Communist Control and Terror Flashcards
What were the 3 types of opposition faced by the Bolsheviks?
Other political groups on both the RW and LW
Many opponents throughout the empire - former tsarist officers to capricious peasants
Ideological opposition
How did the Mensheviks and SRs remove themselves as opposition?
They walked out on the October 1917 Soviet Congress post-revolution and left the Bolsheviks with a monopoly on power. Sovnarkom banned opposing press and ordered arrest of opposing leaders.
How did the Bolsheviks show their determination to destroy the opposition?
The creation of the Cheka in December 1917
Dismissal of the Constituent Assembly
Extension of the Red Army. §
What did the Cheka change its name to in 1923?
OGPU
What did the OGPU become in 1934?
NKVD.
What was the ‘class warfare’ waged on the middle and upper classes?
Bourgeoise property was confiscated, social privilege ended and discriminatory taxes levied on the burzhui - the enemies of the people. Ideological opponents as much as political ones were arrested, exiled or executed.
What was the impact of the attempted assassination attempt on Lenin in August 1918?
He had a frenzied attack on the bourgeois, while the Cheka rounded up thousands on whom the label could be pinned. Confessions and names of accomplices were obtained by torture. This was the start of the terror.
What did Sovnarkom do in September 1918?
Gave the Cheka authority to find, question, arrest and destroy the families of suspected traitors. All remaining SRs and Mensheviks were branded traitors and 500 shot in Petrograd.
How did Cheka agents show their loyalty to the regime?
They took matters into their own hands, from the Tsar and his family to ordinary workers suspected of counter-revolution. Merchants, traders, professors, prostitutes and kulaks all suffer.
How many priests were killed in 1921 for failure to hand over valuable Church possessions?
8000
How many people were shot in the 1918-21 period?
Between 500,000 - 1,000,000,000
Who were the Workers Opposition?
Led by Shlyapkinov and Kollontai in 1921 they were a faction who demanded workers had more control over their own affairs.
What was Lenin’s ban on factions?
1921 - all Party members had to accept CC decisions or face expulsion from the Party. The opportunity for debate was removed and opposition became impossible.
What was the 1928 Shakhty Show Trial?
53 engineers at the Shakhty coal mine were accused of counter-revolutionary activity after a decline in production. They were forced to confess in a show trial - 5 executed, 44 imprisoned.
What did the Shakhty Show Trial begin?
It was a clear indication of Stalin’s determination to find a scapegoat for his own economic policies, causing an industrial terror, depriving hundreds of ‘bourgeois specialists’ of their jobs. Critics in Gosplan removed and further trials took place.
What was the 1933 Metro-Vickers trial?
British specialists were found guilty of wrecking activities.
What was Yagoda commissioned for in 1929?
To investigate ways in which the prison population could be put to better use. HIs proposal involved building on the corrective-labour camps by creating new camps of 50,000 prisoners each to mine valuable metals.
How was it believed the gulags could contribute to economic growth?
By offering minimum per capita funding and imposing economies of scale, it was believed that these gulags could contribute to economic growth whilst offering appropriate correction for the prisoners.
