why were kirov purges used?
stalin had spent most of his life trying to extend his authority and the purges were his principal weapon for achieving this.
when did the purges begin?
technically began in 1932, but really began in the early 1920s with lenin as thousands of ‘anti-bolsheviks’ were imprisoned in labor camps.
what was the trial of ryutin group in 1932?
- ryutin and his supporters were tried and expelled from the party
- one of the first major purges of the CPSU by stalin
- between 1933-1934, over one million members (over a third of the total party) were excluded from the party on the grounds that they were ‘ryutinites’
at the beginning, party purges were not what?
that violent or deadly.
in 1934, the purges begin to develop into what?
systematic terrorizing not of obvious political opponents but of colleagues and party members due to Stalin’s insane paranoia.
what did leonid nicolaev do?
walked into the communist party headquarters and shot sergei kirvov, secretary of the leningrad soviet.
what was nicolaev’s motive?
revenge, although there is a strong possibility that the murder was approved and planned by stalin.
within two hours of learning of kirvov’s murder, stalin signed a decree against what?
terrorist acts by saying that the shooting was organized by a wide circle of trotskyites and leftists who must be held accountable.
many post-kirov purges had victims that were what?
left and right bolsheviks and no party members, whatever their rank, were safe.
of the 1996 delegates who attend, how many were executed later on?
1108.
what were the trials of stalin’s former bolshevik colleagues?
many went to their death even after confessing their guilt and accepting the truth of the charges and this has now gone down in history as ‘the great purge’ or ‘great terror’ due to how high ranking they were.
what were stalin’s terror program sections?
- the purge of the party
- the purge of the armed services
- the purge of the people
what was the purge of the party/the left?
- secret letter was sent to be on the lookout for enemies by rooting out suspected agents and sympathizers
- kamenev and zinoviev were put on public trial in moscow and were charged with the involvement in kirov’s murder and plotting to overthrow the soviet state with both men pleading guilty
- the men confessed because they went through physical and mental torture in addition to this being used as a way of being disgraced by the party
what was the purging of the right
burkharin, rykov, and tomsky were put under investigation but not yet formally charged
delay was due to some older bolsheviks not wanting to denounce their comrades but stalin sped up this process
with yagoda being replaced by yezhov as the head of NKVD
the greatest impact of the purge was on what?
the middle and lower ranks of soviet society and this was not accidental as between 1937-1938, evidences shows that yezhov deliberately followed a policy of mass repression which involved NKVD squads going into a range of selected localities, then arresting people to be executed.
one person in every blank of the population was arrested during stalin’s purges.
eight.
what is the GULAG system?
the vast system of prison and labor camps that spread across the USSR during the purges.
by 1941, due to the purges, there was how many prisoners in the GULAG?
around 8 million.
what was the quota system?
the number of victims to be arrested for the fields was set in quotas and there was no appeal against sentence.
what were the butovo killing fields?
a village 15 miles south of moscow was turned into a killing grounds where mass graves there show over 20,000 bodies dating back to the late 1930s.
what was the ‘doctors’ plot’?
- in 1953, it was announced that a plot had supposedly been ‘uncovered’ in moscow where jewish-dominated medical centers had planned to murder stalin and other soviet leaders
- preparations were made for a major assault on the soviet medical profession but this was prevented by stalin’s death in 1953
what was the nomenklatura?
the soviet ‘establishment’ of a privileged elite of officials who ran the party machine.
how did idealism play a role?
many carried out horrible things with the belief that they would live in a communist paradise on earth.
what was soviet culture like?
stalin thought that culture should perform a social and political role and that its role was the expression of society’s values and had to be shaped and directed in the same way agriculture and industry had.
