to Kirov affect Stalin’s position?

Answer 20

He was no longer secure as leader, he could be removed or demoted at any time

Question 21

Explain how splits in the party over collectivisation encouraged the use of terror

Answer 21

Local party secretaries were unwilling to push forward and were reluctant to get rid of bourgeois specialists

Question 22

What was Stalin’s response to the local party secretaries reluctant to toe the party line

Answer 22

A Chistka was launched to remove these elements

Question 23

How many communist party members lost their cards as a result of the Chistka

Answer 23

By 1933 22% of them

Question 24

What economic purpose would the terror serve?

Answer 24

It would allow stalin to blame economic problems on political enemies

Question 25

How could the ongoing problems of the five year plans be explained?

Answer 25

By the presence of wreckers in the workplace

Question 26

Who did Stalin say the wreckers were in the employment of?

Answer 26

Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev

Question 27

What did Stalin’s use of terror to purge “wreckers” allow him to do?

Answer 27

Create scapegoats for the economic problems that might have otherwise been blamed on Stalin

Question 28

Where were the majority of the people purged in the great terror sent?

Answer 28

The gulags

Question 29

What happened in the trial of the Shakhty engineers?

Answer 29

Industrial specialists from middle class or foreign backgrounds were accused of sabotage, spying or anti-socialism

Question 30

When was the Menshevik Trial?

Answer 30

1931

Question 31

What were those in The Menshevik Trial tried and found guilty of?

Answer 31

Economic sabotage

Question 32

Who did Stalin fear within the party?

Answer 32

The old communists

Question 33

Why did he fear the old communists

Answer 33

They had been firm supporters of Lenin

Question 34

Other than the old bolsheviks, who did stalin fear?

Answer 34

The Red Army and Secret Police

Question 35

How did stalin attempt to exclude Kirov from the politburo?

Answer 35

By insisting that he stayed in Leningrad to supervise the local party

Question 36

When was Kirov murdered

Answer 36

In 1934

Question 37

Who was blamed for the murder of Kirov?

Answer 37

Nikolayev

Question 38

Who else was arrested for the conspiracy to murder Kirov?

Answer 38

Zinoviev and Kamenev

Question 39

In which 3 ways was Kirov’s death convenient for Stalin?

Answer 39

1. The murder had rid him of his most important rival 2. It gave stalin a pretext for hunting down the “secret terror group” that probably never existed 3. The murder showed political dissidents were plotting acts of terror and justified the execution of party members who opposed Stalin and his policies

Question 40

What were the three Moscow show trials?

Answer 40

1. The trial of the 16 2. The trial of the 17 3. The trial of the 21

Question 41

Who was on trial in the trial of the 16?

Answer 41

Kamenev and Zinoviev

Question 42

What were Kamenev and Zinoviev charged with?

Answer 42

The murder of Kirov and plotting to disrupt the five year plan

Question 43

How were Kamenev and Zinoviev persuaded to confess?

Answer 43

Probably with torture

Question 44

What happened to Kamenev and Zinoviev as a result of the trial?

Answer 44

They were executed

Question 45

What year was the trial of the sixteen?

Answer 45

1936

Question 46

When was the trial of the seventeen

Answer 46

1937

Question 47

Who was on trial during the trial of the 17?

Answer 47

Trotsky’s former allies, e.g. Pyatokov and Radek

Question 48

What were they charged for in the trial of the seventeen?

Answer 48

Plotting with foreign powers

Question 49

When was the conveyor belt system first used?

Answer 49

The trial of the seventeen

Question 50

What did the conveyor belt system involve?

Answer 50

Torture Sleep deprivation Questioning Until the defendant confessed

Question 51

How many of the seventeen were killed?

Answer 51

13 of 17

Question 52

When was the trial of the 21

Answer 52

1938

Question 53

Who was on trial in the trial of the 21?

Answer 53

Bukharin and Rykov

Question 54

What were the 21 accused of?

Answer 54

Attempting to overthrow socialism and attempting to assassinate Lenin

Question 55

How was Bukharin persuaded to confess political responsibility for the crimes?

Answer 55

Stalin threatened to execute his wife and baby

Question 56

What happened to Bukharin and Rykov after the trial

Answer 56

They were both executed

Question 57

What did the Moscow show trials achieve?

Answer 57

They eliminated the last surviving communists who could claim to have been close to Lenin and therefore had an authority that was independent of Stalin

Question 58

When was the Doctrine of the Sharpening Class Struggle presented?

Answer 58

1937

Question 59

What did the Doctrine of the Sharpening Class Struggle provide?

Answer 59

An ideological justification for the necessity of further terror

Question 60

When was Yagoda arrested?

Answer 60

1937

Question 61

How many NKVD men perished by the end of the 1930s?

Answer 61

23,000

Question 62

When was Yezhov’s bloodbath?

Answer 62

1937-1938

Question 63

What percentage of adult males were executed or sent to labour camps during yezhov’s bloodbath?

Answer 63

10%