Russia booklet 5/2 Yezhovschina

Yezhovshchina

• Period of intensified purges led by Nikolai Yezhov, head of the NKVD.

  • Known as the “bloodiest phase” of the Great Terror.

  
  Scale: 1.3 million arrested in 1937–38; ~681,000 executed (NKVD statistics).

• Motivation: Stalin’s paranoia; consolidation of absolute power; eliminate perceived threats

purges nkvd

20,000 NKVD members and Yagoda lost their positions in the purges for not being ruthless enough in eliminating enemies of the state

Purge of the red army

1937 purged as many of the top ranking officers would have been appointed by Trotsky

35,000 officers,five marshals and the Chief of staff Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky were executed for treason 

• Weakened the army before WWII – The execution or removal of around 35,000 officers, destroyed much of the army’s experience and talent.

• Removed Trotsky-linked officers – Many top commanders had originally been promoted by Trotsky, so purging them helped Stalin erase any lingering influence and consolidate control.

• Created fear and obedience – Surviving officers became terrified to act independently, damaging decision-making and initiative at every level.

order 00447

Order 00447 (July 1937) authorised the mass arrest, imprisonment and execution of “anti-Soviet elements,” especially kulaks, criminals and anyone labelled socially dangerous. It created quotas for how many people each region had to arrest and shoot.

Politburo drew up a list of over 250,000 , the proportion to be shot was 28% and the rest ten years of hard labour

Order 00447 made the Great Terror a mass social purge, not just a political one, and helped create a climate of total fear that strengthened Stalin’s dictatorship.

Strengthened Stalin’s control at a local level, as the NKVD wiped out anyone who might resist or fail to obey.

1941 gulag

1.9 million population

average time - 10 years

involved helping with labour , five year plan projects such as the construction of the white sea canal

the end of the terror

came with the arrest of Yezhov being replaced with Beria

Trotsky was caught and murdered by Soviet agents in Mexico 1940 as he continued to publish anti-Stalin material

the responsibility of the terror

historians debate over the responsibility of the terror - claiming Stalin alone cannot be held responsible - other theories include

• party members using the purges to advance their own position within the party

• the acceptance of the purges by some to allow the social and economic transformation of the USSR 

• Stalin was continuing a policy by Lenin

• it was a result of the chaos of the 1930s

Impact of the terror

allowed stalin to remove all opponents

only original member of the central committee from 1917-1938

terror coincided with the slowdown of the economy from 1938

Shakhty trial

1928

• 53 engineers, technicians and managers from the Shakhty coal-mining district in the North Caucasus.

• Create a scapegoat for industrial failures.

• Reinforce the narrative that ‘class enemies’ were sabotaging socialism.

• Justify increased state control over industry

• Used as propaganda to rally workers and justify harsh economic policies during the First Five-Year Plan.

Ryutin

• Showed growing internal party opposition to Stalin’s policies, especially collectivisation.

• Demonstrated that Stalin had not yet secured total control in 1932—the Politburo could still restrain him.

• Used by Stalin later as justification for:

  • Tougher repression within the party

  • The 1933 purge of party members

  • The atmosphere leading up to the Great Terror (1936–38)

Murder of Sergei Kirov

• Turning point leading directly to the Great Terror.

• Gave Stalin the excuse to:

  • Launch a massive purge of the Communist Party and state apparatus.

  • Introduce the 1 December Law, allowing immediate execution of “terrorists” without full trial.

  • Eliminate Old Bolsheviks like Zinoviev and Kamenev, who were later blamed in the Moscow Show Trials.

significance of the purge of the red army

• Catastrophic impact on military effectiveness, leaving the USSR vulnerable during:

  • The Winter War (1939–40)

  • The early stage of Operation Barbarossa (1941)

• Strengthened Stalin’s personal power by eliminating any potential rival with military backing.

• Cemented a climate of fear inside the armed forces.

Trotsky death

• 20 August 1940: Trotsky was attacked in his study by NKVD agent Ramón Mercader, who struck him in the head with an ice-axe.

• Trotsky fought back and was taken to hospital.

• He died the next day: 21 August 1940.

Why Stalin Ordered the Killing

• Trotsky remained a symbolic alternative to Stalin’s version of communism.

• His writings attacked the terror, the show trials, and the distortions of the revolution.

• Stalin wanted to eliminate even the idea of opposition — Trotsky was the last major rival left alive.Symbolic closure of opposition to Stalin abroad.

national minories

National Operations (1937–38)

• The NKVD launched specific “national operations” targeting ethnic groups suspected of having foreign ties or loyalties.

• Koreans, Chinese and Afghans were persecuted. This was particularly a concern during the war with stalin believing they would agitate for independent from the USSR by supporting Nazis - their persecution prevented this

the polish operation NKVD order 00485

• Began August 1937.

• Targeted anyone with Polish connections: workers, peasants, teachers, factory directors — not just political activists.

• Around 110,000+ Poles were executed and many more sent to gulags.

• Stalin believed they were potential spies for Poland and the West. this helped foster the totalitarian state

Outline the strangeness of the show trials

some of the charges were ludicrous ; plotting to assassinate Stalin and even Lenin and Maxim Gorky,planning to restore capitalism. The evidence was clearly faked , one of the hotels the conspirators was up for did not exist

why did they confess? - torture and threats to their families seen in mainly Bukhrain who wrote a last loving testament to his wife

September 1936

Nikolai Yezhov replaced Yagoda as head of the NKVD

Yagoda was criticised for not finding enemies of the state quickly enough - clear sign from stalin he wanted to advance the terror

Yezhovschina

Yezhov initiated a period of terror called the Yezhovshchina reached its peak in mid-1937 and lasted until late 1938 

how did kirov assassination impact the terror

• Stalin used Kirov’s murder as a pretext to launch the Great Purge.

• Claimed assassination revealed a “conspiracy of enemies” within the party.

• Enabled removal of rivals and increased Stalin’s power.

• The murder justified mass arrests, show trials, and executions.

Andrei Vyshinsky

• Conducted public show trials of Old Bolsheviks

• Used confessions extracted under torture to justify executions.

• Turned the legal system into a tool of political terror.

Molotov

Stalins second in command - made the claim that the revolution from above in 1929 onwards was more significant than Lenins october revolution, it was a seizure of power whereas 1929 wasa transformation of the nature of economy&society impacting everyone in the USSR

Gulag systems

expanded 1929-1930 associated with dekulakization and collectivization

they become a secondary part of the economy responsible for railway building,canals assumes control of timber and gold mining

political impact of terror

• Stalin consolidated absolute power.

• Elimination of Old Bolsheviks → no internal opposition.

• Instilled fear → unquestioned loyalty in party and society.

Volga germans

400,000 deported to siberia and central asia in 1941

Purge of leading party members

70% of members of the central committee elected at the seventeenth party congress were arrested and shot . of the 1966 delegates to the congress 1108 were arrested this was the congress that favored kirov over Stalin

showed how completely Stalin destroyed any potential opposition within the Communist Party. This congress had shown real support for Kirov over Stalin, so by eliminating these delegates, Stalin:

• Removed anyone who had doubts about him or who had backed Kirov.

• Created a Central Committee full of loyal, frightened supporters who would never challenge him again.

• Turned the Party into a tool of his personal dictatorship, not a collective leadership.

Senior military officers

Tukhachevsky and seven other generals (all heroes of the civil war)

35,000 were either imprisoned or shot - although over 11,000 were reinstated by the middle of 1940

• Stalin’s purge of Tukhachevsky and thousands of senior officers seriously weakened the Red Army at the exact moment when threats from Nazi Germany were growing#

• dangerously unprepared for war, contributing to early Soviet disasters in 1941.

• Stalin tightened his control over the army, ensuring absolute loyalty from commanders.