THE GREAT TERROR (ROGUE SECTIONS)

PERSECUTION OF MINORITIES

  • officially they condemned nationalism and proclaimed internationalism, including their support for self determination.

  • Lenin had implemented a policy of ‘korebization’ (integration of non-russian nationalties into the governments of their specific soviet republics). Stalin doubled down on this and undertook ethnic cleansing or the forced deportation of thousands, branding a number of ethnic minority groups as traitors and making them second class citizens with restricted freedoms and rights.

  • DEPORTATION OF KOREANS AND CHINESE - soviet ethnic cleansing commenced in the 1930s, with the deportations of koreans being the fast mass transfer of an ethnic group in the USSR. Idea originated in 1926, was initiated in 1926, was initiated in 1930 and carried out through September and October 1937. During the operation, 171,781 people (almost all the ethnic koreans living in the USSR) were deported from the far wast to unpopulated areas of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan via train. The soviet justificaion for this was that the chinese and koreans living in the USSR were working as spies for Japan. It is estimated that the deportation contributed to up to 50,000 deaths of those who were forcefully moved with people dying due to starvation, disease and difficulty adjusting to the unfamiliar environment. Due to similar reasoning 15,000 chinese living in Soviet Russia were deported by 1937

  • DEPORTATION OF THE KALMYK PEOPLE/ OPERATION ULUSSY - 97-98,000 people, including Russian women married to Kalmyks (but with the exception of kalmyk women married to other nationalities), were deported to Siberia. They were accused of beeing collectively in collaboration with the Nazis and were packed into cargo wagond and deported or registered for future deportations. Around half of the Kalmyk people who were deported to Siberia died before Khruschev finally allowed them to return home in 1957.

  • DEPORTATION OF CRIMEAN TARTARS - ordered by Stalin in 1944, due to their alleged collaboration with the Nazi regime in the tauridia subdistrict during 1942-1943. More than 230,000 people were deported, with most of them going to Uzbekhistan. According to a 1960s survey by crimean tartar activists, more than 100,000 died from starvation or disease as a direct result of deportation. After extensive anti-tartar propaganda, even after Stalin’s death, their persecution contiuned as the vast amjority of Crimean tartars were forced to remain in exile under the household registration system until 1989 and the detartarisation campaign took place.

  • THE GENOCIDE OF THE COSSACKS - in the Don and the Kuban. From 1919-1933 ‘selfish and wealthy cossack rebels’ were arrested, deported and executed by the Cheka and the Red Army. Estimated that between 10,000 and 500,000 people died in the campaign, with up to 500,000 killed or deported from 1919-1920 out of a population of 3 million.

  • ETHNIC GERMANS - Stalin declared ‘all germans working in our military and chemical factories, electrical stations and at construction sites in all regions, must be arrested’. Between 1937-8, 56,787 ethnic germans were arrested, of whom 41,898 were shot. Of them just 820 were citizens of the Reich. Later (during the Nazi invasion of Russia) more than 400,000 german descendants who were living along the Volga were transported East to Central Asia and Siberia

  • ATTACK ON SOVIET POLES AND LATVIANS - 139,815 soviet poles were arrested and 111,071 of them were executed. During the Latvian operation in December 1937, 17,851 soviet citizens (mostly Latvian) were arrested and 13,444 were executed. Overall, between August 1937 and October 1938 over 335,000 people were arrested and 247,000 shot by the NKVD

  • approximately 1 million people were deported overall. Effeciency was clearly showcased when in one night in Feb 1944, when tens of thousands of NKVD troops were assembled with an hours notice and deported the vast majority of the Chechen and Ingush populations.

  • As a part of the polish operation they shot 14,000 polish officers

  • 1937 stalin created 3 seperate ethnic entities out of the former Mongolian Autonomous republics, creating conflict as resources were not shared equally

  • native communist elites were purged and replaced with Russians or those educated on Russian culture, beliefs and language.

  • Stalin used the events of WW2 to strengthen Russian nationalism

  • JEWISH - the holocaust was denied, 12th August 1952, was the night of the murdered poet where he called for the execution of the most prominent yiddish poets. 1953 doctors plot als nearly occured but Stalin died before this could occur.

  • KAZAKHSTAN - Kazakh nomads were forced to cultivate their soil in their region, even though this had never been their practice. Resulted in 1.8 million deaths. This suggests that while particular nationalities were affected by Stalin’s policies, it was more of an economic side effect rather than ethnic goals.

STALIN CONSTITUTION

  • 1936

  • same year as the first great show trial, drafted by Bukharin

  • aim was to mark the progress towards socialism and to celebrate the triumphs of the previous years

  • declared the socialism had been achieved, the next stage was true communism

  • proclaimed the USSR to be a federation of 11 soviet republics (replacing the former 7)

  • The all russian congress of soviets was replaced by a new supreme soviet made up of the soviet union and the soviet nationalities. Each republic also had its own supreme soviet.

  • Promised local autonomy to ethnic groups and support for national cultures and languages (nationalist in form socialist in content) also promised four yearly elections with the right to vote for all over the age of 18 (although this was raised to 23 in 1945) including the former people who had previously been deprived of voting rights.

  • Stalin claimed it was the most democratic in the world

  • Against Stalin’s ideas in the RSFSR

  • there was a broad process of consultation and the so-called ‘Stalin constitution’ was ratified by a special soviet congress in December 1936

  • perhaps an attempt to stabilise a part of socialist society he viewed as purged, or perhaps to impress foreign nations

THE DOCTRINE OF SHARPENING CLASS STRUGGLE

  • Many within the party (former friends) including senior figures in the CC and Politburo were reluctant to try Zinoviev and Kamenev

  • This reluctance turned to outright opposition when it was rumoured that Stalin’s next victim would be Bukharin.

  • Stalin persuaded his opponents that this was not the case - on the 10th September 1937, Prava published an article stating that Vyshinksy (judge over all three trials) had closed his investigation into Bukharin

  • Despite this, Stalin was still planning Bukharin’s trial and execution and therefore in order to persuade the party of the necessity of further terror, he proposed a bold new theory. Stalin argued that as socialism had advanced, the class struggle intensified. This theory provided the ideological justification for every increasing terror.

  • The communist party officially adopted this doctrine of ‘sharpening class struggle’ in the feb-march CC meeting of 1937.

  • However in Spite of their loyalty, 70% of those present at the meeting would be executed within three months

NKVD ORDER 00447

  • 30th July 1937, triggered by the instructions Stalin sent to Yezhov and the first secretarary of every republic to instigate a sweep of ‘former kulaks, criminals and other anti-soviet elements’.

  • Many former Kulaks had compelted their sentences in special settlements and gulags and Stalin feared they may be a threat during war.

  • The order divided people into two categories, The first were immediately arrested and after consideration of their case by the troika were shot. The second category were subject to arrest and confinement between 8-10 years.

  • Quotas of people had to be arrested, established by area and social class were created for every region and republic. The highest was Moscow and out of its region of 350,000 50,000 were shot. Within a month over 100,000 had been arrested and 14,000 sent to gulags.

  • From the end of August local leaders like Kruschev made requests to increase the quotas for repression.

  • By the autumn by 1937, the pressure to achieve was so high the NKVD began to select individuals at random - targeting those who may confess more easily.

  • The NKVD was particularly keen to root out those cosidered dangerous to society such as those belonging yo suspect groups like gypsies/members of other political parties.

CONGRESS OF VICTORS

  • intended to be a celebration of Stalin’s economic achievement, however it worried Stalin

  • When the congress voted to elect the CC, Kirov rather than Stalin topped the poll, Kirov gained 1225 votes and Stalin just 927 votes

  • a group of old Bolsheviks approached kirov following the vote and tried to persuade him to stand as general secretary.

  • Kirov refused but Stalin found out about the plan, these events were evidence he had to purge the party, as it could no longer be trusted

TERROR ECONOMICS

  • Stalin blames the economic problems on political enemies, eg blamed on ‘wreckers’ - in employ of Trotsky, ZInoviev and Kamenev who aimed to deliberately sabotage Russia’s economy

  • Purges provided a resevoir of cheap labour, with prison camps providing slave labour (Magnitogorsk, Volga canal, Dniaprotsrai damn)

  • Sralin’s motives were partly economic, can be found in the trial on the Shakhty tria(Menshevik trial of 1931) and the trial of state farm and agricultural officials in 1933 (all guilty)