Purges + Terror

Question 1

When was the first purge under Lenin?

Answer 1

1918

Question 2

What were purges called?

Answer 2

Chistki

Question 3

What were purges used for?

Answer 3

To remove excess party members following key events like the Civil War. This was non-violent.

Question 4

When was Kirov murdered?

Answer 4

1934

Question 5

When did the Great Purge begin?

Answer 5

1936

Question 6

What was the first stage of the Purge?

Answer 6

The chistki of 1932-33.
over 20% of the party was expelled non-violently. after collectivisation

Question 7

What was the second stage?

Answer 7

The show trials

Question 8

What was the third stage?

Answer 8

The Yezhovschina.
a period of mass terror from 1937-38 when thousands of party members and members of society were denounced, arrested and imprisoned. sometimes executed.

Question 9

What was the Gosplan purged of?

Answer 9

Ex-Mensheviks and bourgeoisie intelligentsia.

Question 10

When was the Cheka replaced with the GPU?

Answer 10

1922

Question 11

What was the GPU renamed in 1924?

Answer 11

OGPU

Question 12

When was the NKVD formed?

Answer 12

1934

Question 13

Who was the leader of the NKVD?

Answer 13

Yagoda then Yezhov

Question 14

How many people were sent to the gulags during Stalin’s regime?

Answer 14

over 40 million

Question 15

When did Stalin’s wife kill herself?

Answer 15

1932

Question 16

What happened to Stalin following his wife’s suicide?

Answer 16

It made Stalin more paranoid and less likely to trust others

Question 17

Who circulated a 200 page document criticising Stalin in 1932?

Answer 17

Ryutin

Question 18

What did Stalin want to do to Ryutin?

Answer 18

execute him but the Politburo disagreed.

Question 19

Who was charged with forming an opposition group against Stalin?

Answer 19

Smirnov

Question 20

When did the split emerge between Stalin and other members of the Politburo?

Answer 20

the 17th Congress in 1934

Question 21

What title was abolished?

Answer 21

General secretary

Question 22

What title were both Stalin and Kirov given?

Answer 22

Secretary of Equal Rank

Question 23

Who was accused of involvement in Kirov’s murder?

Answer 23

Yagoda

Question 24

Who killed Kirov?

Answer 24

Nikolayev

Question 25

What was the name for supposed Trotsky supporters?

Answer 25

Trotskyites

Question 26

When were Kamenev and Zinoviev placed on trial?

Answer 26

January 1935.

Question 27

What was the verdict of Zinoviev's and Kamenev's first trial?

Answer 27

Guilty despite no direct evidence to them plotting soviet leader assassinations.

Question 28

When were Zinoviev and Kamenev trialed again and for what?

Answer 28

August 1936 for spying for foreign powers

Question 29

Who was placed on trial in January 1937 and why?

Answer 29

Radek + Pyatakov who supposedly confessed to planning to divide the USSR up to Germany and Japan and forming an Anti-soviet troskyite group.

Question 30

Who was sentenced to death in March of 1938 for spying for enemies and plotting to kill Lenin in 1918?

Answer 30

Bukharin and 20 others including Rykov and Yagoda

Question 31

How did Stalin purge the party?

Answer 31

He claimed that traitors and spies had infiltrated the party. Encouraged lower ranking party members to criticise and accuse those in higher positions.

Question 32

When did Yezhov replace Yagoda?

Answer 32

September 1936

Question 33

What was Yezhov called?

Answer 33

The 'Blood Thirsty Dwarf' and an 'Iron Hedgehog' for the thousands of deaths he was responsible for.

Question 34

When did Vyshinsky announce a conspiracy in the Red Army?

Answer 34

May 1937

Question 35

Who was arrested for the Army conspiracy?

Answer 35

Tukhachevsky and 7 other generals. all with beaten out confessions

Question 36

How many war commissars were removed from office?

Answer 36

all 11

Question 37

How many marshals were dismissed?

Answer 37

3/5

Question 38

How many of the Supreme Military Council were arrested?

Answer 38

91/101 and 80 were executed

Question 39

How many officers were imprisoned or shot?

Answer 39

35,000

Question 40

How did purges affect the Soviet Navy?

Answer 40

All serving admirals were shot and naval officers were sent to labour camps.

Question 41

How did the purges affect the Soviet Air Force?

Answer 41

Only 1 of its senior commanders survived the purges.

Question 42

How many people did Yezhov add to the arrest list?

Answer 42

Over 250,000

Question 43

What were workers encouraged to do during the purges?

Answer 43

denounce workers and saboteurs in the workplace. Over 1000 were arrested in a single factory.

Question 44

What was the quota system in July 1937?

Answer 44

The proportion to be shot was fixed at 8%.

Question 45

When was Trotsky killed?

Answer 45

In 1940, by a hitman following Stalin's orders.

Question 46

How many people did Robert Conquest estimate were arrested during the purges?

Answer 46

7-8 million

Question 47

Who stated that Stalin's "signatures were all over the terror"?

Answer 47

Oley Naumov