The Yezhovschina Flashcards
From when did the Yesovshchina begin?
July 1937
Who replaced Yagoda as head of the Secret police in 1936?
Nikolai Yezhov
What was implemented that started the Mass purges?
NKVD Order 00447
When was the NKVD Order 00447?
30 July 1937
What did the NVKD Order 00447 mean, and set up
meant no central control, outlined quota system for every Region of USSR and anti-soviet elements
What were those arrested be swiftly sentenced by?
NKVD ‘Troikas’ - three-man panels
How many people had been arrested and sent to gulag within a month of Order 00447?
100,000 arrested,
14,000 sent to gulag
How many had been sentenced and executed by 1938 due to the NKVD Order 00447?
575,000 people sentenced,
258,000 executed
Who did the NKVD target?
people considered to be dangerous to the regime,
former party members of other parties,
What led to people being arrested randomly by the NKVD?
pressure to meet and exceed quotas - NKVD picked names out of telephone directories
what were people encouraged to do by the NKVD?
root out ‘hidden enemies’ - friends and family members in the hope of saving themselves
Who was targeted in the 17 Jan 1937 Show trial?
17 senior party members - Radek and Sokolnikov
13 sentenced to death, accused of plotting with Trotsky
Why did Stalin fear a military uprising?
several officers caught in show trials - could lead others to rebel
How did Stalin react to his fears of a military uprising?
Show trial on Marhal Tukhachevsky and 7 other military commanders
When was the Military purge, what was the outcome?
May-June 1937, 7 top military commanders executed
What followed the Military show trials?
the ‘Great Purge’ of the Red Army
How many red army leaders were sacked between 1937 and 1939?
30,000
What was the reason given for the military purge?
a ‘military-fascist’ plot with Germany and Japan
How amny people were shot for refusing to approve execution of colleagues?
74 military officials
Who was targeted in the 21, march 1938 show trial?
Bukharin, Rykov and 19 others.
Who committed suicide before being put on trial?
Tomsky :(
What charge did Bukharin, Rykov and 19 others face?
plot to overthrow Stalin on orders of Germany and Japan
How far did the Gulag population increase from 1935-1938
from 800,000 in 1935
between 5.5-9.5 million in 1938
How much higher were Mortality rates?
4-6x higher
Who was Stalin suspicious of?
National minorities - koreans in east, Germans in Volga region
Why did Stalin deport the Korean minority?
Due to threat of war with Japan in 1937
How many Volga Germans were deported to Serbia and Central Asia in 1941?
400,000
How many Jews were incorporated into the USSR in 1939-40?
2 million - following invasion of Eastern Poland and Baltic republics
Why did the pace of purges slow after 1938?
Yzhovshchina had destabilised the state and economy, stalin blamed Yezhov
What did Stalin declare at the 18th Party Congress?
that ‘mass cleansings’ were no longer needed
When was Yezhov secretly tried and executed?
1940
Who replaced Yezhov?
Lavrentii Beria
When was Trotsky murdered by Ramon Mercado?
August 1940, in Mexico City
How could Stalin be deemed as responsible for the Terror?
the Suicide of his wife in 1932 could have triggered it,
his paranoia, personally responsible for promoting purges
How could Bolshevik leaders be blamed for the terror?
they had always used terror - used to defend revolution.
Stalin simply escalated this
how could party officials be responsible?
over-zealous local officials - some promoted terror knowing they’d get away with it
How could ordinary individuals be blamed for the terror?
escalated out of control as denunciations were prevalent
650,000 people were executed from 1937-38 under what source?
figures released by KGB in 1995
How were families of those punished also punished?
lost jobs, evicted from homes - sent to gulag or exiled
‘a member of the family of a traitor to the Motherland’
‘a child of an enemy of the people.
How many party members were expelled between 1936 and 1938?
850,000
What % of the Party had joined before 1920 by 1939?
only 10%
How did the Red Army grow after the purges lost 23,000 officers?
1 milion 1936 - 5 million 1941
What could be said about Stalins position after the purges?
he was in a position of supreme power
