Dictatorship and Stalin

Question 1

What permeated the Soviet Union in the 1930s?

Answer 1

State terror

Question 2

What event heightened the machinery of terror?

Answer 2

Kirov’s murder in 1934

Question 3

What happened in 1928?

Answer 3

The Shakhty trial - Managers and technicians who questioned pace of industrialisationW

Question 4

hat happened to the Managers and Technicians of the Shakhty coal mine?

Answer 4

5 were executed and others were imprisoned after a show trial - criticised the FYP

Question 5

When was Trotsky expelled from the USSR?

Answer 5

Trotsky - didn’t admit to being wrong

Question 6

When was the ‘Industrial Party’ trial?

Answer 6

1930

Question 7

What was the ‘Industrial Party’ tiral?

Answer 7

group of senior industrialists and economists accused of plotting coup to wreck economy

Question 8

Who was expelled from the party in 1932?

Answer 8

Zinoviev and KamenevWh

Question 9

Who was imprisoned?

Answer 9

Maremyan Ryutin - criticised collectivisation

Question 10

How did Ryutin criticise Stalin’s collectivisation?

Answer 10

through the ‘Ryutin platform’ - Stalin said assassination attempt??
Wanted to execute him - Kirov said no, expelled 14 people from party

Question 11

How many members did the communist party have in 1933?

Answer 11

3.2 million members

Question 12

How many ‘Ryutinites’ were expelled in the 1933 purge?

Answer 12

570,000

Question 13

How did purges differ under Lenin?

Answer 13

generally led to loss of party membership

Question 14

What took over the OGPU’s functions in 1934?

Answer 14

the NKVD

Question 15

When did Stalins policy come under attack?

Answer 15

Seventeenth Party congress (Jan-Feb 1934)

Question 16

What did some members of the politburo want in early 1934?

Answer 16

slower pace of industrialisation and grain requisitioning

Question 17

Which of Stalin’s allies sided with those against him in early 1934?

Answer 17

Sergei Kirov - speech received standing ovation

Question 18

What happened to Stalin’s position of General Secretary in 1934?

Answer 18

was abolished -
Stalin, Kirov, Zhdanov, Kaganovich - made ‘Secretaries of equal rank’

Question 19

When and why was Kirov shot?

Answer 19

1 Dec 1934 - having an affair with persons wifeWho did

Question 20

Who did stalin blame for Kirovs murder?

Answer 20

the Trotskyite threat

Question 21

Who was the head of the NKVD?

Answer 21

Yagoda

Question 22

How many Party members were shot or arrested - guilty of ‘terrorist planning’?

Answer 22

100 shot,
thousands arrested

Question 23

When were Zinoviev, Kamenev and 17 others arrested and accused of causing terrorism?

Answer 23

Jan 1935 - 5-10 years imprisonment

Question 24

When was the death penalty extended from those engaged in ‘subversive activity’ to anyone aware that didn’t report it?

Answer 24

June 1935

Question 25

How did the NKVD make sure a signed confession was achieved?

Answer 25

through sleep deprivation, beatings, starvation and torutre

Question 26

What did the age of punishment decrease to in April 1935?

Answer 26

12 years old - same way as adults. used to threaten to charge defendants children - extract confession

Question 27

When was the first major show trial?

Answer 27

16, August 1936

Question 28

Who were charged for Kirov's murder (and pleaded guilty) in the first major show trial?

Answer 28

Kamenev and Zinoviev, along with 14 others

Question 29

Who drafted the Stalin Constitution, and when was it introduced?

Answer 29

Bukharin, introduced in 1936

Question 30

What did the Stalin Constitution intend to do?

Answer 30

Celebrate triumphs of previous years, and declare socialism has been achieved

Question 31

What did the Constitution proclaim about the USSR?

Answer 31

a federation of 11 Soviet Republics, with a supreme soviet that met in the Supreme Soviet,

Question 32

What replaced the Congress of Soviets in 1936?

Answer 32

the Supreme Soviet

Question 33

What rights were set for Ethnic groups in the Stalin Constitution?

Answer 33

promised autonomy within the Union, with support for culture and language

Question 34

Who were promised elections every 4 years under the Stalin Constitution?

Answer 34

everyone over 18 - even 'former peoples' (bourgeois elites)

Question 35

What rights were set out in the Stalin Constitution?

Answer 35

Freedom from arbitrary arrest, freedom of press, freedom of religion, right to free speech

Question 36

What were citizens guaranteed in the Stalin Constitution?

Answer 36

work, the right to education and social welfare

Question 37

What were largely ignored from the Stalin Constitution?

Answer 37

the promised rights - republics allowed to leave, but Stalin didn't let it happen