Russia (1924 - Stalin): 15/25

Discuss the importance of oppression in the Soviet Union after 1928

political

• show trials - removed opposition and national paranoia

• purges - of the party

• but by 1928 most people were already Stalin minions

economic/industry

• NKVD trigger happy, implementing other policies

• Gulags - punished and labour

• worsened the economy - killed off skilled managers

• but: stakhanovite movement - encouragement (could work without oppression)

social

• quicksand society - everyone snitched on each other

• great turn: no abortion, traditional families, propoganda

Discuss the importance of policies towards women in the Soviet Union after 1928

economy - female labour force

social role change

ideological importance - long term impact

Discuss the importance of Stalin’s Purges in the Soviet Union after 1928.

Politics

• Kirov’s Assassination as Pretext
  Sergei Kirov’s murder on 1 December 1934—almost certainly engineered by Stalin’s own security chiefs—was portrayed as the climax of a vast “Trotskyist–Zinovievist conspiracy,” giving Stalin legal cover to launch mass purges within the Party apparatus

• Moscow Show Trials (1936–38)
  Three successive public trials condemned 54 senior Bolsheviks (including Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin). All confessed—under torture—to absurd plots, then were executed or sent to the gulag, eradicating Stalin’s old‑guard rivals

• Centralization of Terror in the NKVD
  The secret police was reorganized from the CHEKA→OGPU into the NKVD (1934), which operated to Stalin’s exact quotas for arrests and executions, transforming political repression into a cold, mechanized system

• Stalin’s Signature on Execution Lists
  In 1937–38 alone, Stalin personally signed 357 “death lists” authorizing the execution of some 40,000 people—approximately 90 % of those legally condemned—revealing his direct hand in orchestrating terror

• Decimation of Military Leadership
  At least 14 of 16 army commanders, 3 of 5 marshals, and roughly 35,000 officers were purged by 1938—over 90 % of the Red Army’s high command—gravely weakening Soviet military readiness on the eve of war

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Society

• Mass Deportations and Gulag Expan­sion
  During 1937–38, an estimated 20 million “enemies of the people” were deported to labour camps or prisons; about half perished from execution, famine or disease, leaving a society scarred by collective trauma .

• Rule by NKVD “Troikas”
  Extrajudicial three‑man NKVD panels (“troikas”) issued swift convictions without trial; tens of thousands were sentenced daily, fostering an atmosphere where any denunciation could mean death

• Ethnic Cleansings within the USSR
  Entire minority groups (Poles, Finns, Koreans, etc.) were labelled “suspect” and subject to mass deportation to special settlements, radically altering the USSR’s ethnic map

• Purge of Cultural and Educational Elites
  Hundreds of writers, professors, teachers and artists were expelled or executed as “bourgeois nationalists” or “wreckers,” decimating intellectual life and enforcing

• Enduring Climate of Fear
  Even after the formal end of the Great Terror in 1939, citizens—scarred by arbitrary arrests and disappearances—practiced self‑censorship and avoided political discussion well into the post‑Stalin era

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Economic / Industry

• Loss of Skilled Industrial Cadres
  The purge of thousands of economic planners and factory managers created a critical shortage of expertise, causing industrial growth to slump from over 15 % per annum (mid‑1930s) to under 5 % by 1938

• Dekulakization and Agricultural Collapse
  Up to 10 million so‑called “kulaks” were deported to Siberia or labour camps between 1929–31, removing experienced farmers and contributing directly to the 1932–33 famine

• Output Declines Amid Terror
  Coal production fell by c. 7 % and steel by c. 10 % between 1935–37, as factory cadres hid behind low‑risk targets to avoid NKVD scrutiny, undermining Stalin’s own industrial ambitions

• Stagnation of the Third Five‑Year Plan
  The third Plan (1938–42) was effectively suspended when expelled specialists were no longer available; resources shifted toward armaments, worsening shortages in consumer goods and infrastructure

• Long‑Term Logistical Weakness
  The decimation of transport and supply‑chain managers impaired mobilization in 1941: chaotic rear services and logistical failures contributed to early Soviet defeats in the German invasion

instrumental to keeping control

Discuss the impact of Lenin’s death

political - rise of stalin

• power struggle after (no clear successor)

• but little impact on the people because the main ideology was still communism

ideological change

• mainly still communism

• long term - harsher state control (purges, etc.)

economic - through stalin

• short term - NEP to FYP

• long term - more industrialised (FYP and collectivisation)

  • big impact on many people

Discuss the importance of the NKVD in the Soviet Union.

what was the NKVD:
Originally established in 1917, the NKVD was reconstituted in 1934 as an all-Union agency, absorbing the OGPU (Joint State Political Directorate) to become the USSR’s primary security and law enforcement body. Included labour camps (GULag), border troops, firefighting, and even transportation infrastructure.

political - state control

• Kirov’s murder (1934) possibly orchestrated by the NKVD – triggered mass arrests and purges​

• Show Trials (1936–38): High-profile public trials of Old Bolsheviks (e.g. Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin) led to executions. Created the illusion of legal process and justified terror

• NKVD Order 00447 (July 1937): Issued by Yezhov (head of NKVD), set quotas for arrests/executions of "anti-Soviet elements". Up to 800,000 arrests between summer 1937–Nov 1938​

• Mass Party Purges: Over half a million members expelled in the "exchange of party cards" (1935–36). By 1939, 318 of 385 regional party secretaries had been replaced – mostly by younger, loyal Stalinists​

• 1936 Constitution: Promised freedom, but NKVD undermined it entirely – only Communists allowed to stand in elections​

economic - forced labour

• Forced Labour Camps (Gulags): 300,000 prisoners worked on the Baltic–White Sea Canal under brutal conditions. Used for industrial projects in remote areas​.

• Cheap labour for timber, mining, and gold – exported to gain foreign currency for tech imports​.

• Labour shortages "solved" with prisoners – especially after collectivisation and purges.

• Workers arrested for sabotage – e.g., bosses like Golubitsky and Stakhanovite workers like Ogorodnikov in Magnitogorsk were accused of wrecking and executed​.

• Labour books and internal passports (1938): Essential to survival. Used to track workers, discipline them, and deny rights – failure to comply meant prison​.

• Managers and engineers purged: Many top industrial directors accused of sabotage, leading to instability and lack of skilled leadership​.

social - fear

• Night arrests by NKVD – "black ravens" took people without warning. People kept bags packed out of fear​.

• Anyone could be a target: Even for telling a joke about Stalin or being related to someone arrested.

• Torture and forced confessions: E.g., theatre director Meyerhold was tortured until he confessed to false charges​.

• Mass denouncements: In Odessa, one man denounced 230 people. People betrayed family and friends to survive​.

• Widespread arrests: Over 1,000 arrested in a single factory (Roy Medvedev). Peasants, shop girls, clerks all affected​.

• NKVD spread panic: Rumours, fear, and suspicion dominated society. People were afraid to speak openly.

Discuss the importance of Stalin’s ‘cult of personality’.

political - ensures he stays in power

• Cult fully began in 1933–34: Stalin presented as heir of Lenin and sole interpreter of ideology, became untouchable in politics​.

• “Stalin is the Lenin of today” – widely used slogan after 1924​.

• Rewriting history: 1938 Short Course of the History of the Communist Party made Stalin appear as Lenin’s closest ally and reduced Trotsky to a traitor​.

• Altered photos: Trotsky and Kamenev edited out of images; Stalin added in with Lenin to show leadership continuity​.

• Applause manipulation: At one meeting, people clapped so long no one dared stop – one old man who sat down was arrested​.

• Cities renamed after him: Tsaritsyn became Stalingrad in 1925​.

• Control of the Party: Stalin’s image everywhere symbolised control and reminded all of his leadership – no rivals allowed to rise.

🟢 Impact: Massive long-term change. Stalin created a system where questioning him was impossible – the cult made him politically invincible.

can’t kill ideology

ideological change - stalinism

• Portrayed as genius and visionary: By 1935, he was described as wise, prophetic, and god-like – the only one who could guide the USSR​.

• Socialist Realism (from 1934): All art, literature, music had to glorify Stalin and the Communist ideal. Artists had to show him as the creator of Soviet success​.

• Reinterpreted Communist values: Shifted focus from collective leadership (Lenin’s idea) to one-man rule, based on Stalin’s wisdom and vision​.

• Propaganda showed Stalin leading industrial and agricultural success – in reality, it was the work of millions, but ideologically he got full credit.

• Stalin’s writings promoted as sacred: He was called “the teacher of all mankind”, treated like a prophet or philosopher-king​.

• Short Course sold 34 million copies – made his view of history the official truth in schools​.

🟢 Impact: The cult replaced Marxist collective values with Stalinist personal rule. It shaped how millions saw Communism, creating ideological loyalty and dependency.

social - media, propoganda
Stalin’s image was literally everywhere: Busts in classrooms, posters in every museum, parks, airports – one visitor said Stalin was “everywhere... he sees everything”​.

• Media saturation: “Every fifth or tenth word” on radio was “Stalin” – endless repetition ingrained loyalty​.

• Children’s books, nursery art: Slogans like “Thank you Stalin for my happy childhood” were in every preschool​.

• Operas, films, poems glorified him: In Prokofiev’s 1939 “Ode to Stalin,” he was called the “source of sunshine”​.

• Public celebrations and statues: For his 70th birthday (1949), his image was lit up over Moscow by searchlights​.

• Described as a father figure: People sent petitions to Stalin like they had to tsars, calling him “Dear Comrade Stalin, teacher and friend of the whole happy Soviet country”​.

• Mixed reactions: Some admired him genuinely, some feared or mocked the cult in secret. But most were affected by it in some way​.

🟢 Impact: Short-term emotional support during crises; long-term cultural shift. The cult turned Stalin into the centre of Soviet life – god, father, protector.

Discuss the importance of Stalin’s economic policies in the Soviet Union after 1928

• First Five-Year Plan (1928–32):

  • Focused on heavy industry – coal, steel, oil, electricity.

  • Coal and iron doubled, electricity tripled, steel output rose by one-third​.

  • 1500 new enterprises opened, including tractor factories in Stalingrad and Kharkov to support agriculture​.

• Gigantic projects: Magnitogorsk (steel), Dnieprostroi Dam (5x increase in electricity), Moscow Metro​.

• Skilled worker shortages, waste, and chaos in planning – but still major industrial transformation​.

• Foreign help: Henry Ford assisted with car production; engineers from the USA and Europe supported big projects​.

• Urban population boom: Moscow's population grew from 2.2 million (1929) to 3.7 million (1932)​.

🟢 Impact: Short-term hardship, long-term industrial strength. The USSR became the world’s second-largest industrial power by 1940.


By 1936, approximately 90% of farms in the Soviet Union were collectivized, a significant shift from only 1% in 1928

• Grain procurement rose: from 10.8m tons (1928) to 22.8m tons (1932) – state fed cities and exported grain for machinery​.

• Peasant resistance: Riots, crop-burning, women’s protests, and mass slaughter of livestock – cattle numbers fell from 70m (1928) to 38m (1933)​​.

• Famine (1932–34): 7 million died; 5 million in Ukraine alone​.

• Ten million peasants dispossessed, 2–3 million died or sent to gulags​.

• Political success: The state gained control of agriculture, removed the ‘kulak’ class (the most productive farmers), and ensured food supply for cities and industry​​.

🟢 Impact: Agriculture suffered, but collectivisation helped feed cities and provided labour for factories. A massive, brutal transformation.

Paragraph 3: Military Preparation – Economic mobilisation for war and social/military strength

• Shift to armaments in late 1930s: Third Five-Year Plan (1938–41) prioritised weapons, tanks, and aircraft as war loomed​.

• Industrial base key to victory: By 1941, USSR had built a strong arms industry despite chaos from the purges​.

• Soviet economy out-produced Nazi Germany in some areas by 1943 thanks to earlier FYP foundations​.

• Millions of peasants turned into workers: helped boost war industries and build patriotism​.

• Stalin’s leadership and the economic system were credited for USSR’s ability to survive and win WWII​.

🟢 Impact: Stalin’s economic policies directly contributed to wartime survival. The USSR’s rapid economic mobilisation helped turn disaster into victory.

Discuss the importance of the Five-Year Plans in the Soviet Union.

INDUSTRY AND ECONOMY

• 📈 Massive industrial transformation: Over 5,000 new factories opened between 1928 and 1937, many in new areas like Magnitogorsk​.

• ⚙ Heavy industry priority:

  • Electricity output trebled in the 1st FYP.

  • Coal and iron doubled, steel rose by 1/3​.

  • USSR became almost self-sufficient in machine-making by 1937​.

• 💰 Increased foreign involvement: Ford helped set up car factories in Gorky. US engineers helped build Dnieprostroi Dam​.

• 🌍 International ambition: Wanted to make USSR economically powerful and competitive in Europe.

• 🚨 Inefficiencies and waste:

  • Only 7% of workers skilled in 1931; by 1933, only 17% of recruits had any skills​.

  • Expensive imported machines lay idle or were damaged due to poor training (e.g., Elektrozavod lathe case)​.

  • High worker turnover – e.g., average coal worker in 1930 changed jobs 3 times a year​.

• ⚖ Outcome: Despite chaos and unrealistic targets, the USSR was transformed into a major industrial power by 1941​.

🟢 Long-term: Created industrial base for war and future economic strength. 🔴 Short-term: Failed to improve consumer goods – housing shortfall 50%, essentials still scarce​.

P1 - Industry

• 5,000 new factories were created between 1928 and 1937 under the planning and supervision of the Gosplan.

• first FYP (October 1928 to December 1932) → emphasis on heavy industry (coal, oil, iron, steel, ELECTRICITY etc.) - 80% of total investment

  • electricity production tripled, pig iron doubled

  • huge new industrial complexes were built

• by the end of the FYP2 (1937) - was basically self sufficient in metal-working and machine making

• much better transport and communication → almost 5x as many lorries as the start, double locomotives

• For the period of 1928 to 1940, the Soviet Union claims that industrial production increased by 850%, whilst the West estimates that the actual increase was just 260% cent.

DEPTH AFFECTED: even though numbers were inflated, significant growth

SHORT TERM: boosts economy

LONG TERM: industrial complexes

REMARKABLE: YES, that it happened at all - that Stalin begins to prove himself and makes himself historically important

SOCIAL - WOMEN AND TERROR

• 👩‍🏭 10 million women entered the workforce – often in low-skilled, low-paid jobs​.

• ⚙ New "Red Specialists": Proletarian workers trained to replace “bourgeois specialists” – success for some, with promotion, better housing, etc.​.

• 📚 Massive training programmes, but often rushed and poor quality at first​.

• 🧾 Labour books (1938) and internal passports – crucial for tracking and controlling workers. Absenteeism criminalised in 1940​.

• ⛓ Terror and forced labour:

  • Prisoners used in large projects like Baltic–White Sea Canal.

  • 300,000 prisoners forced into canal work​.

  • Workers punished or purged for missing targets or making errors.

• 💬 Youth enthusiasm: Many young workers volunteered for projects like Magnitogorsk out of idealism, seeing it as a socialist mission​.

🟢 Impact: Society reshaped into industrial workforce; heavy discipline and fear—but created upward mobility for some.

• under NEP: high unemployment

DEMOGRAPHICS

• 10 million women entered the work force

  • in 1935 in Leningrad they made up almost half of the workforce, despite being paid less, less literature, less involved in political/technical education, and less likely to rise through social ranks

• return to war imagery of Civil War/war communism

  • e.g. socialist offensive, class enemies, campaigns and breakthroughs

    • new class enemy:

      • bourgeois specialist (equivalent of kulaks)

        • blamed pre-1917 managers for sabotage or not reaching impossible targets so were imprisoned/made a point with at show trials

        • but the loss of skilled staff caused further issues, and the constant dismissals/hirings created instability

      • so by 1931 the ‘offensive‘ against them was quietly dropped

• by the end of the 1930’s → 40% of workers were former peasants who had moved within the decade

WORKING CONDITIONS

• quicksand society → in the coal industry in 1930, average worker changed jobs 3x a year

• ‘uninterrupted week’ introduced in 1929, with shift work planned over the weekend in order to stop factories from being idle at any time.

• Stakhanovite movement → 102 tons of coal in one shift, rewarded with massive bonus, apartment, cinema and holiday resort tickets

  • incentivised to work harder to get rewards/beat the norm

LIVING CONDITIONS

• severe overcrowding as people flocked to cities

• high crime rates

• poor sanitation

• no consumer goods → starved of supplies and resources during the first FYP

  • so: difficult to buy clothes, shoes, etc. (Russian citizens asked to sacrifice their standard of living for longer-term objectives)

  • enthused by the spirit of cultural revolution

DEPTH/NUMBER AFFECTED: all affected but minimal change

SHORT TERM: minimal change

LONG TERM: more change so that there are more consumer goods, jobs, and eventually more economy

REMARKABLE: NO

MILITARY

• 🪖 Third FYP (1938–41) focused on rearmament:

  • Machinery and engineering grew, though steel growth slowed​.

  • Arms production prioritised after 1937, especially after purges weakened leadership​.

• 🔧 Despite chaos from purges, USSR had powerful arms industry by 1941, thanks to earlier FYP groundwork​.

• 🌍 Post-war strength:

  • Industrial might gave USSR leverage at Yalta/Potsdam.

  • Helped USSR dominate Eastern Europe and establish puppet states like Poland, Hungary, East Germany​.

• 💣 Soviet atomic bomb tested in 1949 – sign of catching up to the West technologically​.

🟢 Short-term: Not the main goal early on, but became critical by late 1930s. 🟢 Long-term: Ensured USSR became a superpower and rival to the USA.

Discuss the importance of collectivisation in the Soviet Union after 1928.

economic - agricultural output

human cost - famine

political - control

Discuss the extent to which the Five-Year Plans were a turning point for life in the Soviet Union after 1928

economic transformation + industry

social - women, migration, conditions, consumer goods

politics - harsh labour laws

Discuss the importance of industrialisation in the Soviet Union after 1928.

economic

social - consumer goods, migration, conditions, etc.

military - global power, ww2

Discuss the impact of collectivisation

human cost + social

economy + industry

state control + ideology

Write an account of the Bolshevik seizure of power.

Write an account of the October 1917 Revolution.

Write an account of the Russian Civil War

Write an account of the establishment and development of the NEP

Write an account of Kerensky’s role in the Provisional Government.

Write and account of the issues facing the Provisional Government after 1917.

Write an account of Rasputin’s role in Tsarist Russia.

A Siberian peasant‐mystic who rose to become the most controversial favourite of Nicholas II and Alexandra.

Born 1869 Siberia; illiterate despite brief schooling.

Claimed a mystical conversion at 18; wandered to Mount Athos and Jerusalem; returned as a self-styled holy man reputed to heal the sick and predict the future.

Rasputin is often described as a monk, however, this is incorrect. He was a strannik (wanderer or pilgrim), though he held no official position in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Entry to St Petersburg society (c. 1903):

Welcomed by Bishop and Senior Clergy invited into aristocratic salons.

First meeting with Imperial family:

November 1, 1905: First meeting at a Palace; Nicholas II noted meeting “a man of God” in his diary.

1908 summons: Called to the palace during Alexei’s haemophilia crisis; “eased the boy’s suffering” (probably via hypnotic suggestion).

Court persona vs. private life: Maintained humble, pious image in the palace, but elsewhere pursued licentious mistresses.

Widespread rumours (by 1911): Accusations of “orgies” and sexual depravity in St Petersburg society; played into anti‐monarchist sentiment

1911 expulsion & return: Prime Minister Stolypin formally expelled him after press scandals; Alexandra intervened and Nicholas reinstated him within months.

Political Influence during World War I

September 1915 (August OS) Nicholas II took personal command of the army, leaving Alexandra (and via her, Rasputin) in charge of domestic affairs

Ministerial leapfrog: Pressured the Tsarina to install his protégé as Interior Minister (Sept 1916)

ministerial leapfrog e.g. Four different Prime Minsters in just over a year

December 1916 - Assassination

Rasputin given poisoned wine and cakes; when he survived, shot repeatedly, bound and dumped into the frozen Neva; autopsy showed death by multiple gunshots

Write an account of the Bolshevik consolidation of power by 1924

Write an account of Stalin’s rise to power by 1929.

Write an account of the roll out of the Five-Year Plans.

Write an account of collectivisation. [15]

• Despite a good harvest in 1926, state grain collections were only half of predicted levels for that year.

• To try and fix the small amount of grain on the state market, the government decided to collect tax in money instead of grain, and at the same time, stop private traders from buying peasants’ grain for around double what the government were offering.

• Peasants having to sell for lower prices and therefore sell more to get money to pay the taxes. So instead, peasants fed grain to their animals (as meat prices were increasing), and they held back grain, hoping for the price to rise.

• Collectivisation was announced in 1927 at the 15th party congress. Initially, collectivisation was not forced and started slowly.

• When, 1928 when the state procurement of grain was so low the government had to ration bread in cities, severe food shortages so Stalin wanted to pick up the pace.

• In mid 1929, less than 5% of households had been collectivised and there were severe food shortages, so Stalin announced that in 6 months, 25% of households would be collectivised.

• 15-20 villages could have worked on a single collectivised farm.

• In December 1929, Stalin announced the ‘liquidation of Kulaks as a class’ and enlisted urban party activists to form the 25,000ers, who were meant to get peasants to sign a register saying that they want to be collectivised, and to round up a quota of kulaks in each area to be shot, sent to a GULAG, deported to Siberia, or forced to resettle on poor land.

• However, since ties between fellow peasants were stronger than ties to the State, this was met with resistance, even by local party officials.

• Pressured by the Politburo, in the face of the peasant rebellion, Stalin in the Pravda in March 1930 called for a return to voluntary collectivisation, saying that the officers had become ‘dizzy with success’. At this point huge numbers left the collective farms.

• Collectivisation was back at full force, with 50% of households collectivised by 1931, and having requisitioned 23 million tons of grain that year.

• Between 1930 and 1932, over 2 million people were deported as kulaks. Undoubtedly had a negative effect on grain production, since the Kulaks were likely the most experienced, enterprising farmers.

• In 1931 there was a drought which caused famine, and as as it worsened, Stalin enforce more extreme laws to prevent peasant resistance.

  • In August 1932, the law of Seven Eighths was passed, where stealing socialised property (e.g. 5 ears of corn) meant a ten year prison sentence - and this was later changed to the death penalty.

  • Then, as the famine worsened in 1933, Stalin passed a decree for Preventing the Mass Exodus of Starving peasants, which some historians argue caused at least 150,000 deaths.

• Especially in Ukraine, Stalin used the Holodomor as apparent punishment for the peasants who opposed collectivisation, the Kulaks, or nationalist Ukrainians. This man-made famine is estimated to have killed 5 million people.

• Due to continuing pressure from the secret police, party officials, and famine, by 1935, 75% of households were collectivised, and Russia produced 80 million tons of grain (still 5 million less than 1913 levels, but increasing since the start of collectivisation).

• By 1936, this was 90% of households, and Russia was essentially collectivised.

Write an account of the purges.

1918 - first purge of Communist party

periodic chistki during the 1920s

e.g. after Lenin Enrolment of 1924 when some 500,000 new members were allowed to enrol (lowered entry requirements) membership went up to almost 1 million (double)

chistki → non-violent (people refused new cards that had to be renewed, expelled from party)

1932 - Ryutin (former Moscow party secretary) circulated to Central Committee a 200 page criticism of Stalin — ‘evil genius‘, ‘personal dictatorship‘ and urged for Stalin’s removal

• Stalin wanted death penalty for Ryutin but since still under scrutiny of Politburo, he was not executed

1932 - attempt to re-establish party control/get rid of undesirables who do nothing (mainly illiterates and inactive members) — by 1935, 22% expelled from party

Feb 1934 - 17th Party Congress

• several politicians urge Kirov to take over as general secretary

• Kirov gets a longer applause than Stalin

December 1934 - assassination of Kirov

• shot in party headquarters in Leningrad

• murder was seen as widespread conspiracy against Soviet state

• thousands would be accused of plotting

Jan 1935

• Kamenev and Zinoviev arrested and put on trial

  • despite no direct evidence against them, guilty and put in prison

1935-36

• Purge of party in wake of Kirov murder (witch hunt for co-conspirators)

• refused exchange of party cards + 500,000 members expelled

August 1936 - first show trial!

• Kamenev, Zinoviev pulled out of prison + 14 others

• confessed and were executed the next day

• significant because: first executions of people in Central Committee - no-one is safe

• Yezhov replaces Yagoda

December 1936 - Stalin Constitution (mainly for international appreciation)

• most democratic constitution in the world!!

• freedom from arbitrary arrest

• freedom of speech and press

• right to demonstrate

January 1937 - second show trial

• losers - confessed guilty

July 1937 - order 00447

• Yezhov leader of NKVD drew up list of over 250,000 anit-Soviet Elements

• total 800,000 from summer 1937 to November 1938

• geographical quota system

  • proportion to be shot set at fixed 28%

    • the rest: ten years hard labour

  • media campaign encouraging accusations

• anyone with connections to the purged would also be purged - massive increase in deaths

• purging of military

  • 3/5 marshals

  • all admirals

  • all but one air force senior commander

  • 35,000 officers, but almost a third were reinstated by 1940 (WW2)

March 1938 - third show trial

• Bukharin, Rykov, Yagoda (former head of NKVD - accused of making Kirov murder easy for assassins)

show trials - ludicrous charges, worn down by interrogation, deals for family to be spared

end of 1938 - slow down of terror

• ordinary people arrests slowed down while Central Committee members and army officers were purged well into 1939

  • destabilising Russian society - admin systems failing, key personnel missing

• Stalin blamed Yezhov and NKVD for excess

March 1939 - 18th party congres - Stalin declared an end to the mass purges

as many as 20 million deaths from Great Terror (but difficult because NKVD burnt archives as Germans approached Moscow)

• according to Khrushchev, 70% of Central Committee members were arrested or shot

Write an account of the show trials.

• Early Party Cleansings (chistki): Beginning in mid-1921, the Bolshevik leadership instituted periodic “verification” purges (chistki) to expel “undesirables” from the Party ranks, often by refusing renewed membership cards during reregistrations; by 1921 alone, some 220,000 members had been purged or left the Party under these measures

• Lenin Enrolment: In 1924–25, the Party admitted roughly 638,070 new members—mostly workers—raising total membership from 446,089 on 1 January 1924 to over one million by January 1926.

• Ryutin Affair (September 1932): Martemyan Ryutin circulated a 200-page manifesto denouncing “the evil genius” of Stalin and calling for his removal. Arrested on 23 September 1932 and expelled from the CPSU on 27 September, Ryutin was sentenced to ten years in prison; Stalin’s demand for his execution was overruled by the Politburo .

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The Kirov Assassination and Initial Purges

• Murder of Sergey Kirov (1 December 1934): Leningrad Party leader Sergey Mironovich Kirov was gunned down in the Smolny Institute corridor; the official investigation implicated Leonid Nikolaev, who claimed sole responsibility, but Stalin used the incident as a pretext for extensive purges

• Aftermath: Within months, thousands were arrested for alleged complicity; by early 1935, prominent Old Bolsheviks Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev were tried on trumped-up charges, convicted, and imprisoned despite lack of credible evidence

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The First Moscow Trial: Trial of the Sixteen (19–24 August 1936)

• Defendants: Sixteen former Bolshevik leaders, including Zinoviev and Kamenev, were brought from prison under heavy guard to the Small October Hall of the House of Unions.

• Charges: Accused of heading a “Trotskyite–Zinovievite Terrorist Center,” conspiring with foreign powers to assassinate Stalin and dismember the USSR under Article 58 of the RSFSR Penal Code

• Outcome: All sixteen “confessed” after torture and threats to family; fourteen were executed the following day, demonstrating that no one—even Central Committee members—was safe

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The Second Moscow Trial: Trial of the Seventeen (13–25 January 1937)

• Defendants: Seventeen party and state officials—primarily “Trotskyists” such as Karl Radek and Yuri Pyatakov—faced charges of sabotage, espionage, and terrorism

• NKVD Leadership Change: Genrikh Yagoda was replaced by Nikolai Yezhov as head of the NKVD during preparations for this trial, reflecting Stalin’s tightening control over the security apparatus

• Results: All seventeen pleaded guilty in court; many were executed, while a few received labor camp sentences—setting the pattern for mass operations that followed

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Mass Operations under NKVD Order No. 00447 (July 1937–November 1938)

• Issuance: On 30 July 1937, NKVD Order 00447 authorized summary arrest and execution of “ex-kulaks,” petty criminals, and other “anti-Soviet elements”—a top-secret operation expanding the terror to entire social categories

• Scale and Method: Regional NKVD troikas applied fixed “shoot” quotas (typically 20–30%) and sent the remainder to labor camps; an estimated 669,929 arrests and 376,202 executions occurred in the “Kulak Operation” alone

• Wider Targeting: Nationality operations simultaneously targeted Poles, Finns, Germans, and others, resulting in hundreds of thousands more arrests and executions

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The Third Moscow Trial: Trial of the Twenty-One (2–13 March 1938)

• Defendants: Twenty-one prominent Bolsheviks, including Nikolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov, and former NKVD chief Yagoda, were accused of forming an “anti-Soviet bloc” planning assassinations and capitulations to foreign powers

• Charges: Range from plotting multiple attempts on Lenin and Stalin’s lives to sabotage of the economy, espionage for Germany and Japan, and poisoning of Maxim Gorky Outcome: All but a few minor defendants were sentenced to death; Bukharin and Rykov were executed on 15 March 1938, marking the apex of the show trials

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Aftermath and Conclusion

• Continued Purges: While the public trials ended in 1938, purges of the military and Central Committee persisted into 1939; Yezhov himself was executed in early 1940, scapegoated for “excesses” .

• Legacy: By the 18th Party Congress in March 1939, Stalin declared the “mass operations” over, though an estimated 1.3 to 1.6 million Soviet citizens had been executed or imprisoned during the Great Terror, and 70% of Lenin’s old Bolshevik leadership eliminated

The show trials not only decimated the Party’s revolutionary generation but also institutionalized a climate of fear and obedience that underpinned Stalin’s totalitarian rule until his death.

Write an account of the campaign against the kulaks.

Write an account of the gulag system in Stalin’s Russia.