Faction, Terror + The Purges

• Bolsheviks faced opposition from day one in power. Thousands of "Anti-Bolsheviks" were sent to labour camps.
• The Cheka implemented the Red Terror during the Civil War. This was meant to eliminate "enemies of the people".
• Lenin issued a "ban on factions" in 1921. This was meant to curb criticism.
• Stalin exploited Lenin's methods. He intensified Terror in particular.
• Stalin eliminated actual opposition and potential opposition. This included members of the Central Committee.
• Stalin feared his colleagues would betray him because of his wife's suicide and criticism of collectivisation.
• A million members of the Communist Party were excluded from 1932-33. Purges on senior members were systematic after that.
• Kirov was killed in 1934. Stalin used this as a pretext with Trotskyite and Zinoviev-Kamenev members by arresting multiple factions of the party.
• Trotskyites and the Zinoviev-Kamenev factions existed in the Communist Party at the time of Kirov's murder.
• Zinoviev and Kamenev were shot at a "show trial" in 1936. 14 Bolsheviks were also killed.
• Key Bolshevik leaders and military high commanders were executed in 1937.
• Bukharin, Rykov and Yagoda - former head of NKVD were shot in 1938.
• Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico in 1940.
• Stalin's terror was increasingly aimed at citizens from 1938 onwards. The public were encouraged to inform the government about "hidden enemies".
• The planning of arresting citizens was similar to planning industrial production targets. Hundreds of thousands of people were executed or died in prison.
• 1 in 18 people were arrested during the purges.
• One lesser known element of the purges was the deportation of national minorities. Poles and Germans are examples of this.
• Stalin deported national minorities during the purges as he feared they would join an invading army. 100,000 Poles were shot during the campaign.
• Stalin called a halt to the terror in November 1938 because the people were frightened.
• Stalin achieved elimination of all opponents as a result of the purges. He replaced these people with Stalinists.
• Stalin obtain control of the Party and the people post-purges.
• Martin Sixsmith stated that "class enemies were rounded up and executed for their social origin" after the 1918 Lenin assassination attempt.
• D. Volkogonov said Stalin began the purges because he was "driven by a powerful need to win".
• Orlando Figes said the Great Terror was an amalgam of "Party purging and great show trials".