Chapter 17- Dictatorship

Question 1

state terror under Lenin

Answer 1

• USSR police state where Soviet people kept under strict surveillance by activists and informers and the general secretariat had extensive records on the population
  Cheka created in 1917 and the OGPU carried out security and labour camps from 1922 to 1934

Question 2

how did Stalin use control in his power struggle

Answer 2

expelled Trotsky and Bukharin
forced collectivisation and destruction of kulaks
in 1930, former supporters were removed for criticising collectivisation and in 1931 put Mensheviks and SRs on trial
specialists and engineers were accused of machine breaking and sent to labour camps during the five year plans.

Question 3

Shakhty trial and other industrial trials

Answer 3

1928- managers at the coal mine who had questioned the pace of industrialisation were accused of counter-revolutionary activity. Five were executed.
gosplan was purged of critics
industrial party show trial of Nov 1930, industrialists Mensheviks and SRs were accused of sabotage and in 1933 British specialists were found guilty of wrecking

Question 4

Stalin’s further party purges

Answer 4

• Stalin’s position weakened since forced collectivisation and famine.
• Ryutin who had been expelled in 1930 circulated a document in 1932 urging Stalin’s removal, ‘Ryutin Platform,’ ‘Stalin and the crisis of Proletarian Dictatorship,’
  Stalin was over-ruled in wishing to execute by Kirov and others
• Ryutin imprisoned for 10 years and Zinoviev, Kamenev and 14 others expelled from the party for not reporting the document.
  by 1934 a fifth of the party had been expelled in a chistka for being, ‘Ryutinites,’

Question 5

NKVD

Answer 5

• led by Yagoda, Yezhov and Beria
  controlled police and labour camps which were branded gulags

Question 6

Kirov’s murder- background

Answer 6

• at the 17th party congress in 1934, a split formed between Stalin and others about industrialisation and stopping forced grain seizures.
• Kirov who opposed received a standing ovation. The two were given title, ‘Secretary of equal rank,’ and ‘General Secretary abolished,’
  Stalin could have been in favour of this as it spread responsibility for economic crisis but it made him less powerful

Question 7

murder

Answer 7

_Kirov murdered in December 1934 by Nikolayev with suspicion the NKVD was involved (Yagoda pleaded guilty but was on trial)
Stalin claims it was Trotsky’s plot
decree was published the next day giving Yakoda power to arrest and execute anyone of terrorist plotting. Over a hundred party members shot and thousands sent to gulags
Kamenev and Zinoviev sentenced to 10 years in prison
12 NKVD members in Leningrad found guilty and imprisoned and in June 1935 the death penalty was extended

Question 8

effects of the murder

Answer 8

signal for the regime to tighten its hold over the country and begin purges. Stalin’s suspicion/paranoia or rivals and plots, combined with his determination to allow no limits to his power and eradicate past rivals can originate here

Question 9

what were show trials

Answer 9

-political tools where foreign journalists were invited to prove the USSR was facing opposition from enemies of the state
means for Stalin to remove his enemies and those who might challenge his authority while retaining popularity
staged, meant to demonstrate the accused’s guilt with a public admission of guilt
NKVD would try to get a signed confession through torture, threats
April 1935 children over 12 could receive the death penalty- coercion to parents

Question 10

kamenev and zinoviev show trial

Answer 10

August 1936 although they had already been trialed in 1935 (propaganda)
along with fourteen others, accused of alliance with trotsky and plotting to kill Stalin
no evidence presented
Zinoviev announced he was the principal organiser of Kirov’s assassination and kamenev confessed too.
Vishinksy, the prosecutor demanded the dogs be shot and all the defendants were executed in the cellars of Lubyanka Prison in Moscow on 25th August 1936, with Trotsky in absentia.

Question 11

yagoda

Answer 11

September 1936, replaced by Yezhov- alleged he was not active enough in uncovering the conspiracy- but more importantly he failed to secure the confessions of Rykov and Bukharin whom Stalin wanted to implicate

Question 12

1936 constitution background

Answer 12

• drafted by Bukharin and was meant to mark the progress towards socialism and celebrate triumphs. It declared true socialism had been achieved (communism was next)

Question 13

1936 constitution contents

Answer 13

• meant to be the, ‘most democratic in the world,’
• USSR now federation of 11 rather than 7 republics
• ARCS replaced by supreme Soviet made of up Soviet of the Union and Soviet of Nationalities
• promised each republic supreme soviet, local autonomy to ethnic groups and support for culture and language
• promised four yearly elections with voting age of 18 including, ‘former people,’
• civil rights e.g. freedom from arrest, press, religion and free speech
• citizens got right to work, education and social welfare
• elections involved all citizens not representations from party branches
• republics of USSR given some jurisdiction including primary education

Question 14

constitution in practice

Answer 14

• voting age raised to 23 in 1945
• impress foreigners
• promised rights ignored, central control exercised over republics’ budgets ensured primacy of Union laws and little regional independence
• no Union republic was actually allowed to leave.
• Leaders in Georgia purged after planning secession
• elections not contested and Supreme Soviet only met for a few days twice a year
• the body provided more of a sense of participation than policy making and was viewed as a forum for imparting decisions back to the localities rather than for electors to present their views to the centre.