Yezhovshchina

Question 1

When was the trial of 17?

Answer 1

1937

Question 2

When was the purge of the military?

Answer 2

May-June 1937

Question 3

When does Beria replace Yezhov as security chief?

Answer 3

March 1938

Question 4

What year does the pace of terror slow down?

Answer 4

1939

Question 5

When was the assassination of Trotsky in Mexico?

Answer 5

1940

Question 6

When is the trial of 21?

Answer 6

March 1938

Question 7

from what month and year did Stalin terror take a new intensity with the issue of NKVD Order 00447?

Answer 7

July 1937

Question 8

Who drew up NKVD Order 00447 which was subsequently approved by the Politburo?

Answer 8

Yezhov

Question 9

NKVD Order 00447 was drawn up by Yezhov and approved by the Politburo, what was thus ordered to be established?

Answer 9

a small NKVD committee at regional levels as well as at Republic level to search out former kulaks criminals and other anti-Soviet elements

Question 10

What did the Order 00447 do?

Answer 10

it ordered the removal of Anti-Soviet elements

Question 11

Arrest lists were drawn up under NKVD Order 00447, what did this include? (4)

Answer 11

artists, musicians scientists and writers

Question 12

Within a month of the NKVD Order 00447 how many arrests had been made, sent to gulags?

Answer 12

100,000 arrests and 14,000 sent to gulag camps

Question 13

By when was the pressure to achieve arrest quota’s os great that the NKVD committees began selecting individuals almost at random?

Answer 13

by the autumn 1937

Question 14

What was everyone encouraged to root out?

Answer 14

hidden enemies

Question 15

What did the NKVD rely on to keep up quota’s of arrests?

Answer 15

informers

Question 16

Modern historians have estimated that there was only one informer to every ____ inhabitants?

Answer 16

400

Question 17

How were confessions extracted from victims?

Answer 17

by threats or physical and mental torture using beatings and a ‘conveyor belt’ system whereby one interrogator to another until he or she was mentally or physically broken

Question 18

Who was the editor of Izvestiya?

Answer 18

Radek

Question 19

Radek, the editor of Izvestiya was one of the trial of 17; how many years was he imprisoned for?

Answer 19

10 years

Question 20

when was the trial of 1937?

Answer 20

January 1937

Question 21

Who was the 1937 trial of 17?

Answer 21

17 prominent communists who were accused of plotting with Trotsky, spying and sabotaging

Question 22

how many of the trial of 17 in 1937 were sentenced to death?

Answer 22

13

Question 23

While Trotsky was in exile in Mexico, on hearing of the Trial of the 17, his account was intended for publication, what had he said?

Answer 23

That he could not believe that people would believe that the Old Bolsheviks, hero’s of the civil war and the builders of the party would be guilty of espionage, saboteurs and fascists

Question 24

When were the military purges?

Answer 24

May-June 1937

Question 25

Who did Stalin order the arrest of in May 1937 after fearing they might try to mount to a military coup? (2)

Answer 25

Marshal Tuckhachevsky and Yan Gamarnik

Question 26

When was Marshal Tuckhachevsky and Yan Gamarnik executed together with 6 other top military commanders during the military purges?

Answer 26

June 1937

Question 27

The trial of Marshal Tuckhachevsky, Yan Gamarnik and 6 other top military commanders opened the way for a "great purge" of the Red Army which included how many - Marshals of the Soviet Union - war commissars - admirals - senior air force commanders

Answer 27

2 more Marshals of the Soviet Union 11 war commissars 8 admirals and all but one air force commanders

Question 28

What % of officer corps in all three services were executed or imprisoned?

Answer 28

50%

Question 29

What fraction of those officer corps imprisoned were reinstated by the middle of the 1940's?

Answer 29

1/4

Question 30

What happened to Pyatnitsky, Comintern official and member of the Central Committee ?

Answer 30

he spoke out about the army purges, the following morning Yezhov unearthed evidence that he had been an agent of the tsarist secret police. Stripped of party membership and executed in 1938

Question 31

During 1937-1938, how many officials were shot for refusing to approve the execution of people whom they had believed to be innocent?

Answer 31

74 million

Question 32

Between what years were 74 million officials shot of refusing to approve the execution of people whom they believed to be innocent?

Answer 32

1937-1938

Question 33

When was the trial of 21?

Answer 33

March 1938

Question 34

Who were the 4 main defendants in the trial of 21 in 1938?

Answer 34

Bukharin, Rykov, Yagoda and Tomsky

Question 35

What was Yagoda's position prior to his arrest?

Answer 35

former head of the secret police

Question 36

How many personal letters did Bukharin send to Stalin while arrested before the trial of 21 March 1938?

Answer 36

34

Question 37

After 3 months arrest and 34 personal letters to Stalin why did Bukharin eventually give in to the interrogators?

Answer 37

after threats to his wife and infant son

Question 38

As of 1935 what was the highest military rank?

Answer 38

Marshal of the Soviet Union

Question 39

Marshal Tuckhachevsky was accused if esponiage and plotting with Trotsky, what happened to his family as a result?

Answer 39

His wife was arrested and executed in 1941, jobs mother and one sister died in prison and his 3 sisters husbands were shot as were his brothers

Question 40

What was Marshal Tuckhachevsky accused of and executed for?

Answer 40

espionage and plotting with Stalin

Question 41

When was Yagoda tried and executed in the trial of 21?

Answer 41

1938

Question 42

What happened to Yagoda's family after his execution?

Answer 42

they were shot, imprisoned or exiled

Question 43

What did Yagoda's removal ensure Stalin had full control of?

Answer 43

the NKVD

Question 44

What had the purges provided an opportunity for party members?

Answer 44

to settle old scores and denounce their colleagues

Question 45

What did the Order00447 1937 against 'anti-Soviet elements' lead lower-ranking Party members to denounce?

Answer 45

to denounce those above them such as higher officials and secretaries

Question 46

By the end of 1938 what fraction of all Party members had been purged?

Answer 46

1/3rd

Question 47

By the end of 1937 1/3rd of all Party members had been purged, what were many accused of?

Answer 47

Trotskyite conspiracy

Question 48

From what year was Trotsky in exile abroad?

Answer 48

1929

Question 49

What did Trotsky write in 1937 which mentioned that Stalin had created an over-bureaucratic state?

Answer 49

The Revolution Betrayed

Question 50

What year did Trotsky write 'The Revolution Betrayed' which mentioned that Stalin had created an over-bureaucratic state?

Answer 50

1937

Question 51

In what decade were more gulags built in order to provide cheap labour for Stalin's huge industrial projects?

Answer 51

1930's

Question 52

There was a huge surge in inmate numbers following the Great Purges and spread of terror in the late 1930's leading to an increase from 800,000 in 1935 to how many by the end of 1938 according to historian Robert Conquest?

Answer 52

between 5.5-9.5 million

Question 53

Which historian claimed that the number of inmates in gulags increased from 800,000 in 1935 to between 5.5-9.5 million by the end of 1938?

Answer 53

Robert Conquest

Question 54

What had the gulags become by the end of 1938?

Answer 54

they became places which deliberately worked to death the labourers or outright murdered them

Question 55

Ironically, even who were not themselves immune to the persecution of the gulags and many purged?

Answer 55

camp commandants themselves

Question 56

How was the work conditions of the gulags? (3)

Answer 56

- expectations high - physical demands excessive - hours of work in excess

Question 57

What were the mortality rates in the gulags in comparison to those in the USSR?

Answer 57

4-6 x higher

Question 58

From what year was there a wave of national deportations?

Answer 58

1937

Question 59

In 1937 who were deported from the Far Eastern region to Central Asia when war with Japan threatened?

Answer 59

a Korean minority

Question 60

Where were purges carried out in 1939 and 1940 to the nationalities?

Answer 60

to the newly annexed parts of Poland and the Baltic States

Question 61

Poles and germans were deported from near the Western frontiers, purges were carried out in the annexed parts of Poland and the Baltic Sea in what 2 years?

Answer 61

1939 and 1940

Question 62

IN 1941 how many Volga Germans were deported to Siberia and Central Asia?

Answer 62

400,000

Question 63

IN what year was 400,000 Volga Germans deported to Siberia and Central Asia?

Answer 63

1941

Question 64

Where had collectivisation have a devastating effect on the economy?

Answer 64

in some republics

Question 65

Which republic's agriculture decimated when it was force to produce cotton to supply Russian industry?

Answer 65

Uzbekistan

Question 66

Why did Stalin adopt a ruthless policy of centralisation in the 1930s?

Answer 66

because of resistance to economic change

Question 67

In the 1930's Stalin adopted a ruthless policy of centralisation in the 1930's because of resistance to economic change such as making what compulsory everywhere?

Answer 67

Russian

Question 68

Virtually the entire party leadership of the non-Russian republics were replaced in what years by those more prepared to bow to Moscow's wishes?

Answer 68

1937-1938

Question 69

The years of the Yezhovchina, what was also seen to be revived especially in rural areas during campaigns against 'saboteurs'?

Answer 69

anti-Semitic attitudes

Question 70

When 2 million Jews were incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1939-1940 as a result of the invasion of Eastern Poland and the Baltic republics, who were arrested in these areas?

Answer 70

many rabbis and religious leaders

Question 71

How many Jews were incorporated into the Soviet Union 1939-1940 as a result of the invasion of Eastern Poland and Baltic republics in which many rabbis and religious leaders were arrested?

Answer 71

2 million

Question 72

Where did Stalin's anti-religious campaigns spread?

Answer 72

into the Ukraine and Belorussia

Question 73

Where was there a direct persecution of Muslims after 1928?

Answer 73

Central Asia republics

Question 74

Why did the pace of the Yezhovchina slow down by the end of 1938?

Answer 74

as this had threatened to destablise the State and both industry and administration suffered

Question 75

Who did Stalin use as a scapegoat for industrial and administration failings at the Eighteenth Party Congress?

Answer 75

Yezhov

Question 76

When was Yezhov executed for his 'mass cleansing's' which Stalin denounced him for in the Eighteenth Party Congress for causing the industry and administration to suffer?

Answer 76

1940

Question 77

Who replaced Yezhov as head of the NKVD?

Answer 77

Beria

Question 78

Mercador was the assassin who killed Trotsky in 1940 with an ice pick and sentenced to 20 years in Mexico for this crime; how was his mother rewarded for her sons service?

Answer 78

she was given the "order of Lenin"

Question 79

During the war in 1944 who organised the deportation of 'suspect' nationalities including the Crimean Tatars?

Answer 79

Beria

Question 80

What in 1932 may have led to Stalin's institutionalisation of the terror?

Answer 80

the suicide of his wife

Question 81

Arguably, why was terror a necessary part of the process of economic change which had taken place since the 1920's?

Answer 81

it was needed to remove the kulaks, provide slave labour and scapegoats for mistakes and failures

Question 82

How can it be said that Terror did not come exclusively from Stalin?

Answer 82

as Local party activists promoted terror, knowing their actions would not be checked

Question 83

What had made Stalin suspicious in regards to a german coup?

Answer 83

the contacts between the red Army and the Nazi's following the Rapallo and Berlin treaties

Question 84

How can the Terror be said to be self-escalating?

Answer 84

as it took on a life of its own, used by individuals to settle personal scores. Fear fed on fear.

Question 85

What institution which had before 1936, controlled membership through expulsions of those who failed to match the high standards of disciple that Party membership demanded and lost its power?

Answer 85

the Central Committee

Question 86

How many party members were expelled from 1936-1938?

Answer 86

850,000

Question 87

Why were 850,000 party members expelled from 1936-1938?

Answer 87

because of the personal interventions of Stalin and Yezhov's NKVD

Question 88

By 1939 what % of the Party membership had joined before 1920?

Answer 88

less than 10%

Question 89

What fraction of new recruits since 1920 survived the purges?

Answer 89

less than 1/4

Question 90

How many officers were shot or dismissed?

Answer 90

23,000

Question 91

What must take fault for the evident military failures in the first months of the war in 1941?

Answer 91

the effect of the purges

Question 92

When were teachers, engineers and specialists all persecuted?

Answer 92

at a time when rapid industrial change demanded their expertise