Stalinism politics and control

• Dictatorship


  A form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a single person or small clique
• NKVD


  The secret police in the USSR from 1934 onwards
• Purge


  Remove from an organisation or place in an abrupt or violent way
• Show trial


  A trial held publicly with the intention of influencing public opinion
• Formation of the police state


  1. Purges of the party had already taken place under Lenin

  2. These often led to people losing their Party membership

  3. The Cheka became the OGPU from 1922 onwards
• How the police state developed in the beginning of Stalin's rule


  1. In the early 30s, the population was repressed through arrests and show trials

  2. Enforced famine was also as much an aspect of the Terror as the political arrests. It was 'economic terror'
• The Shakhty Trial 1928


  • Managers and technicians of the Shakhty coal mine questioned the rapid pace of industrialization
  • Five were imprisoned and others targeted
  • This was a message to warn others not to criticize the 5 year plans
• Trotsky's expulsion 1929


  • Trotsky never admitted to mistakes, like others on the Left in the power struggle
  • He was expelled from the party and the USSR
  • This removed the leader of the Left Opposition
• The 'Industrial Party' Trial 1930


  • A group of senior industrialists and economists were accused of planning a coup and wrecking the Soviet economy
  • This created scapegoats for the failings of the 5 Year plans
• Ryutin affair 1932


  • Ryutin criticised Stalin and collectivisation in a document known as the 'Ryutin platform'
  • Stalin accused Ryutin of an assassination plot and called for his execution
  • Kirov and others argued against this and Ryutin was imprisoned for 10 years
  • Kamenev, Zinoviev and 14 others were expelled for not reporting Ryutin's document earlier
• Party purge 1933


  • Over 570,000 Ryutinites were expelled from the party
  • This was designed to restrict the Party membership to Stalin's supporters
• Sergei Kirov


  • Once a close friend and ally of Stalin
  • He was the leader of the Leningrad Party & had a strong powerbase there
• What happened before the murder of Kirov


  1. Stalin's policies came under attack at the Seventeenth Party Congress at the beginning of 1934

  2. Following serious economic problem, protests and famine, some Politburo members wanted to slow industrialization

  3. Kirov sided with the opposition and received great praise
• What happened to Kirov


  1. Kirov was shot on December 1934 by a man called Nikolayev

  2. Stalin blamed the murder on a Trotskyite faction that was attempting to overthrow the party
• Impact of Kirov's murder


  1. The assassination was used as an excuse for Stalin's regime to begin widespread purges of the party

  2. The day after the murder, Stalin gave Yagoda and the NKVD powers to arrest anyone found guilty of 'terrorist plotting'

  3. Over 100 Party members were shot, thousands were arrested and sent to prison camps
• The First Show Trial


  • In January 1935, Zinoviev, Kamenev and 17 others were arrested and sentenced to 5-10 years imprisonment
  • In August 1936 the first major show trial was held for Kamenev and Zinoviev
  • Both men accepted responsibility for Kirov's murder and confessed to plotting Stalin's murder
  • Both were executed
• Purpose of the show trials


  • They emphasized the threat to the regime from 'enemies of the state'
  • They justified the repressive methods used by Stalin and the NKVD to increase his control
  • They were used as a way to shift blame away from economic and social tensions
• How show trials worked


  1. Before a show trial, the NKVD made sue that they obtained a signed confession

  2. They used torture, sleep deprivation, starvation and threats against the family of the accused to ensure they got the confession

  3. In April 1935 it became legal for children age 12 and up to be treated in the same way, which was an incentive for parents to confess

  4. In June 1935, the death penalty was extended to include people who did not report subversive activity
• When and Why the Stalin Constitution was drafted


  1. A new constitution was drafted by Bukharin in 1936

  2. It was intended to celebrate the triumphs of Stalin's rule and declare socialism had been achieved
• What the Stalin Constitution said


  • The USSR was a federation of 11 Soviet Republics
  • Each Republic had its own 'Supreme Soviet'
  • Each republic had some powers to create laws
  • Ethnic groups were promised autonomy within the Union
  • Soviet citizens were promised elections every 4 years
  • Everyone over 18 could vote
  • Civil rights were set out – freedom from arrest, of the press, of religion, of speech
  • Citizens had the right to work, education and social welfare
• Reality of the Stalin Constitution


  • The promised rights were largely ignored
  • E.g. Stalin didn't allow republics to leave the Union
  • Soviet citizens did accept and make use of the constitution
• Nikolai Yezhov


  • In March 1937, Yagoda was arrested on Stalin's orders
  • Yezhov announced his arrest and replaced him as head of the NKVD
• What was Order 00447?

  1. Stalin gave the NKVD the power to pursue mass terror with order 00447, passed in 1937

  2. This order meant there was no central control over the NKVD

  3. The NKVD were given quotas of how many anti-Soviet elements were expected to be arrested according to region

  4. It allowed those arrested to be quickly sentenced by NKVD panels called troikas
• Impact of Order 00447


  1. Within one month, around 100,000 had been arrested and 14,000 sent to gulags

  2. By 1938, 575,000 people had been sentenced and 258,000 of them executed

  3. Although the NKVD targeted people considered dangerous to the regime, many innocent people were also arrested

  4. Pressure to meet targets meant people started to be arrested randomly

  5. People were encouraged to report on their colleagues, friends and family
• The Trial of 17


  • In January 1837, 17 senior party members were accused of plotting with Trotsky, sabotage and espionage
  • They all confessed and 13 out of the 17 were sentenced to death
  • This was likely an attempt to eliminate political rivals
• The Military Purge


  • From May-June 1937, Stalin ordered a purge of the military
  • He feared the popularity of Civil War generals as well as negative reactions after several officers were caught in show trials
  • 8 top military commanders, including Tukhachevsky were accused of spying and plotting with Trotsky
  • All confessed and were executed
• Impact of the Military Purge

  1. A 'Great Purge' of the Red Army followed the Military Purge

  2. From 1937 to 1939 over 30,000 army leaders were sacked, thousands arrested and executed

  3. Anyone objecting to the trials and purges was arrested

  4. 74 military officials were shot for refusing to approve the execution of their colleagues

  5. This destroyed the Red Army's command structure, weakening their military severely
• The Trial of 21


  • In March 1938, Bukharin, Rykov and 19 others were put on show trial
  • They were charged with working with Germany and Japan to plot the assassination of Stalin and overthrow of the USSR
  • They were all found guilty and executed
  • This eliminated the threat of political rivals on the right
• How the purges ended


  1. The purges slowed after the end of 1938

  2. In August 1940, Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico by a Stalinist agent

  3. Trotsky's death signaled end of the threat from the old Bolsheviks who could have opposed him
• How gulags changed under Stalin


  1. More gulags were built during the 30s to house Stalin's enemies

  2. From 1937 the gulag population rose from 800,000 in 1835 to well over 5.5 million by 1938

  3. Records were not kept well, and some estimate the population as high as 9.5 million

  4. Gulags were no longer about re-educating class-enemies but now used to work prisoners to death
• How Stalin treated national minorities


  1. Stalin was suspicious of minorities from other countries living in the USSR

  2. When war with Japan became a threat, Stalin deported the Korean minority in the far east to Central Asia

  3. He also deported 400,000 Volga Germans to Siberia and Central Asia

  4. He purged Party leadership of non-Russians and replaced them with people willing to accept Moscow's rule

  5. After the invasion of Eastern Poland and the Baltic republics, antisemitic persecution began
• Victims of the purges


  • By 1938 a third of all Party members had been purged
  • According to KGB records released in 1995, 650,000 people were executed from 1937-38
  • Families of those executed or imprisoned often lost their jobs, were evicted, exiled or sent to the gulag
• Impact of the purges on the USSR


  1. The Yezhovshchina destabilized the USSR's state and economy

  2. Skilled personnel were purged when industrialization depended on their skills

  3. Stalin scapegoated Yezhov for the problems caused by the purges

  4. He was secretly tried and executed in 1940 and replaced by Beria

  5. Some opportunities were created for other party members to progress

  6. Stalin emerged with a position of supreme power
• Impact of the purges on different groups


  • Stalin - His wife's suicide may have been a trigger for the start of the Terror, he was paranoid and vindictive in his elimination of rivals, he personally promoted the purges and had the power to end them
  • Bolshevik Party - The Party had always used terror to consolidate and maintain power, Stalin escalated these techniques
  • Local Party activists - Some local officials acted on their own agendas, some promoted terror but knew they wouldn't be checked on
  • Ordinary individuals - Individuals chose to denounce others, which escalated accusations out of control, people denounced others for a range of reasons from self preservation to personal vendettas
• Authoritarian


  When power is not focused on one person but shared amongst everyone
• Komsomol


  The youth division of the Communist Party
• Socialist man


  The ideal citizen of the USSR who embodied communist ideals
• Totalitarian


  A political system that demands absolute obedience to the state and where every citizen is subject to central state authority
• Zhenotdel


  The Women's Section of the Central Committee of the Communist Party
• Purpose of cultural change


  To promote and instill the propaganda ideals of the Soviet propaganda