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Inside Stalin’ s Terror

How did Stalin rule the USSR between 1928-1941?. Inside Stalin’ s Terror. Yezhov. Stalin’s Terror State Purges are regular feature of Soviet state 1921 150K “Radishes”/carreerists 1921-28 450 K Counter-revolutionaries Is the Great Terror simply a continuation of the Purges?

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Inside Stalin’ s Terror

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  1. How did Stalin rule the USSR between 1928-1941? Inside Stalin’ s Terror

  2. Yezhov • Stalin’s Terror State • Purges are regular feature of Soviet state • 1921 150K “Radishes”/carreerists • 1921-28 450 K Counter-revolutionaries • Is the Great Terror simply a continuation of the Purges? • 1933-34 33% Expelled from Party • Next step is quantitatively and qualitatively different • Stalin will eventually purge 1/3 and execute 600,000 CPSU members

  3. Yezhov • The Timeline of the Purges • Early Purges • Not as violent or deadly as later • Lose Party Membership cards and with them rights to employment, housing and special rations • Not all are Party Expulsions • Shakty Trial 1928 • 55 Engineers charged as saboteurs • Real goal is to blame people for failure to meet quotas • Industrial Research and Planning Trial 1930 • Trial of GOSPLAN officials for poor planning

  4. Yezhov • The Timeline of the Purges • Ryutin Purges 1932 • Moscow Party Secretary calls Stalin an “Evil Genius …” • He is expelled from Party but avoids death penalty which Stalin demanded • Leads Stalin to believe that organized resistance is still possible • Serves as prelude to first major purge • 1/3 of Party totaling 1 mi. lose party membership accused as Ryutinites • Purge organized by Nicolai Yezhov • Purges intensify: Why? • Stalin suspicious by nature and suffers from paranoia • Alec Nove suggests revolution from above breeds those seeking vengeance (so Stalin solution is kill them) • Robert Service believes Stalin has personality disorder and thinks in terms of getting even • Violence is perfectly acceptable to him

  5. Yezhov • The Timeline of the Purges • Mechanisms of control • 1933-34 Police, Secret Police, labor camps, border guards all placed under NKVD • Special Military Court created for “serious crimes” • Post-Kirov Purges • 1934 17th Party Congress Sergei Kirov (head of the Leningrad Party) gets more votes than Stalin for Central Committee • Kirov assassinated Dec. 1934 by husband of Kirov’s lover • Probable Stalin approved it or organized it • In two hours Stalin signs Decree Against Terrorist Acts • Claims Trotskyites/Leftist to blame and rounds them up, many executed

  6. Yezhov • The Timeline of the Purges • Post-Kirov Purges • 114 shot immediately, 3000 Kamenev (K)/Zinoviev(Z) supporters arrested, 1000’s deported • Stalin Proteges brought in • Now no area of Soviet Bureaucracy Stalin doesn’t control • Status of victims is high, K and Z are arrested and imprisoned • No one safe, arbitrary arrest and summary execution is the norm • Example: Of 1996 members at 1934 Congress; 1108 shot in next 3 years • 98 of 139 Central Comm. Members shot

  7. WHY? • Violence a normal part of the Soviet State? How? • NKVD • Police, Secret Police, Camps, Border and security guards • Special Military courts • Stalin’s cronies put in place after Kirov Murder • Yagoda, Yezhov, NKVD • Vyshinsky – Prosecutor • Zhdanov: Leningrad Party Leader • Beria, State Security • Poskrebyshov – Secretariat • No Party of Party Bureacracy Stalin doesn’t control

  8. Yagoda • The Great Purge 1936-39 • Stalin declares State of seige • Purge effects entire population • Purge of the Party • Memo in 1936 warns of Trotskyite-Kamenenite-Zinovievite-Leftist-Counter-Revolutionary Bloc • K and Z, arrested 1935, tried and confess their guilt to Kirov murder and attempted overthrow of government • Called the Trial of the 16 ( T, Z, K Counter-revolutionary Line) • Confess under torture • Confessions mean others have no defense • Public confessions also give Stalin justification to continue the purge • Yagoda who was replaced by Yezhov as head of the NKVD

  9. Yagoda • The Great Purge 1936-39 • 1937 Trial of 17 (Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center) • Alleged plot with Germans • Most prominent is Lenin favorite Radek whoe groveling confession implicates Bukharin • 1937 Decree of Anti-Soviet Elements • Regional quota arrests and executions • NKVD ordered to execute 28% of those arrested • Official list is 353,000 dead (underestimate) • 1938 Trial of 21 (Trotskyite Rightists) • B, R, T all tried, 18 others including • Bukharin still accepts the infallability of the Party and Stalin in his final speech • 328,000 executed (again 3 is too low)

  10. Military Purge 1937-38 • Eliminate independence of the military is next goal • Stalin precedes purge with massive transfers to disorganize any opposition • Tukhachevsky and 7 generals arrested tried, shot for spying for Germans/Japan • In 18 months All 11 War Commissars shot • 3 of 5 Marshalls • 91 of 101 on Military Council • 14 of 16 Army Commanders • 35,000 Officers about 50% of toatl • All but one Air Force General and all Navy Admirals shot • All units end up understaffed, inexperienced

  11. Purge of the people • Stalin dominates Party, Gov’t, Military but search for enemies continues • Yezhovschina • Force regions and nationalities into submission • 2 Prime Ministers, 80% of Party Secretaries and 1000’s of lesser officials lose jobs • Despite high profile Show trials the worst of the purges falls on the people • 1/8 are arrested, virtually every family has at least one victim • NKVD squads arrest 100’s at a time, 20,000 bodies in one mass grave • Quota system, no appeal, execution “…to be carried out immdiately…” • Fear is a way of life • 1934 – 1 mi arrested • 1937 - 8 mi. in camps • 1939 – 5-7 mi. more • 1940 – 2 mi deported • 1941 - ethnic deportations • Later Purge • Leningrad Affair • Doctors Plot

  12. Purge of the people • Purges finally scaled down 1939 • NKVD and interrogators now purged • Yezhov arrested 1938, Beria replaces him • 23,000 NKVD arrested • Betray your own family to survive • Innocence and guilt mean nothing, mass of population is terrified and bewildered

  13. Later Purges • Purges do not end with WWII but they are scaled back • During WWII Military failures labeled sabotage and purges result • After WWII Stalin is even harder, also more suspicious of outside world • Desertions in WWII lead to new purges of Army after the war • 1947 CC and P-buro abolished • Leningrad Affair • January 1949 Leningrad Trade Fair organized by Leningrad leaders who were heroes from WWII • fair was attacked by official Soviet propaganda • falsely portrayed as a scheme to use the federal budget from Moscow for Leningrad,

  14. Later Purges • Leningrad Affair (con’t) • Other accusations Leningrad's leaders competing with Moscow-centered communist government • Over two thousand people from city government arrested • Also arrested were many industrial managers, scientists and university professors. • first prosecution, on 30 September 1950 leaders were sentenced to death • About 2,000 of Leningrad's public figures were removed from their positions and exiled from their city, • Intellectuals were harshly persecuted for the slightest signs of dissent • Doctors Plot

  15. Later Purges • Doctors Plot • Dr. against Jewish Doctors that dominated the Moscow medical profession • Really done because Stalin’s daughter had an affair with Jewish doctor • Doctors accused of plot to murder Stalin • Plan was to devastate medical profession like the army, but Stalin dies before it is implemented • Post war Gulag • 2.8 million captured soldiers arrested after their return from Nazi captivity • Only 500,000 return home • New labor camps built – 1947 20 million in the camps • Purge trials now in Soviet occupied states in Eastern Europe

  16. Purges and Stalin’s Power • 1934 – 1 mi arrested • 1937 - 8 mi. in labor camps • 1939 – 5-7 mi. more arrested, 1 mi. shot, 2mi. Die in camps • 1940 – Baltic states occupied and 2 mi deported • 1941 - ethnic deportations of ethnic Germans, Kalmyks, Ukrainians, Chechens, Tartars: 1.3 mi. die • 1944-46 10 million to camps after screening from Nazi occupied areas: 5-6 mi. die • 1947-53 one million die from various purges • Worse than Nazi holocaust and Stalin is so isolated he is prisoner in his own system

  17. J. Arch Getty • Why the Purges? • Stalin wants to retain power • Stalin wants sole credit for Soviet successes • Stalin’s Personality • There are some actual opponents (Ryutin, Kirov) on issues like collectivization • Revisionists • Service argues Stalin need help and purges are popular with some groups • J. Arch Getty, Sheila Fitzpatrick • Not just Stalin • Party officials want to eliminate rivals • Stalin can’t control all local officials • Purges generate own momentum • Background of forced collectivization and Nazi rise breeds violence • Yezhov/NKVD use purges to increase power • Nomenklatura (new bureaucrats use purges to get power/promotions • conscience gone cold

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