R5.1 Dictatorship and Stalinism 1929-43

Question 1

Who did the machinery of state terror originally emerge under?

Answer 1

Lenin

Question 2

What did Lenin establish in 1917?

Answer 2

Cheka

Question 3

What did Stalin do in 1929?

Answer 3

Expell Trotsky from the USSR and remove Bukharin from the Politburo

Question 4

What did Stalin do in 1930 and 1931?

Answer 4

1930 - Expelled some former supporters from the party for criticising excess of collectivisation
1931 - Put a group of former Mensheviks and SRs on trial

Question 5

What was the Shakhty Trial of 1928?

Answer 5

-In 1928, Managers and technicians of Shakhty mine questioned the industrialisation pace.
-Were given public show trial and forced to confess, 5 executed and others received long prison sentences

Question 6

What were the industrial trials?

Answer 6

In 1930, a random group of industrialists, Mensheviks and SRs were accused of sabotage, and the 1933 Metro-vickers trial had British specialists found guilty of wrecking activities

Question 7

Who was Ryutin?

Answer 7

A member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1927, he supported moderate agrarian policies and was opposed to forced collectivisation and use of terror.

Question 8

What did Ryutin do?

Answer 8

He was expelled from the party in 1930 because of his criticisms and circulated a paper criticising Stalin in 1932 amongst the party members, before following it with another paper urging Stalins removal.

Question 9

What was the results of Ryutins actions?

Answer 9

Ryutin was arrested and Stalin ordered immediate execution but this was overruled by party members including Kirov, he was given a 10 year prison sentence and executed during the Yezhovshchina

Question 10

By 1934 a fifth of the party were branded as what?

Answer 10

Ryutinites, leading them to be expelled in a non-violent purge

Question 11

What was established in 1934?

Answer 11

NKVD

Question 12

Who was Genrikh Yagoda?

Answer 12

-First head of NKVD 1934
-Prepared first major show trials of 1936
-Replaced by Yezhov for being “insufficient”
-Arrested 1937 and executed in trial of the twenty one in march 1938

Question 13

Who was Nikolay Yezhov?

Answer 13

-Served in the red army and slowly made his way up the political system
-After Yagodas dismissal in 1936 became head of NKVD
-Stalin referred to him as “my blackberry”
-Had a sinister side involving alcohol and drug abuse
-Fell out of favor with Stalin in 1938 and executed 1940

Question 14

Who was Lavrentiy Beria?

Answer 14

-Caught Stalins attention for he came from Georgia
-Replaced Yezhov in 1938, with some claims he strangled Yezhov to death
-Oversaw 1939 Katyn massacre
-Masterminded expansion of gulag system
-Beria removed in 1953 after Stalins death
-Found guilty of 357 counts of rape and sentenced to death

Question 15

What happened in the 17th Party Congress 1934?

Answer 15

Party split between Stalin who wanted to maintain pace of industrialisation and others within the politburo who wanted to increase workers rations and stop forced grain seizures.

Question 16

Who were the “Secretary of Equal rank”

Answer 16

-Stalin
-Kirov
-Zhdanov

Question 17

When was Kirov murdered?

Answer 17

December 1934

Question 18

What was the cause of Kirovs death?

Answer 18

An assassin who believed Kirov was having an affair with his wife

Question 19

What was the result of Kirovs death?

Answer 19

Stalin claimed it to be a trotskyite plot but the assassin had no links and many NKVD members were convicted, including some NKVD members who could give evidence on Kirovs murder being mysteriously killed

Question 20

What did the regime do after Kirovs death?

Answer 20

It saw it as a signal to tighten its hold over the country and begin widespread purges

Question 21

What are show trials?

Answer 21

Public trials where foreign journalists were invited and it was supposed to prove that the USSR were facing opposition from enemies of the state. Stalin realistically used these show trials to dispose of enemies in a justified manner

Question 22

What would happen in a Show Trial?

Answer 22

Every conceivable form of interrogation would be used and the verdict of the trial wouldn’t ever be in doubt, rather it would just assure the guilt of the accused

Question 23

What was the law decreed in April 1935?

Answer 23

Children over the age of 12 found guilty of crimes would be subject to same punishment as adults, this was used to threaten the accused’s children

Question 24

What were the 3 most significant moscow show trials?

Answer 24

-Zinoviev-Kamanev trial
-Pyatakov-Radek trial
-Bukharin-Rykov trial

Question 25

What was the Zinoviev-Kamanev trial?

Answer 25

-It happened through 19-24 August 1936
-Stalin decided to show trial Zinoviev and Kamanev for propaganda, both were accused of a trotsky alliance and no evidence was provided.
-Both had to announce speeches saying that they organised a conspiracy with Trotsky and each other
-All 16 D’s were shot in the cellars in Moscow 25th August 1936

Question 26

What was the Pyatakov-Radek trial?

Answer 26

-It happened through 23-30 January 1937
-17 defendants that were all old bolsheviks, were accused of conspiring with Trotsky to bring Stalin down
-All found guilty and 13 executed, other 4 sentenced to labour camps
-One of the four spared was Karl Radek, who during the trial provided evidence against Bukharin and Rykov, which Stalin had been aiming to gain for some time

Question 27

What was the Bukharin-Rykov trial?

Answer 27

-It happened through March 1938
-Rykov, Bukharin, Yagoda and the 18 other accused were charged with intentions of restoring capitalism in Russia
-They were charged of: Murdering Kirov, attempted assassination of Lenin+ Stalin, Conspiring to wreck the economy and spying for foreign european powers
-All confessed easily but Bukharin denied knowledge and involvement to more specific crimes
-Bukharin, unlike his other defendant was not tortured and whilst imprisoned was given writing material for a four-volume autobiography
-All sentenced to death with 3 receiving long sentences, Bukharin asked to be poisoned not shot but Yezhov simply shot him last to force him to watch his convicts die first

Question 28

What was the Stalin Constitution of 1936?

Answer 28

A new constitution drafted by Bukharin, to mark progress of Socialism and celebrate triumph of previous years. Declared socialism was achieved and true communism was underway

Question 29

What did the Stalin Constitution 1936 promise?

Answer 29

Local autonomy to ethnic groups and support for national cultures and languages, as well as a four-yearly elections with all rights to vote over the age of 18

Question 30

What was the main intention of the Stalin Constitution?

Answer 30

It looked democratic, so it was likely to impress foreigners, although the promised rights were largely ignored and Stalin didn’t allow any Union-republic to leave the Union