Stalin

Daniela RamirezMelissa Calil

Yasmin EltallaJohn Woodman

Stalin’s Use of Terror/RepressionThe secret police CHEKA became the OGPU in 1922 then the NKVD in 1934

NKVD means Narodny Komissariat Vnutrennih Del, that is People's Comissariat of Internal Affairs. It was just a general internal affairs department.

They sent 20 million Russians to the Gulag. Gulag is the system of labor camps.

Stalin had “show trials”. Show trials are public trials where judicial authorities had already determined the guilt of the defendant. Their purpose was to get rid of anyone who might be a potential rival to him as a leader.

Like, Zinovyev and Kamenev in 1936, Bukharin, Tomsky and Rykov in 1938

Stalin’s PurgesThe First Purges (1930-1933) Aimed to exterminate those who opposed industrialization and the kulaks.

The Great Purges (1934-1939) aimed to exterminate/intimidate :

❏ Political opponents❏ The army❏ The church❏ Ethnic groups ❏ Civilians

The Great Purges ( 1934-1939)In 1934, Sergey Kirov was murdered. Stalin was believed to be behind it, however, Stalin used it as an excuse to arrest thousands of his opponents who might be “responsible” for Kirov’s murder.

In 1937, the Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army and 7 leading generals were shot.

In 1938–39, all the admirals and half the Army’s officers were executed or imprisoned. In the same period of time thousands of religious leaders were imprisoned while churches were closed.

20 million civilians were sent to the Gulag, where half of them died.

The Cult of Stalin The purges instilled fear in people. Churches closed down, and Stalin enforced “Russification” in all of the Soviet Union.

Cult of Stalin was created. It replaced churches with its icons.

Censorship of anything that might reflect badly on Stalin was enacted. Propaganda was continually praising and applauding Stalin. The youth was taught Stalin was “the wisest man of the age”. History books were changed to make him the hero of the revolution and erase the names of purged people.

NKVD● The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs( NKVD) was the law enforcement agency of the Soviet

Union that directly executed the will of the Communist Party. It was closely associated with the Soviet

secret police and is known for its political repression during the era of Stalin.

● The NKVD conducted mass executions, ran the Gulags, suppressed underground resistance, and was

responsible for mass deportations of entire nationalities and Kulaks to unpopulated regions of the

country. The NKVD was also tasked with protection of Soviet borders and espionage (which included

political assassinations abroad), influencing foreign governments and enforcing Stalinist policy within

communist movements in other countries.

● The NKVD contained the public police force of the USSR, traffic police, firefighters, and border guards.

● The NKVD played the dominant role in the terror of the 1930s, in which it carried out countless

arrests, interrogations, and executions. The NKVD sentenced people for up to five years'

imprisonment without judicial process. The secret police became the primary pillar of Stalin's personal

dictatorship: it was deployed not only against the general population and the intelligentsia, but also

against the Party, the military, and the government

The Show Trials● The show trials were not held in the open with foreign journalists invited and were there to prove to

those in the USSR who were interested that ‘enemies of the state’ still existed. Stalin used these show

trials to get rid of anyone who might be a potential rival to him as leader.

● The NKVD was handed a list of those who were now labelled ‘enemies of the state’ like Kamenev,

Zinoviev and Bukharin. Anyone associated with these men was also under suspicion. They were put on

trial at heavily manipulated show trials. The show trials had to prove their guilt preferably with a very

public admission of betraying the revolution and therefore the people.

● The first people arrested were known supporters of Trotsky. Very few survived long enough in a

NKVD prison to make a public admission of guilt. However, signed confessions were considered useful

tools as well.

● The NKVD prisons were brutal for their prisoners.. Cells would be windowless and a very strong

electric light bulb which was left permanently on. NKVD guards ensured prisoners were sleep

deprived and exhausted when it came to their interrogation. A promise of better treatment was made

to ensure the swift signature of a confession

The Gulags● The gulags were first established in 1919 under the Cheka, but it was not until

the early 1930s that the camp population reached significant numbers. By 1934 the Gulag had several million inmates.

● The types of prisoners in the gulags were:○ murderers, thieves, political and religious dissenters, etc.

● The Gulag camps were located mainly in Siberia and the Far North and made significant contributions to the Soviet economy.

● Gulag prisoners constructed the White Sea-Baltic Canal, the Moscow-Volga Canal, the Baikal-Amur main railroad line, numerous hydroelectric stations, and strategic roads and industrial enterprises in remote regions.

● Gulag prisoners were also used for much of the country's lumbering and for the mining of coal, copper, and gold.

Repressive systems used by LeninRed Terror - Lenin’s implementation of Red Terror was one of his most well known repressive systems as it was used during the civil war to crush any opposition to the Bolshevik government. Mass arrests and executions occurred under this system.

CHEKA - Although introduced as a part of Red Terror, it later played a key role in future communist rule. The CHEKA were a secret police, under Lenin’s control, that were responsible for the murders of thousands of Russia’s people, known for their cruel torture methods.

Censorship - Censorship was used to a very large extent, not allowing any publications that showed liberal or socialist ideas, fearing its influence. Censorship also contributed to the banning of many churches.

Repressive systems used by tsarist regimesRussification - Implemented during Alexander III’s reign, imposing the Russian language and Russian schools on the minority nationalities.

Church - Orthodox Church was encouraged at the expense of other religions as it was considered an offense to convert to any other religion.

Anti-Semitism - Many anti-Jewish measures were introduced during tsarist regimes,

such as limited university admissions, and limited availability to trade.

Okhrana - The secret police during the tsarist regimes to combat any revolutionary activity.

- Punishment during Tsarist regimes usually included exile to remote regions of Siberia.

What best explains Stalin’s purges?Stalin’s purges can be best explained as extreme paranoia, not only due to his paranoia of being overthrown, but also his fear of being invaded by Germany. Stalin had predicted that Russia only had 10 years to industrialize to the level of the western world before Germany would invade Russia. Because of this, Stalin exploited thousands of gulag prisoners to help industrialize. Stalin was power hungry and paranoid of being overthrown, leading to the Great Purges. This included Stalin’s rival, Sergey Kirov, being murdered. Stalin used this to arrest many of his opponents who were considered suspects of Kirov’s murder. Many political opponents to Stalin were put on show trials, where they charged with treason with little actual reason or proof.

Stalin had a vision of how Russia should modernized and how Russia could achieve a socialist economy, and eliminated anyone who he saw as a threat to this process.

To what extent was the use of terror necessary to enable Stalin to attain his objectives?

By implementing the force of terror to attain his objectives, Stalin was able to eradicate all opposing threats. Different terror tactics that Stalin enforced were the secret police (OGPU), the Great Purges, and the gulag system. Stalin was responsible for the deaths and imprisonment of millions of Russia’s people. While the majority of Stalin’s success was brought by a terror of great extent, he also created a cult of personality. Instead of using terror to influence the people, Stalin persuaded the common people that he was more important than any other leader or devotion. Stalin succeeded in influencing children by portraying himself as the perfect father figure and swayed religious people away from the church. Overall, Stalin primarily uses terror to obtain his objectives while also influencing people through his cult of personality.