Stalins purges and great terror

Question 1

Assaniation of Kirov

Answer 1

ally and supporter of stalin for many years, problem with stalin and him, kirov made speeches that were alluding to a slow down in the pace of collectivisation, becoming a alternative to stalin, died december 1934

Question 2

First wave of purges

Answer 2

against old bolsheviks (put on trial, show trials, televised, very high profile bolsheviks confessing to treason), stalin only one left, power of secret police (NKVD) was expanded, looking for ideological obedience, NKVD (has huge power) is in every single part of the country, each section was given a quota, explosion of deaths and people sent to the gulag, objective to strike fear and only obedience to Stalin, cult of stalin starts now, no one is safe

Question 3

Historian Stephen Cohen

Answer 3

No one was guilty, so no-one was safe. Everyone was innocent, so everyone was vulnerable

Question 4

Discuss reasons for the impact of the purges and great terror up to 1941 (2 part essay)

Answer 4

Reasons for: First part 2 or 3 reasons
Political - assanation was ordered by stalin, reason for lock down emergency situation, purges the military, society and party all for stalin’s personal dictatorship, purges armed forces for total control
Ideologically - trying to weed out counter revolutionaries, fallout is are getting an economic resource (slave labour)
Economic - instill fear is used for motivation, no such thing as failure

Impact of: 2 or 3 impacts
Political - all rivals are removed. Purge army (37-38), no institution to threaten stalin, stalin has totally obedient party and armed forces
Ideology - kulak and counter revolutionary is purged
Economic - negative, issues in availability of skilled and educated were purged, damages economy
Security - negative, no leadership for armed forces, lot of evidence in 1939 forced to sign pact with nazi

Question 5

Impact of the purges

Answer 5

Trial of 16 (36) - evidence was fabricated and witness were tortured to give false witnesses,

77 of 88 red army were gone, leaving russia highly vulnerable, 8 million people in gulag, death rate 20%

Ordinary citizens were encouraged to denounce each other
1 in 20 civilians were arrested

Question 6

George F Kennan

Answer 6

important for cold war, Americas man in Russia, reports on the show trials to US, says it’s brutal and fenatical, peel back the sympathy that the left wing has for the soviets

Question 7

two main perspectives regarding the reasons for the purge

Answer 7

totalitarian or intentionalist perspective, revisionist or structuralist perspective - argues that the structure of the states; institutions and agencies escalated the terror

Question 8

Robert Conquest, Roy Medvedev and Isaac Duetscher

Answer 8

follow intentlist line if argument - NKVD were only following orders, Stalin’s paranoid personality a factor
The terror aimed to remove all opposition & control the population through terror, likes to surround himself with dumber people,

Question 9

By 1938

Answer 9

stalin has total control, purges have a dynamic effect and create chaos/panic in economic programs, feed into chaos of security