The Terror Flashcards
From when did the Cult of Stalin take off?
Stalin’s 50th birthday, in December 1929
How did many workers and peasants show their dedication to Stalin within their own homes?
They built ‘Red Corners’ filled with images of Stalin and Lenin
What did Stalin’s wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, do in 1932 and what effect is it thought to have had on Stalin?
Killed herself – this is thought to have made Stalin increasingly paranoid
What became the standard account of the history of the Revolution when it was published in 1938?
The ‘Short Course’
How did the ‘Short Course’ describe the contributions of leading Bolsheviks to the October Revolution?
It played up the contribution of Stalin and played down the contributions of figures like Trotsky
What did all writers have to belong to from 1932?
Union of Soviet Writers
What did all artists have to belong to from 1932?
Union of Soviet Artists
How did the artistic unions exert the Party’s control over artists?
The unions set guidelines that its members had to follow, and expulsion from the unions would lead to people being unable to find work
What was the artistic style that artists had to follow under Stalin?
Socialist Realism
What did Socialist Realism require artists to show in their work?
The truthful, historically concrete representation of reality in its revolutionary development
Who set out the principles of Socialist Realism at the first Congress of the Union of Soviet Writers in 1934?
Andrei Zhdanov
What organisation replaced the OGPU in 1934?
NKVD
Who were the three leaders of the NKVD?
Yagoda, Yezhov and Beria
Why were the managers of the Shakty Coal Mine put on trial in the Shakty Trial of 1928?
They were put on trial for sabotage because they had questioned the pace of industrialisation and expansion at their mine
What did Kirov do at the 17th Party Congress in 1934?
He spoke out against Stalin’s policy of grain seizures and forced collectivization
What was the response of Congress to Kirov’s speech in 1934?
Delegates gave him a standing ovation
What happened to Kirov in December 1934?
He was murdered by Nikolayev, a disgruntled Party member
What did Stalin do in response to Kirov’s murder?
Stalin blamed Trotskyists and gave Yagoda, head of the NKVD the power to arrest anyone guilty of ‘terrorist plotting’. More than 100 party members were shot and thousands more were sent to prison camps
Who was tried in the first major show trial in 1936?
Kamenev and Zinoviev
What were Kamenev and ZInoviev accused of doing in their show trial?
Working with Trotsky