Professional Documents
Culture Documents
He had the power and he gave the orders, therefore he must have caused the
purges. But why did he cause the purges?
IDEOLOGY
Occupation of the Rhineland, 1939:
In 1939 Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland.
The West did nothing to prevent this and Stalin assumed that the West
wanted a strong Germany in central Europe to act as an anti-
communist force.
Stalin feared that German infuence was reaching the USSR and
therefore he needed to purge the people to remove all traces of
capitalism.
Class Struggle:
Stalin used the policy of sharpening of class struggle to justify his actions
as socialism advanced, class struggle intensifed and therefore it is
ideologically justifed to increase the Terror by planning greater attacks on
enemies.
Kulaks, Nepmen and bourgeoisie experts were rooted out as class
enemies
Bukharins Secret Report of 1928 implied that Yagoda, Head of the
NKVD, was actually a Rightist thus, Stalin replaced him with Yezhov
but on the basis that Yagoda wasnt radical enough and had pushed
the NKVD four years back on meeting its targets.
Children were encouraged to inform on their parents if they suspected
capitalist tendencies.
Stalin issued the removal of anti-Soviet elements by producing a list of
250K Anti-soviets.
Jews were also considered too cosmopolitan as they had more loyalty
to themselves than to the Party. They were also open to foreign
infuence.
o 12-4% of Jews fell in senior management from 1945-51.
ECONOMICAL:
Stalin claimed that there was widespread sabotage. Evidence of machines
breaking down and missing targets also support his statement.
He began to purge workers because he wanted to ensure that the
remaining workers were completely loyal to him and would work harder
to speed up industrialization.
o 1928-31: Many industrial specialists were arrested an executed for
sabotage and espionage
Also, The purges provided cheap labour. The people sent by Stalin to
prison camps were a source of slave labour.
o Prisoners of War were deemed traitors because they had
experienced the capitalist way of life but actually Stalin used them
for slave labour.
FEAR OF INVASION
Stalin knew that economically and militarily, the USSR lagged behind the
Western countries. Stalin feared that the West could easily overthrow the
USSR.
He needed to make sure that that the soviet system was free of spies.
Thus he purged the army, party, NKVD and wider society to remove
anyone who sympathized with Germany, would welcome German
invasion or had links with Germany.
Stalin thought that some people would welcome German invasion and
so he moved whole groups of people to prevent them from falling into
the hands of the advancing Nazis.
o Kalmyks 130K moved to Siberia and only 53K survived the
brutal treatment
o Chechens 460K burn alive because they couldnt be moved in
seven days.
He also feared that military bases had links with foreign countries.
o The Rapallo Treaty, a secret agreement with the RA and
Germany, proved this true.
o He feared that the army could seize power and make a deal with
Hitler in order to prevent complete invasion.
SOCIAL CHAOS
Though Stalin was at the top of the totalitarian system, locally the
system was more independent.
There was a lot of corruption and deviation from party line.
The OGPU was divided and factional. Stalin needed to prevent them
from fghting each other thus he formed the NKVD, which had a united
goal to purge others in order to regain control over the system.
Stalin needed to bring the system back into line, thus he purged it in
order to maintain control.
POLITICAL STRENGTHENING
Ryutin Afair, 1932:
Ryutin produced a 200-page document (Stalin and the Crisis of
Proletarian Dictatorship) that criticised Stalins economic policies he
was a Rightist and believed in Bukharins policies.
Stalin demanded that he be executed but senior communists objected
this.
Stalin saw this as a weakening of power and a betrayal from those
closest to him.
Congress of the Victors, 1934:
This was intended to be a celebration of Stalin's economic
achievements. The Congress worried Stalin for several reasons.
When the Congress voted to elect the Central Committee, Kirov, rather
than Stalin topped the poll. Kirov (1,225), Stalin (927). The vote
indicated that Kirov was more popular than Stalin in the Communist
Party.
A group of old Bolsheviks approached Kirov following the vote and tried
to persuade him to stand as General Secretary. (Kirov refused, but
Stalin found out about the plan).
Stalin mistrusted Kirov because of his popularity and because he was
the party leader of Leningrad his power base was the former centre
of opposition to Stalins. Stalin never felt that he had total control over
Leningrad, and the fact that Kirov did just added to the lack of Stalins
support.
Within the Party:
In 1932, the Right called for a more conciliatory approach to
collectivisation, as there was a lot of unrest in the countryside.
Party ofcials, such as Radek, began to criticize the unrealistic targets
set for the FYPs.
RA ofcers were concerned about the efect forced collectivization had
on the morale of the soldiers.
This posed a threat to Stalins economic policies an encouraged him to
purge potential opponents.
Also, the Left criticized the concentration of power in Stalins hand.
These events were evidence that Stalin was losing hold over his
support base and therefore had to purge the Party in order to
strengthen his own political power.
Actions taken to strengthen political position:
By issuing the murder of Kirov (blaming Nikolayev), Stalin had a
legitimate excuse to arrest and used the murder as an opportunity to
purge any traitors or opponents:
o Trial of the Sixteen, 1936: Show trials held for members of the
Left Opposition, including Kamenev, Zinoviev and 14 others. 43
of their allies also disappeared.
o Trial of the Seventeen, 1937: Trotskys former supporters
confessed as being traitors. 13 were executed and 4 were sent
to Gulags.
o Trial of the Twenty-One, 1938: Bukharin and Rykov were
charged with Kirovs murder and attempting to assassinate
Lenin.
Stalin used the Terror to defect the blame of the failures of his
economic policies, on others.
He claimed that the wreckers were working for Trotsky, Zinoviev
and Kamenev and were working to sabotage Russia's economy.
Stalin was able to create scapegoats for economic problems. This
provided him a legitimate opportunity to purge former rivals. He was
trying to secure his own personal position rather than that of the
Party.
o 1937-38: 39K army ofcials + 3K navy killed for not alerting Stalin
about Germanys plans for invasion when in reality he needed
someone to blame for the USSRs early defeats.
o 1938, Yezhov was dismissed because Stalin needed a scapegoat
for the excess of the purges.
PARANOIA
After the death of his second wife in 1932, Stalin became more reclusive and
cut himself of from his ofces. He became paranoid and started to see
opposition everywhere; he even once said I trust no one, not even myself.
Stalins paranoia led to his setting targets for arrests, executions and exiles.
The Terror became indiscriminate as the NKVD set out to meet the targets.
.
Stalin thought that those closest to him would turn on him and his rivals
would take advantage of his decline to remove him from power.
o The Doctors Plot is evidence of Stalins paranoia. The doctors
thought Stalin should reduce his workload to regain his
deteriorating health. Stalin feared that the doctors were trying to
assassinate him, so he had them arrested and imprisoned.
Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin all held leading positions but lost their
power Stalin feared that he might be next. He didnt want to be
forgotten from history once he died.
He did not trust his former rivals and did not believe that they were fully
converted to his ideas of socialism, such as old Bolsheviks under
Lenins rule.
o ACTION TAKEN: This led to the Trials of the 1930s.
He worried about members of the Party who had been members before
the Civil War. They knew the truth about his rise to power and Lenin's
view that he did not deserve to be General Secretary.
Stalin feared the Red Army and the secret police had too much power.
His lack of control over these bodies made Stalin fear assassination
attempts.
o The increase in defence resources during the 930s gave the
army even more power and Stalin wanted to remove this power
through purges.
o ACTION TAKEN: 3/5 marshals, 14/16 army commanders, 37K
ofcers were purged. The navys lost all its admirals due to
purges
Leningrad was Stalins weak point because he didnt have a strong hold
over them. Due to the Leningrad Siege, which lasted for 900 days,
people were very discontent with Stalin. Thus Stalin initiated the
Leningrad afair where he used torture to extract confessions of treason
from the party
o ACTION TAKEN: there were 2000 arrests and 1000 members
were sacked.
Prisoners of war had also betrayed the motherland by surrendering to
the Nazis. He feared that there were spies in their ranks and therefore
they could not be trusted.
Stalin even feared that the NKVDs infuence was growing too much
because of the purging power they held. He then began to purge the
purgers themselves.
o 1938: Yagoda was shot.
Yezhov was arrested and replaced by Beria.
However, perhaps others were to blame for the causing of the Terror?
The System caused the Terror
The purges were determined a local level. Though Stalin was at the top of the
system, it was difcult for him to exercise control over the entire state. An
individual can only do so much. Thus, Stalin delegated his power to the wider
system.
This suggests that the system was the one who caused the Terror, by acting of
their own accord or misinterpreting Stalins orders for more vicious and
uncalled for attacks.
Collectivizing agencies and local ofcials were particularly keen to meet
targets and used the purges as a way to instill fear in their workers.
Local politicians saw the Terror as a way of removing rivals.
Local studies show that the further one got away from Moscow, the
more chaotic the system became
Tsarist System/Lenins Rule caused the Terror
Terror was natural in the USSR, albeit not as viciously as Stalins reign.
The Tsar too had used terror to maintain the people.
Even after the Civil War, Lenin used Terror to control the rebellion e.g.
forming the Cheka [secret police] and the Ban on Factions, 1921.
These reasons were precedent for purging the party during Stalins
reign. Perhaps if there had been no history of Terror, Stalin would have
use other methods to maintain control.
The People caused the Terror
Stalin as an individual could not have caused the Terror to the extent that it
escalated to. The people were responsible for feeding the purges and making
it a Terror.
Communist ideology stated that workers must not trust the educated
bourgeoisie. This mistrust led to many people denouncing each other.
The Stakhanovite Movement allowed for young workers to defect the
blame of not meeting targets, upon their superiors.
Some genuinely believed that those being purges were enemies to the
state and were removing any threat to the USSR by calling them out.
People also wanted to increase targets for the arrests and execution
Stalin merely followed the wishes of the people by increasing targets
despite the fact that they had already been over fulflled.
Personal interest and grudges was another reason people wanted to
steal jobs or secure promotions or get revenge and used the purges as
an opportunity to do this.
o 1937-39: 2/3 of 1.3 million inmates were labelled as political
criminals or socially harmful
o of a million people were executed rather than sent to gulags.
The NKVD caused the Terror
The NKVD were the purgers and therefore they had ultimate control over
whos purged and the number of people purged. Evidence shows that they
can be blamed for causing the Terror.
Yagoda attempted to win Stalin's favour by reporting discontent with
collectivisation. This played on Stalins fears and provoked the start of
the purges.
Thus, though Stalin started the purges, he wasnt the trigger behind it.
Yezhov was known as the Bloody Dwarf because he killed 3000 of his
own ofcers within 6 months of being appointed as Head of the NKVD.
This was known as Yezhovshchina the most excessive of the purges.
He fabricated evidence and set targets for arrests. If ofcers failed to
fnd enough suspects, they themselves were considered suspects. This
led to more arrests.
Stalin had said to avoid witch-hunts but the NKVD ignored this. This led
to an excess of purges and the NKVD began to spiral out of control.
The NKVD encourages people to betray each other and also issued
rewards to informers e.g. giving the accuser the property of those
accused.