crushing opposition inside and outside the party

nep political consequences

• tightening political control

• worker’s opposition treated scornfully by lenin 10th party congress

• ban on factions passed

ban on factions

• once party policy has been agreed by the central committee everybody must accept

• penalty for factionalism = expulsion from the party

• influential in the power struggle = accusation of factionalism very damaging

chistka motive

• unhealthy elements joined the party

• those insufficiently communist + hangers on

• careerist joinings

• periodic cleansings vital to raise political dependability

• maintain purity of membership (traces back to mensheviks 1903)

chistka events

• first of these is may 1918

• expulsion of “idlers, hooligans, adventures, drunkards and thieves”

• mid 1919 party membership ½ year before

• 1921 220,000 members purged or left the party

party growth

• during civil war mass recruitment (party = 730,000)

political repression under the NEP

• mensheviks and SRs outlawed

• 1921 5,000 mensheviks arrested for counter-revolutionary activities

• show trial of SRs: 34 leaders condemned as terrorists and 11 executed

rebranding of the Cheka

• renamed GPU

• 1922 grew in importance

• 1922 arbitrary imprisonment and death penalty continued instruments of social policy

• GPU periodically harasses and arrests Nepmen - capitalistic enemies under control

• attacked religion - no ideological backsliding

censorship

• 1922 Russian writers and scholars deported to convince the intelligentsia not to criticise the govt

• pre-publication censorship introduced

• writings submitted to main administration for affairs of literature and publishing houses before they could be published