USSR: The Secret Police

Question 1

Who were the Cheka? Who were their opponents?

Answer 1

A political police force set up in December 1917 to combat counter-revolutionaries and those who tried to overthrow the revolution.

Question 2

Who was head of the Cheka?

Answer 2

Felix Dzerzhinsky was head of the Cheka from 1917-26.

Question 3

What was the Cheka’s role during the civil war?

Answer 3

To protect Communist rule whereas the Red Army was tasked with protecting and enlarging Communist-held territory. The Cheka also attacked other socialists.

Question 4

What did the Checka do in January 1918?

Answer 4

Alongside the Red Army the Cheka closed down the Constituent Assembly, a parliament dominated by Socialist Revolutionaries.

Question 5

What was the Cheka’s relationship with the law?

Answer 5

The Cheka did not enforce laws but they weren’t bound by any either. They operated on an “any means necessary” policy.

Question 6

How did the Cheka use terror between 1917 and 1921?

Answer 6

• They helped the Red Army requisition grain from collective farms (War Communism)
• Closed down opposition newspapers and imprisoned opposing socialists.
• Extreme violence against enemies of the Communist party in recently captured areas e.g. Priests were crucified, members of the White Army were frozen into ice statues, scalped or burned alive.
• Ran concentration camps that housed Communist enemies
• Stopped private trading which was outlawed under War Communism.

Question 7

How did the Cheka support the Red Army during the assault on the Kronstadt Naval Base?

Answer 7

Cheka agents with machine guns were instructed to stand behind the Red Army and shoot any soldiers who refused to fight

Question 8

What did the end of the Civil War mean for the Cheka?

Answer 8

• The end of the war marked a shift in Lenin’s policies towards the use of terror.
• The Red terror was bought to an end but as socialism hadn’t actually worked, Lenin still saw the need for the Cheka.

Question 9

How did the Cheka function during the NEP?

Answer 9

They continued to attack opponents of the government but overall terror was on a much smaller scale.

Question 10

What were the two orders Lenin gave Dzerzhinsky in 1922?

Answer 10

• To set up an agency within the GPU to monitor press activity.
• Because Lenin was suspicious of intellectuals and experts who did not fully support the government, he ordered Dzerzhinsky to supervise the deportation of professors and engineers who were suspected of anti-Communist ideas.

Question 11

What was the GPU? (5)

Answer 11

• The GPU kept former Tsarist officers, who now worked for the Red Army, under surveillance.
• Generally, the GPU kept public opinion under close scrutiny during the 20s.
• They had the power to intercept mail and other forms of communication.
• GPU surveillance reports sent straight to the Central Committee.
• GPU also reported to the Central Committee about drunkenness, gambling and any signs of inequality.

Question 12

When were political trials first set up and why?

Answer 12

Lenin was insecure about the future of the revolution and feared that the economic compromise of the NEP would lead to political overthrow. Therefore, in 1922, he ordered Dzerzhinsky to set up political trials of opponent SR leaders. They were accused of treason sabotage, and plotting to overthrow the Soviet government. By the end of the trial in August 1922, all defendants were sentenced to death.

Question 13

How did the GPU monitor the semi-capitalist marketplace created by the NEP? (4)

Answer 13

• Harassed women who dressed in a western-style
• Persecuted young people who listened and danced to jazz
• Persecuted Priests
• Imprisoned NEPmen who had grown too rich

Question 14

How did terror transform under Stalin? (4)

Answer 14

• Whilst Lenin had used the GPU, OGPU, and the Cheka to attack enemies of the Party, Stalin used terror to attack those within the Party itself.
• Terror was far more widespread
• The Gulags imprisoned millions of people
• In order to justify the level of terror he was applying, he developed a new doctrine that led to a change in the culture of the secret police.

Question 15

When was Yagoda appointed head of the NKVD?

Answer 15

July 1934.

Question 16

What was Yagoda’s role?

Answer 16

Following the death of Kirov, it was his responsibility to hunt the enemies of the Communist Party
His appointment marked a turning point in the history of Soviet terror as he worked with Stalin to turn the NKVD against the Party.

Question 17

How did Stalin feel about Yagoda?

Answer 17

Yagoda disappointed Stalin as Stalin felt the terror was not harsh nor widespread enough. The scale of terror in 1935 and 1936 was not unprecedented in the USSR and so it was not enough. Although he organised the arrest, interrogation and trial of Zinoviev and Kamenev, Stalin wanted more from him.

Question 18

Who is Yezhov?

Answer 18

He became People’s Commissar for Internal Affairs (head of the NKVD) and a member of the Central Committee on September 26, 1936, following the dismissal of Genrikh Yagoda.
Yezhov played a crucial role in radicalising the NKVD.
Under Yezhov, Great Terror spread to take over the entire Soviet Government.

Question 19

What was the new political theory Stalin put forward to justify the increase in terror?

Answer 19

• The doctrine of sharpening class struggle.
• Stalin argued that as Socialism advanced, the class struggle intensified and as it did, capitalists fought harder. Therefore the terror was justified.

Question 20

How did the NKVD change under Yezhov?

Answer 20

Stalin set targets for arrests, executions and deportations.

NKVD purged in 1937.

Question 21

Who was purged from the NKVD under Yezhov and who replaced the purged?

Answer 21

NKVD members from 1918 were loyal to the party and only sometimes loyal to Stalin and mostly loyal to Stalin’s political opponents. Many of these members opposed the use of mass terror in a socialist society. Removing old NKVD agents allowed Stalin to speed up the pace of terror.

New NKVD agents recruited:

• Had no loyalty to the party.
• No ideological opposition to terror.
• Many enjoyed the power to be violent, or a promotion.

Question 22

What was the conveyor belt system?

Answer 22

Took place under Yezhov whereby NKVD officers worked shifts to constantly terrorize and interrogate prisoners in order to retrieve confessions. This sped up the process of the terror as victims usually gave in quickly.

Question 23

What is “Yezhovshchina”?

Answer 23

The most intense period of the Great Purge between 1937-38, during which 10% of the adult male population were arrested by the NKVD.
“Yezhovshchina” meant the whole of Soviet society (Party, Army, Industry, Collective Farms) were involved in Yezhov’s terror.
Yezhovshchina transformed government districts of Moscow and Leningrad into ghost towns and mass arrests of government officials left apartments empty.

Question 24

Who was targeted during “Yezhovshchina” ?

Answer 24

Terror focused on people who would be the most likely to oppose Stalin e.g. urban educated men between 30-45.
Manual workers and women were less likely to threaten Stalin’s position.

Question 25

Was terror always from directly above under Stalin?

Answer 25

No, popular participation was one of the reasons terror spread so quickly and was so widespread. At local levels, workers and peasants created their own show trials. Government employees, party officials and factory managers arrested by groups of citizens.

Question 26

What happened to Yezhov and Yagoda?

Answer 26

Terror claimed the lives of Yagoda and Yezhov.
Yezhov and 300 of his associates were shot in 1940.
Yagoda was dismissed in 1936 in favor of Yezhov, arrested in 1937, and Yagoda was found guilty of treason and conspiracy against the Soviet government at the Trial of the Twenty-One in March 1938 following which he was shot.

Question 27

What were the consequences of Stalin’s terror?

Answer 27

Officials were replaced with loyal Stalinists but there were economic issues due to the deportation and execution of factory managers, economic planners and government officials.
These deportations led to the removal of the experts required to run the economy.

Question 28

What was the NKVD’s role in WWII?

Answer 28

NKVD responsible for policing ethnic minorities during WW2, those whom Stalin feared would side with the USSR’s enemies.

Question 29

What did Beria organize in 1942 and why?

Answer 29

In 1942, Beria organised the mass deportation of the Kalmyks, from Kalmykia, which is north west of the Caspian to Siberia.Stalin feared that that Kalmyks would welcome a German invasion. By 1953, only 53,000 of the original 130,000 survived.

Question 30

What did Beria organize in 1944?

Answer 30

In 1944, Beria ordered the deportation to Siberia of all 460,000 Chechens from their homeland in Chechnya within seven days.
Those who refused to leave, were locked in their stables and barns and burned alive.
Deportations resulted in 170,000 deaths.

Question 31

What did the NKVD do in 1945?

Answer 31

In 1945, the NKVD integrated the 1.5 million soviet prisoners of war who had been liberated from Germany.
Most were deported to Siberia.
Stalin viewed these men as traitors for allowing themselves to be captured rather than fighting to the death,

Question 32

What was the “Leningrad Affair”?

Answer 32

The ‘Leningrad Affair’: in 1949, Stalin launched a purge against officials in the Leningrad Party.
Stalin claimed that the Leningrad Party acted independently as if it were an island in the Pacific.

Question 33

What was the “Doctor’s Plot”?

Answer 33

The Doctors’ Plot’:
During 1952-53, many of Stalin’s medical staff were arrested for trying to poison Stalin.
Anti-semitism may have been a cause for this purge as many doctors were Jewish, and Stalin was a well known anti-Semite.
Stalin died before the doctors could be prosecuted.

Question 34

What was Beria’s legacy?

Answer 34

For Stalin’s heirs, Beria was associated with the policy of terror.
Stalin’s heirs agreed that there would be no return to mass terror and no further use of the NKVD against the party itself.

Question 35

What did Khrushchev prefer over mass terror?

Answer 35

Khrushchev renounced the use of mass terror and stopped using it as a weapon against the party.
Khrushchev preferred the use of “popular oversight” where citizens disciplined themselves and each other.
In 1953, Khrushchev announced that there was no longer any political prisoners.

Question 36

When was Andropov in charge of the USSR?

Answer 36

From November 1982 until his death in February 1984.

Question 37

What was Andropov’s role from 1967 onwards?

Answer 37

Chairman of the KGB. Andropov was the longest-serving KGB chairman and did not resign as head of the KGB until May 1982, when he was again promoted to the Secretariat to succeed Mikhail Suslov as secretary responsible for ideological affairs.

Question 38

What happened November 15, 1923?

Answer 38

November 15, 1923: GPU leaves the NKVD and becomes all-union OGPU under direct control of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR.

Question 39

When was Beria in charge of the NKVD?

Answer 39

November, 1938 – February 3, 1941

Question 40

How did Andropov’s role differ from his predecessors?

Answer 40

In Khrushchev’s period, heads of the KGB had been very low profile, and so the position had been a dead end. Under Andropov, this changed, the head of the KGB returned to become a leading position in government due to the change of emphasis at the top of the Communist Government.

Question 41

What was Andropov’s role as leader of the KGB?

Answer 41

Andropov’s role was much smaller than that of previous Secret Police officers.
Whereas Dzerzhinsky, Yezhov, and Beria had limitless power, Andropov’s goal was to control people who refused to work with the regime: “Dissidents”
Goal was to control the dissidents who refused to conform to the expectations of the Soviet regime.
Although Andropov was suspicious of cultural freedom, there was no return to mass terror like during Stalin’s period, or civil war period.
Andropov keen to expose and prosecute the corruption that was growing in the Communist Party, although Brezhnev was only sympathetic to this plan and did not see it was carried out.

Question 42

What was discipline like in the KGB?

Answer 42

KGB agents not allowed to accept gifts and were forced to declare all financial assets
KGB agents whose relatives broke the law were sacked.
Promoted KGB agents from the whole of the USSR, based on success of controlling dissidents.

Question 43

What did Andropov introduce in 1967?

Answer 43

In 1967 he established the Directorate V, a special branch of KGB to deal with dissidents.

Question 44

How did Andropov deal with well-known dissidents?

Answer 44

-Emigration
High profile dissidents with large reputations were allowed to emigrate e.g.: A number of artists who consistently opposed authorities were allowed to emigrate in the 1970’s.
Policy was extended and over 100,000 potential trouble makers were allowed to leave the USSR while Andropov was head of the KGB.

Question 45

How was emigration linked to the Jewish community?

Answer 45

The policy was related to Jewish emigration because since the establishment of Israel in 1948, Soviet Jews had campaigned for the right to move to the new Jewish state.
Andropov changed the policy of restricting immigration, and ensured that most Jews who wanted to leave were provided with exit visas.
Andropov argued that keeping Jews in the USSR created more dissidents as most were in professions that had influence of media.

Question 46

How did Andropov deal with lesser-known dissidents?

Answer 46

• Repressive psychiatry
• Policy was used under Stalin and Khrushchev but expanded greatly under Brezhnev.
• Practice used against Protestant Christians and Jehovah’s witnesses because the groups were small and considered as heretics by Russian Orthodox Christians. Therefore they were vulnerable to official persecution.

Question 47

Why was repressive psychiatry effective?

Answer 47

Sending someone to hospital was a lot less likely to attract media attention.
Criminal records were public documents and therefore Western journalists could trace dissidents who were sent to prison, however, psychiatric records were private and therefore easier to hide the repression.
Psychiatric treatments could last indefinitely whereas prison sentences come to an end.

Question 48

What did Andropov change the KGB’s emphasis to? Why?

Answer 48

Andropov changed the emphasis of the KGB from repression to prevention, did this for two reasons:

• Believed that Stalinist repression was ineffective.
• Growing belief in the part that socialism was incompatible with widespread repression.

Question 49

From November 1972, what policy did the KGB adopt?

Answer 49

• A policy of issuing official warnings
• A process was set up whereby dissidents were interviewed and told to stop acting against the regime
• People were kept under surveillance
• The objective was to keep dissident activity out of the limelight as much as possible and stop activities without resorting to repression

Question 50

How many dissidents received warnings in the 70s?

Answer 50

Around 70,000 Soviet dissidents received a KGB warning in the 1970’s.
Leading to the stopping of around 2000 subversive groups in the 1970’s.

Question 51

Aside from warnings, what else could happen to dissidents under Andropov? (4)

Answer 51

In cases where warnings could not force dissidents to conform they could be :
Demoted or sacked from their jobs.
Sent to psychiatric institutions for treatment.
Exiled
Sent to prison.

Question 52

What happened to the number of dissidents sent to prison after Andropov’s appointment?

Answer 52

Number of dissidents being sent to prison increased after Andropov’s appointment in 1967.
Year & Numbers imprisoned
1965-67 171
1968-70 528

Question 53

What else was Andropov willing to do?

Answer 53

Despite the warning system, Andropov was still to use show trials and violence to intimidate dissidents.

Question 54

What happened in 1982?

Answer 54

Andropov succeeded Brezhnev as leader of the Soviet Union and maintained control of the KGB

Question 55

What did Andropov continue to do in the early 80s? What did it tell him?

Answer 55

He continued to monitor public opinion, something he began in 1968.
Andropov was aware of Brezhnev’s failures as a leader.
He was also aware of the corruption within large parts of the government and popular discontent with the government.

Question 56

What inspired feelings of discontent among the Soviet population? (4)

Answer 56

The Soviet citizens:
Were anxious that as the 1970’s progressed, standards of living began improving slower.
Were dissatisfied with the quality and availability of food and consumer goods.
Felt that there were insufficient opportunities for promotion within Soviet industry and therefore no incentive to work hard.
Resented the privileges and corruption of party members and managers.

Question 57

What did KGB reports reveal?

Answer 57

KGB reports indicated that loss of faith in the system led to social malaise which included an increase in:
Alcoholism
Poor labour discipline.
Increased black market trade
Avoidance of military service.
Demand for Western goods and services.
Sympathy for strikes taking place in Poland
Increasing Church attendance.
Falling birth rate.

Question 58

How did Andropov attempt to deal with rising discontent?

Answer 58

KGB reports showed that Soviet citizens would prefer a return to Stalinist discipline.

Anti-Corruption campaign:
Andropov investigated senior party officials and industrial managers who were using Soviet resources to become wealthy, such as the Minister Of the Interior.
Nikolai Schelokov was sacked and put on trial for corruption.

Anti-alcohol campaign
Workers could be sacked for drunkenness and fined for damaging machinery under the influence of alcohol.

Operation Trawl:
An anti-drunkenness and anti-absenteeism campaign:
KGB officers would visit parks and train stations arresting people who were absent from work or drunk.
Operation Trawl did lead to less absenteeism in the short term but Andropov became ill soon after the campaign and couldn’t sustain it.