Stalinist Totalitarianism 1929-1941

1937-1938

-NVDK Polish operation/ethnic purges

-143,000 arrests, 111,000 executions, with at least 85,000 being ethnic poles.

-Polish people living in soviet Russia only constituted .4% of the population, yet accounted for 12.5% of the purge victims.

-Polish widows were required to work in labor force, with their children institutionalised.

-affected a quarter of a million people.

-Polish, Finnish, Bulgarians, Iranians and Chinese made 36% of purge victims, despite the fact they only made up 1.6% of the soviet population.

1934

17th Party Congress

before Kirov's death, split over pace of industrialisation, Stalin wanted keep up, Politburo and Kirov against

1931

-Cultural revolution ends in 1931, as seen to by Stalin

1932

-1932 decree issued that all independent working class artists and literary organizations were abolished

-they all had to come together in a single union.

1934

Socialist realism was formally announced

-avant-garde artists were excluded with realist artists being successful

-impressionism, cubism and modernistic styles were condemed.

-realist style could be understood by the masses, therefore holding political power.

1935

Lenin Grad Union of artists presented an exhibition that set the tone of soviet art

1928-1933

-The early Purges

-The cost of collectivisation resulted in famine in the Ukraine

-There was even more deaths, deportations and imprisonment that were the result of the new direct government policy.

-Stalin followed in Lenin's footsteps and purged people who he called Careists who did not really believed in socialism, but just joined once they could see the bolshaviks were going to win.

-Official purges were carried out regularly with party membership never rising above 5% of the population

-Membership was prized and exclusive as it was a desired career.

-in 1933 the purge was so great that it saw 20% of party members expelled, including Zimonov and Kaminov

1934

the pressure on the party eased and the purging slowed down

-however the temporary reprieve ended dramatically with the death of Kirov

Dec 1, 1934

-17th party congress

Kirov got a big ovation for

-kirov was popoulalr and got a standing ovation after talking about stopping forcible grain collection and increasing rations for the workers.

-Stalin and Kirov were both given the same equal secretary title.

-hailed as "the congress of victors"

Dec 1, 1934

-Sergei Kirov murder

-the alleged assassin was a young communist named Nikolayev

-who was apparently motivated by Kirov's rumoured affair with his wife.

-ex-member who Stalin expelled.

-later after Stalin's death in 1956 the new soviet leader stated that Kirov had been murdered on Stalin's order by the NVKD, meaning the last possible rival for Stalin was gone

-at the time Stalin used the murder as a justification begin in investigations, launched purges and set terror into motion.

1935

-Soviet criminal code

-code expanded to incorporate a variety of new offences

-death penalty could now be carried out for people as young as 12

-death of parasites and the death by association of a parasite was enforced, with no need for evidence.

-allowed Stalin to justify and enforce harsh punishments to control the people.

-1935 terror spread across the country with the secret police denouncing 100,000 people as parasites, the majority of which were innocent of any crimes.