terror and control

Question 1

When was the terror?

how many soviet citizens were killed? what is this as a percentage of the population?

Answer 1

1932-1940

10-20 million- 10% of the population

Question 2

reasons stalin was paranoid and felt the need for the purges:
date:
alienated the _______ through
urban workers antagonised by…
party members…
stalins wife suicide date and how did she kill herself?
______ murder date

local party secretaries unwilling to…

communications between who???

Answer 2

• 1933
• peasantry through forced and violent collectivisation and famine
• low wages, strict controls and harsh punishments in the workplace and conditions were overcrowded and unsanitary
• disturbed by methods used to force through collectivisation and industrialisation
• 1932- shot herself
• kirov- 1934

identify kulaks, get rid of specialists and managers, and argued about high grain collection targets.

trotsky and members of oppositionist groups in the party

Question 3

who wrote a document highly critical of stalin? how many pages was the document? who was it circulated to?
when?
what did he call stalin in the document?
what did stalin want to happen to him and why didnt it happen?

Answer 3

• ryutin- 200 page document, the central committee
• 1932
• ‘the evil genius of the russian revolution’
• was never executed as he was outvoted by the politburo

-ryutin was eventually executed during the yezhivshchina

Question 4

3 stages to the terror:

Answer 4

• 1932-1935, 22% of the party were non violently expelled
• show trials- old bolsheviks tried and executed
• 1937-1938- purging of thousands of party members, state officials, armed forces, industrial managers, professionals and other members of society arrested, imprisoned and executed

Question 5

what did stalin and kirov disagree on?
how did kirov threat stalins position?
stalin only commanded unswerving loyalty from who?
shortly after kirov’s muder…

Answer 5

stalin wanted to maintain the pace of industrialisation, while kirov wanted to slow down and set more achievable targets for the second 5 year plan, and talked about stopping grain seizure and increasing workers rations

• kirov outvoted stalin by 298 votes for the election for the new central committee
• stalin only commanded unswerving loyalty from molotov and kaganovich
• shortly after kirov’s muder, thousands in the leningrad party were purged.

Question 6

why were show trials effective?
the accused were…
zinoviev…

Answer 6

• good at creating an atmosphere of intimidation, fear, danger and paranoia, the feeling you are surrounded by wreckers, enemies and spies
• confessed and executed the next day.
• zinoviev, according to police gossip, became so hysterical that his executioner panicked and shot him in a cell.

Question 7

first show trial:
date:
main people:
how many of their supporters killed?

Answer 7

1936
zinoviev and kamanev
14 others

Question 8

2nd show trial:
date
how many executed?
who were they supporters of?

Answer 8

1937
17
trotsky

Question 9

3rd show trial:
date:
how many executed?
what main person was included in this?
who cursed stalin as they died?

Answer 9

1938
17
bukharin
bukharin and rykov

Question 10

why did they confess?

what did bukharin write?

Answer 10

• worn down from torture
• deal their families would be unharmed
• a last loving testament to his wife

Question 11

Yezhovshchina: THE PARTY
who replaced who in what position?
what did stalin encourage?
what body of government was purged?how many people died?

Answer 11

• yezhov replaced yagoda as head of NKVD
• encouraged lower ranking party members to denounce those in higher positions, led to a flood of accusations
• NKVD was purged, 20,000 NKVD operatives lost.

Question 12

the wider purges:
what did the politburo pass?when?
who drew up an arrest list? how many anti soviet elements?
what job made you particularly vulnerable?
in 1937 what quota system was introduced?
once subjects had been arrested and subject to interrogation and torture…

Answer 12

1937- resolution condemning anti soviet elements in russian society
yezhov- 250,000 careers in all elements of russian society,
historians
proportion to be shot fixed at 28%, the rest to be sentenced to up to 10 years hard labour
once subjects had been arrested and subject to interrogation and torture, they always came up with names of accomplices

Question 13

purging of the armed forces:
-main individual who was executed
-how many other generals?
-how many ?/5 marshals?
-how many commanders?
-how many officers imprisoned or shot all together?
-how many were reinstated?
how many war commissars?

Answer 13

• tukhashevsky
• 7 other generals
• 3/5
• nearly all commanders
• 35,000
• 11,000
• all 11

Question 14

other groups:
examples of anyone with contacts abroad:
examples of other political figures:

Answer 14

railwaymen, sportsmen, comintern members, diplomats, foreign trade officials
former mensheviks and socialist revolutionaries

Question 15

how many deaths of the purges total?

how many people in the gulags?

Answer 15

20 million

8 million

Question 16

other reasons for the purges:
economic difficulties:
-in the mid 1930s...
-there was a -what- in the soviet economy
-what did the leadership need to find?
-stalin wanted to scare.......example?

Answer 16

economic growth was slowing and production figures were levelling off.
there was a downturn in the soviet economy
leadership needed to find scapegoats for the production figures.
wanted to scare/encourage factory managers into increasing production. e.g stakhanovite movement 1936

Question 17

other reasons for the purges:

social instability

Answer 17

alienation and aggravation of the workers and peasants by the enforcement of the five year plans, collectivisation, dekulakisation and famine.

Question 18

other reasons for the purges:NKVD
within the nkvd there were…
outside moscow…

Answer 18

divisions and power struggles

some units had fiefdoms like the mafia and uused the purges to their own advantage.