The Yezhovshchina

Question 1

When was NKVD Order 00447 issued?

Answer 1

July 1937

Question 2

Explain the July 1937 NKVD Order

Answer 2

It established a small NKVD committees
these could classify anti-soviet elements into 2 categories:
death by shooting
entry to the gulag labour camps

Question 3

What did the NKVD committees have to work to meet?

Answer 3

Quotas which were often exceeded

Question 4

By August 1937, in one month, how many had been arrested and sent to Gulags by the NKVD committed.

Answer 4

100,000 arrested

14,000 sent to Gulags

Question 5

What is the estimated ratio between informers and inhabitants

Answer 5

1 informers to 400 inhabitants

Question 6

When was the Trial of 17?

Answer 6

January 1937

Question 7

How many in the trial of 17 were sentenced to death?

Who were they and what were they accused of?

Answer 7

13/17
Accused of plotting with Trotsky
prominent communists including Karl Radek- editor of Izvstiya and one of the framers for 1936 constitution

Question 8

When were the military purges?

Answer 8

May-June 1937

Question 9

Why did the military purges occur?

Answer 9

Some officers were incriminated under show trials of 1936/1937 so there was a threat of a military coup

Question 10

Who did Stalin order to be arrested first under the military purges and when?

Answer 10

May 1937
Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky- Deputy commissar for Defence
Yan Gamarnik- Head of Red Army Political Commissars
+ 6 top military men executed in June 1937

Question 11

Approximately what % of officer corps in all 3 services were executed for imprisoned ?
But how many of these were reinstated?

Answer 11

50%

1/4 of imprisoned were reinstated by the middle of the 1940

Question 12

Under the Great Purge of the Red Army, name some ppl who were targeted

Answer 12

11 war commissars
all 8 admirals and their replacements
Marshals of the Soviet Union - highest military rank
all bar one of senior air force commanders

Question 13

Between 1937 and 1938 how many military officers were shot for refusing to approve execution.

Answer 13

74

Question 14

Name a concreate example of someone who opposed the purges and what happened to them

Answer 14

June 1937 Osip Pyatnitsky- member of central committee and comintern spoke out and then the next day evidence of his involvement as a ‘tsarist secret police’. Executed October 1938

Question 15

When was the trial of 21?

Answer 15

March 1938

Question 16

Name the prominent communist in the Trial of 21 in 1938

Answer 16

Bukharin
Rykov
Yagoda
Tomsky

Question 17

During the trial of 21, how long did Bukharin hold out for and why did he finally cave?

Answer 17

Held out for 3 months

Threats to his wife and young son made him cave

Question 18

During the trial of 21 how many letters did Bukharin send to Stalin?

Answer 18

34

Question 19

How many out of the 21 were executed?

Answer 19

18

Question 20

How much of the party by 1938 was purged?

Answer 20

1/3 of all party members

Question 21

How many were in Gulags in 1935

Answer 21

800,000

Question 22

How many were in Gulags in 1938

Answer 22

5.5-9.5 million

Question 23

What were those who opposed Stalin called?

Answer 23

Anti-soviet enemies
or class enemies

Question 24

Describe the conditions of the camps?

Answer 24

meagre rations

inadequate clothing, poor and overcrowded accommodation

Question 25

What were the mortality rates of the Gulags compared to the rest of the Soviet Union?

Answer 25

4-6 times higher

Question 26

In 1941 how many Volga Germans were deported to Serbia and Central Asia?

Answer 26

over 400,000

Question 27

How many Jews were incorporated in the Soviet Union in 1939-1940?

Answer 27

2 million

Question 28

How was Yezhov used as a scapegoat?

Answer 28

accused of excessive zeal and tried, tortured shot in Feb 1940 in secret.

Question 29

When/ Where/ was Trotsky found?

Answer 29

August 1940

Mexico City

Question 30

Who assassinated Trotsky and how was he treated?

Answer 30

Ramon Mercador

Sentenced for 20 years but his mother got ‘Order of Lenin’

Question 31

How many Party members were expelled between 1936-1938

Answer 31

850,000 members

Question 32

By 1939 what % of the party membership that joined before 1920 survived?

Answer 32

less than 10%

Question 33

How many of the recruits since 1920

Answer 33

less than a quarter

Question 34

In the late 1930s how many officers were shot or dismissed ?

Answer 34

23,000

Question 35

Compared size of the Red Army in 1936 and 1941

Answer 35

Size of the Red Army increased from 1 million in 1936 to 5 million by 1941.