Purges, show trials, terror

1933

Major purge of party ranks, 20% of members expelled including Zinoviev and Kamenev

Murder of Sergei Kirov

December 1934- was popular Leningrad party head- used as excuse to launch war of terror on country, criminal code expanded, death penalty possible for age 12+, crime to be/associated with/to know a ‘parasite’- anyone secret police decided was one

1st December 1934

Kirov murdered by alleged assassin Nikolayev over apparent personal issues, only witness, his bodyguard, was being brought in for interrogation on December 2nd but was killed in a car ‘accident’ in which no other people in the car were harmed

In 1934 the strains of collectivisation + industrialisation were being felt- Kirov was popular and doubts about economic policy led many to consider him a realistic challenger to Stalin

Stalin used the murder to set purges into motion- Kirov was likely murdered on orders of Stalin with connivance of the NKVD- last possible rival gone

January 1935

First Show Trial of Zinoviev, Kamenev, other leading party figures. Charged with setting up an opposition group in Moscow and having links to terrorist centre in Leningrad

Zinoviev sentenced to 10 years, Kamenev to 5, various other sentences for others

August 1936

Trial of the Trotskyist-Zinovievist Bloc, accused were Zinoviev, Kamenev, other leading party figures

Charged with Kirov’s murder, planning the murder of Stalin, creating a terrorist centre, Trotsky accused of masterminding events from afar

All accused confessed and all were shot

January 1937

‘Trial of 17’- accused Radek, Diatakov and Sokolnikov, charges similar to 1936 trial + economic sabotage, conspiring w Germany and Japan

All confessed, 13 were shot

Mid 1937

Trial of red army leaders, charges included plotting with Nazi Germany to remove Stalin from power, generals were tried ‘in camera’ (in private), Czech leader Benes had allegedly warned Stalin of impending military coup

Leading figures shot, purge of leading ranks of army and navy

March 1938

Final great trial of bloc of ‘anti-Soviet rightists and Trotskyists’ included Bukharin, Rykov, former NKVD chief Yagoda

Charged with economic sabotage, plotting with Germany, Japan, Britain, Poland, working with Trotsky and planning to assassinate Stalin and Lenin

All confessed and were shot

Trials questionable

People accused of meeting co-conspirators who had died years earlier in buildings that had been demolished, having taken flights that never occurred

Confessions- Given in to physical torture/psychological pressure, futility of opposition, loyalty to Soviet System + revolution- the revolution had become Stalin- opposing Stalin = opposing revolution they had dedicated their lives to, weakening Soviet Union while threats of Germany and Japan loomed

Yezhovchina

Terror under NKVD chief Nikolai Yezhov. He drew up lists of victims, local NKVD officers given quotas to fill, fixed percentages of these were to be executed/imprisoned

Early targets- party members, but affected all groups, intellectuals and artists, foreign communities living in S.U. targeted

Those arrested could volunteer names of others who should be arrested- to remove suspicion from themselves, settle old scores, gain jobs of those arrested

260 of 300 party secretaries

Purged in Georgia

Non Russian groups targeted- Russification policies

3 of 5 army Marshalls, all 8 admirals, 75 of 80 Supreme military council members

Purges impact on armed forces

Spring of 1937

Stalin made it clear he thought traitors/spied had infiltrated the party- encouraged lower-ranking party members to denounce those in higher positions- more and more party members dragged in

Arrest list of 250,000+

Politburo passed resolution in July 1937 condemning ‘Anti Soviet Elements’ in Russian society- Yezhov drew up list including scientists, artists, writers, musicians, managers, administrators

Anyone could be arrested as an oppositionist- proportion of quota to be shot set at 28%

“officialdom, the intelligentsia.”

R. Conquest- main target of terror

“In Odessa a single communist denounced 230 people.”

R Conquest 1990- individual denouncers

End of the purges

Stalin called for halt to the terror towards end of 1938- by then Yezhov replaced by Beria

Purges were destabilising Russian society- admin systems falling apart with key personnel missing, negative impact on industrial production

20 million total 1929-1953

R Conquests 1990 estimate of deaths from the terror reaches this

“A personal dictatorship, resting upon the use of terror as an instrument of rule”

G Gill 1975- Stalinism

“The whole process was set in motion from the top”

A. Nove 1993

“The economic problems of 1936-41 and the Great Purges appear to be inexorably linked”

R Manning 1993