Essay 4.

• Essay Question -  Impact of purges and great terror on soviet union under stalin
• Series of campaigns aimed at political repression/persecution of soviet union, late 1930s
• Orchestrated by stalin and secret police NKVD, objective was to eliminate any form of dissent to stalin’s rule
• • Initiated under pretext of assassination of Kirov 1934

  Used this to justify a sweeping campaign against alleged counter-revolutionaries, Trotskyists, enemies of the people
• • Moscow trials stand as grim testament to scale of the purges

  High ranking officials of communist party subjected to public trails, based on forced confessions (executed/sent to labour camps)
• • Scope of the purges were not limited to political elite - Intellectuals, artists, military officers found themselves ensnared in web of political persecution

  Absence of due process and reliance of forced confessions made it an act of political expediency then justice
• • Impact on soviet military, significant portion officer corps purged, leaving red army weakened 

  Soviet union found itself ill-prepared to face Nazi onslaught because of it
• • Lasting impact on intellectual/cultural landscape 
  • Stifle of creativity/independent thought
• Purges exceeded in consolidating power, theft left indelible scar on collective psyche, contributed to long term instability/eventual collapse of regime
• Economic ramifications of purges profound, forced collectivisation preceded the great purge wreaked havoc on economy
• • Exacerbated situation by targeting skillful workers, economic planners, engineers, depriving country from individuals essential for modernisation/industrialisation efforts
• Loss of human capital was setback - economy, contributed to inefficiencies/stagnation that plagued until collapse 
• Chilling effect on society, instilling pervasive sense of fear/mistrust
• Arbitrary nature of arrests and omnipresence of secret police led to breakdown of social cohesion
• Climate of fear served to isolate individuals making collective action against regime impossible
• Ideological impact of purges, communist party which was a coalition of individuals with varying interpretations of Marxist-Lenisist theory, was transformed into a monolithic entity devoid of intellectual diversity
• • Purges eliminated viewpoints, solidified cult of personality around stalin 

  Trials and executions of prominent communists were met with revulsion led to a loss of credibility for soviet model of socialism
• Illusionment weakened international solidarity movements, left soviet union increasingly isolated
• Purges stand as a testament to the devastating consequences of unchecked power/suppression of dissent - lessons that remain relevant in contemporary political discourse