Authoritarian States

Question 2

What role did Stalin have in 1917?

Answer 2

Commissar for Nationalities

Question 3

What role was Stalin in 1922?

Answer 3

General Secretary of the Communist Party

Question 4

Lenin’s Death

Answer 4

1924

Question 5

How long was Stalin supreme ruler for?

Answer 5

1924 - 1953 (his death)

Question 6

Politburo

Answer 6

A small group of officials elected from the Communist Party. They decided on policies.

Question 7

What happened at Lenin’s Funeral?

Answer 7

• Told Trotsky wrong date
• Pushed himself as ‘chief mourner’
• Wrote in Pravda newspaper using Lenin’s name over and over

Question 8

Lenin’s Testament

Answer 8

• Stalin buried the information about Lenin’s recommendation to get rid of him
• The existence of the testament was not well known

Question 9

Party Congress 1926

Answer 9

Stalin joined forces with Bukharin and the right of the party.
Zinoviev and Kamenev lost their seats in the Politburo

Question 10

1927 - Rivals expelled

Answer 10

Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev were expelled from the party.

Question 11

1929 - Stalin attacks the right

Answer 11

Stalin turned on Bukharin and the right wing, claming NEP was anti-communist. Bukharin was removed from office

Question 12

1929

Answer 12

Stalin becomes the undisputed Ruler of the USSR

Question 13

Show Trial

Answer 13

Public trials of 1936-38 in which leading communists were accused of plotting against Stalin and the Soviet Union

Question 14

NKVD

Answer 14

People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs - Soviet secret police agency

Question 15

The Great Purge

Answer 15

• August 1936
  Zinoviev and Kamenev + 14 others, accused ofconspiring and plotting to kill Stalin and other Politburo members
• January 1937
  17 communist leaders accused of plotting with Trotsky (assassinations, sabotage, spying)
• March 1938
  Bukharin + 20 others accused of membership of a ‘Trotskyist plot’

All executed