Great terror

• Party officials are upset with execution of industrialiston and disturbed by famine, targets and dekulakisation
• Stalins wife suicide is catalyst to paranoia
• dissension within ranks

  • wouldn’t identify kulaks
  • wont collect grain target
  • Stalin needs to purge the passivity
• 1935 - 22% members lose membership
• show trails

  • zinoviev and kamineiv and members of opposition - accused of kirovs murder and executed - members of central committee
  • Bukharin and Yagoda - pleaded guilty
• red army

  • tuchakevsky is arrested and shot due to confession from torture
  • 512 high command shot out of over 700
  • 10k soldiers arrested and 23k dismissed
  • Nazi spies planted this
• Black humour arises from arrests
• Moscow - morgues refused bodies as they arrived in meat vans from interrogation
• purge

  • scapegoats for economic crisis blamed on party leadership
  • get rid of opposition
  • new appointments are younger and owe de to Stalin
• mass operations

  • order 00447
  • attacks former kulaks and anti Soviets
  • 35k arrested and 5k shot
  • 600 to 800 thousand shot dead
• national sweeps

  • over 140k arrested and 100k shot
  • 250k die
  • ethnic cleansign and polish operation
• between 950k and 1.2 million deaths