4. dictatorship + stalinism

• Shakhty trial 1929


  managers and technicians at the shakhty coal mine questionned the pace of industialisation and were forced to confess to 'counter-revolutionary activity'. 5 were executed and GOSPLAN was consequently purged of critics.
• Ryutin Platform


  Post the first five year plan, many questioned the forced collectivisation. Ryutin released 'Stalin and the Crisis of the Proletariat Dictatorship' which urged for Stalin's removal. Stalin removed Ryutin despite being over ruled by other member such as Kirov
• Kirov's murder 1934


  17th part congress-> split between StaLin, Molotov and Kanganovich and Kirov who was highly supported for questioning the pace of industrialisation and forcible gran seizures. Stalin and Kirov then become 'secretary of equal-rank' meaning Stalin wouldn't be the only one to recieve blame for the economic crisis but also Stalin was no more important than other.

  Dec 1934-> Kirov murdered under suspicious circumstances, Stalin quick to jump to him being involved in a 'Trotskyite plot'
• Stalin constitution 1936


  Celebrate what socialism had achieved so far.

  ”socialism has been achieved”

  ”the most democratic in the world”
• Trial of 17 Jan 1937


  17 prominent communists including Karl Redek accused of plotting with Trotsky. 13 sentenced to death
• Military purge June 1937


  Stalin feared a military coup. 50% of officer corps purged including with a great purge of the red army.

  Tukhachevsky arreste. 11 war commissars and 8 admirals
• Trial of 21 March 1938


  Bukharin, Rykov, yagoda accused of belonging to trotskyite bloc. Tomsky killed himself before trial.

  1/3 of all party members purged by end of 1938
• 1935 800,000 to -9.5 million by 1938


  people in Gulag
• Gulag


  • No longer a focus on re-education, only hard labor
  • Mortality rates 4-6 times higher than rest of USSR
  • Anything over a 5 year sentence was regarded as a death sentence (it was highly unlikely you would survive that long)
• Minorities 1937


  Korean majority deported 1947

  Poles+Germans 1939

  1942, 400,000 Volga Germans deported

  Anti-Semitic attitudes with rabbis being arrested

  persecution of Muslims 1928- anti religious campaign