WHAT WAS THE EFFECT OF THE PURGES ON THE SOVIET UNION?

1. WHAT WAS THE EFFECT OF THE PURGES ON THE SOVIET UNION? By the summer of 1938, Stalin and his circle realized that the purges had gone too far; Yezhov was relieved from his post as head of the NKVD and shot. Lavrenty Beria, a fellow Georgian and Stalin confidant, succeeded him as head of the NKVD

2. Declassified archives indicate about 1.5 m were arrested of which 680,000 were shot. The historian Michael Ellman claims that between 915,000 and 1.2m were killed 1937-8 375,000 Kulaks were shot. 10,000’s of Orthodox clergy were arrested – many died in Gulags. A couple of thousand writers, artists and intellectuals were purge eg the poet Mandelstam

3. Military weakened by destruction of 7% of officers. Of the top 20 Red Army officers, 16 were shot. This would seriously impact on the USSR in 1941 when Germany invaded. Stalin also purged the NKVD, which had become very powerful, to ensure it was firmly under his control. eg NKVD chief Yagoda was shot.

4. Stalin’s real political enemies were got rid of eg Trotsky Possible rivals had been removed eg the Old Bolsheviks like Kirov,Kamenev and Zinoviev. Stalin filled vacant positions with his own men eg Andrei Zhdanov was put in charge of the CPSU in Leningrad. Scapegoats had been found for the failures of the 5 Year Plans

5. People terrified and under firm control. Stalin:”You only have to show a whip to a beaten dog”. Stalin seen as a “god-like” figure who had saved the USSR from spies and traitors