New Title: Stalin’s Show Trials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOK1TMSyKcM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22nzopiyWx0

Clinging to Lenin:Stalin cared for Lenin in his last illness, probably in the hope of being seen as Stalin’s favourite. But Lenin had this to say of Stalin:

‘I am not sure that Comrade Stalin will always use his power properly.  

Comrade Trotsky, on the other hand, is distinguished by his outstanding ability.’

Timeline of Russian History

Title: The PurgesKeywords:

Terror

Kirov

Show trial

Totalitarianism

NKVD

1. What country was this photo taken in?2. What event is happening here?3. Name 2 people in this photo

What does it mean to ‘purge’ something?

To remove an undesirable group of people (from an organisation or place) in an abrupt or violent way

Why did Stalin feel he needed to purge the Party?In the 1930’s discontent with the way in which the policies of collectivisation and industrialisation was increasing

Many of the older Bolsheviks were horrified at the treatment of the peasantsMany felt Stalin was not an effective leader

There were rumours of replacing Stalin with another member of the party

Sergey Kirov was a popular alternative

Some Party members were calling for Trotsky to be reinstated(Trotsky was living abroad but many wanted him in charge)

Stalin was becoming ever more paranoid and believed that a conspiracy to murder him was developing

Sergey Kirov’s murderAt the Seventeenth Party Congress (1934), Kirov received more applause than Stalin

A few days after the Congress, Kirov was murdered outside of his office in Leningrad

Stalin used Kirov’s murder to launch a campaign against, what he believed to be, a conspiracy to murder him and bring down the party

Who did Stalin Purge?• Members of the Party, who were actively

involved in the 1917 Revolution• Bukharin, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Trotsky

(assassinated in 1940, whilst he was living in Mexico)

• Anyone else who opposed his rule was killed off

• The NKVD (Secret Police) were his main assassins

The Terror:Stalin had a huge secret police force (NKVD) which had spies and informers everywhere. Children were even encouraged to inform on their parents.

Anyone who opposed or criticised Stalin was arrested, tortured and either executed or sent to labour camps.

Stalin used the prisoners from the labour camps to dig canals and cut timber in the frozen north where no one else could work.

Video for start of Show Trials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC1lyk0mPic

Stalin’s Show Trials

Why did Stalin organise trials?

Remove potential political opponents

Create a culture of fear and paranoia in the USSR

Change public opinion

Remove anyone remaining from the time of Lenin. Stalin was to be the only survivor Provide

scapegoats for failing to meet industrial targets

Stalin was paranoid

1934 Party congress 1. What pictures are hanging in the background?2. What kind of response did Kirov receive?3. How did Stalin feel about this?

Timeline of the Show Trials

1924: Lenin Dies

1929: Stalin becomes undisputed leader

1930: Collectivisation

1928: First Five-Year Plan

1934: Murder of Kirov

1934: Beginning of the Purges

1936: First Show Trial

1937: Second Show Trial

1938: Third Show Trial

1937: Purge of the Army

1938: End of the Purges

1941: Entry into WWII

1917: Revolution, communists come to power

Stalin Purges Videos

Brichonov execution https://youtu.be/WcCJ2kcLpSk?t=1007

Why would Zinoviev have said this?

“I would like to repeat that I am fully and utterly guilty. I am guilty of having been the organiser, second only to Trotsky, of that block whose chosen task was the killing of Stalin. I was the principal organiser of Kirov’s assassination. The party saw where we were going, and warned us. Stalin warned us scores of times but we did not heed his warnings. We entered into an alliance with Trotsky.”

Format of Show TrialsThe defendants were accused of incredible crimes such as plotting

to assassinate Stalin or working as spies for foreign countries

The defendants then confessed their guilt and were found guilty. The verdicts had been decided before the trial

The trial were well publicised at home and abroad

Defendants were usually shot for their crimes

The defendants were tortured until they accepted the accusations. Most were threatened with having their families killed

if they did not admit charges

Key personality: Andrey VyshinskyHe was the judge in trials

Was a Menshevik socialist (different from Stalin who was a Bolshevik) and feared that he too could be arrested at any moment

He tried (under Stalin’s influence) to humiliate defendants and to ensure the general public viewed them as traitors

His speeches were full of hatred, disgust and anger

He humiliated the defendants

"RIAN archive 7781 Vyshinsky" by RIA Novosti archive, image #7781 / G. Vail / CC-BY-SA 3.0. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RIAN_archive_7781_Vyshinsky.jpg#/media/File:RIAN_archive_7781_Vyshinsky.jpg

Zinoviev

The First Show Trial: The trial of the SixteenKamenev, Zinoviev and 14 others are put on trial for killing Kirov and attempting to put Trotsky in charge of the party

They were accused of organising a terrorist group called the “United Trotskyite-Zinovievite centre” that was plotting against Stalin

The trial lasts between 19-24 August 1936 and is stage managed with spectators being members of the NKVD and the media reporting that the accused were traitors/terrorists

Defendants were dressed in old clothes and there was 3 judges overseeing the case

Who?

What?

When?

Where?

Why?

Video: Stalin Canal and First Trial

https://youtu.be/WcCJ2kcLpSk?t=1521

Defendants freely admitted to the charges against themOne even admitted killing Kirov even though he was already in prison!Kamenev even admitted “For 10 years I waged a struggle against the party and Stalin personally”Vyshinsky demanded the death penalty for defendants and got his wish as all were executed for treasonThe newspapers applauded the executions and public opinion largely supported the trial. Some demanded further trials of counter-revolutionaries.

The First Show Trial: The trial of the Sixteen

The Second Show Trial 1937 The Trial of the 17

Principal defendants Pyatakov and Radek

Most of the remainder had backed Trotsky against Stalin

They were accused of working with Trotsky to wreck the Soviet Union and restore capitalism in Russia

Thirteen executed the day of their conviction

The other four given lengthy prison sentences after ‘implicating’ others in the ‘conspiracy’

Radek died two years later in a Gulag

S.P. Kosolov: "I am afraid to open my mouth. Whatever you say, if you say the wrong thing, you're an enemy of the people. Cowardice has become the norm."

Questions:1. Which source best explains the terror in Stalin’s Russia? Why?2. Which source is more reliable?3. What was Stalin’s secret police called?4. What was a Gulag?5. What does he mean by ‘Cowardice is the norm’? Could people have done anything?

1. 2.

The NKVD

Mind map on torture tactics used by them

For inspection

The Third Show Trial 1938 The Trial of the 21

Principal defendants Bukharin, Rykov and Kretinsky.

Yagoda, who helped organise the earlier show trials was also accused.

Charged with spying and sabotage and attempting to murder Stalin.

As with the other trials – the defendants were tortured and forced to make ‘prepared’ confessions.

Bukharin initially pleaded innocence and then guilty to no particular charge. He was repeatedly tortured and eventually caved in when the lives of his wife and infant son were threatened.

All the accused were executed immediately.

Bukharin’s wife spent 20 years in a Gulag.

His son grew up in orphanages. Yuri Larin only found out who his father was in 1956.

The Third Show Trial 1938

Purge of the Red ArmyStalin also purged the army (this happened between the second and third show trial)

Many army generals had been appointed by Trotsky and Stalin was afraid they were loyal to him

Stalin was paranoid and thought they were planning a revolution to overthrow him

These trials were conducted in secret so little is known about them

About 35,000 men are thought to have been shot as part of the purge

Reaction in the westMost were amazed that defendants would so openly admit crimes and not attempt to defend themselves

Many newspapers and reports failed to smell a rat

Many communist and socialists around the world defended the legitimacy of the trials.

A British socialist called it ‘a new triumph in the history of progress’

Results of the Show TrialsEveryone from ordinary people to political leaders were killed as part of Stalin’s purges

Families were torn apart as they were encouraged to denounce each otherOne boy, aged 14, turned his father over to the NKVD. The rest of his family stabbed him to death later.

Ordinary people lived in constant fearSome had bags packed just in case the NKVD came to pick them up at night

None of the original Bolsheviks who participated in the Revolution were alive by 1938

Stalin had completely eliminated all potential opposition to him within the USSR. Those remaining in positions of power had been put there by Stalin himself and were faithfully loyal.

The Russian Army was devastated

Stalin now had complete control of the Party and the State

Soviet historians estimate that 20 million Russians were transported to labour camps by 1939

Come Visit the USSR Pyramids

French Cartoon 1950s1. What is the cartoon suggesting?2. How did the west view the purges?

Which is a more reliable source of information? Are either reliable?Edited excerpt from Irish Times report of 23rd November, 1936

The German engineer, Herr Stickling, and his eight Russian fellow-prisoners in the trial at Novosbirsk on charges of organized sabotage, have been sentenced to death. The sentence has aroused indignation in Germany. Der Montag calls the sentence “a true example of international scandal” and comments:- “This groundless injustice shows how justified is Germany’s attitudes to the terrorists of the Soviet Union and how necessary are the warnings to the civilized world to join, for the sake of peace, in anti-Bolshevik bloc”.

Was Stalin in One Direction?