The Secret Police under Beria (1938 - 53) Flashcards
What were Beria’s first major successes as head of the NKVD?
Yezhov’s arrest - 1939
Trotsky’s murder - 1940
Which groups of people were targeted during WW2?
Why?
ethnic minorities
Stalin feared they would side with enemies
Why happened to the Kalmyks from Kalmykia?
When?
By 1953, how many of the original population of 130,000 had survived?
mass deportation to Siberia
1942
53, 000 out of 130,000
What happened to many Chechens from Chechnya?
How many?
When?
What happened to those who would no or could not leave?
How many deaths did this result in?
mass deportation to Siberia 460,000 1944 locked in stables and barns and burnt alive resulted in 170,000 deaths
In 1945, how many Soviet prisoners of war were interrogated?
Why?
What happened to most of them?
1.5 million
Stalin viewed them as traitors for allowing themselves to be captured rather than fighting to the death
deported to Siberia
What happened in 1949?
Who was purged?
Why?
How many arrested?
The Leningrad Affair
officials in the Leningrad Party
Stalin claimed the Leningrad Party acted independently
around 200
What happened during 1952 and 1953?
Who was targeted?
Why?
What happened to them?
The Doctors’ Plot
Stalin’s medical staff
accused of trying to poison him
Stalin died before doctor could be executed - they were released following Stalin’s death
