How did Stalin rule the USSR between ?

Yezhov Stalin’s Terror State Purges are regular feature of Soviet state – K “Radishes”/carreerists – K Counter-revolutionaries Is the Great Terror simply a continuation of the Purges? – % Expelled from Party –Next step is quantitatively and qualitatively different –Stalin will eventually purge 1/3 and execute 600,000 CPSU members

Yezhov The Timeline of the Purges Early Purges –Not as violent or deadly as later –Lose Party Membership cards and with them rights to employment, housing and special rations Not all are Party Expulsions –Shakty Trial Engineers charged as saboteurs Real goal is to blame people for failure to meet quotas –Industrial Research and Planning Trial 1930 Trial of GOSPLAN officials for poor planning

Yezhov The Timeline of the Purges –Ryutin Purges 1932 Moscow Party Secretary calls Stalin an “Evil Genius …” He is expelled from Party but avoids death penalty which Stalin demanded Leads Stalin to believe that organized resistance is still possible –Serves as prelude to first major purge 1/3 of Party totaling 1 mi. lose party membership accused as Ryutinites Purge organized by Nicolai Yezhov –Purges intensify: Why? Stalin suspicious by nature and suffers from paranoia Alec Nove suggests revolution from above breeds those seeking vengeance (so Stalin solution is kill them) Robert Service believes Stalin has personality disorder and thinks in terms of getting even Violence is perfectly acceptable to him

Yezhov The Timeline of the Purges –Mechanisms of control Police, Secret Police, labor camps, border guards all placed under NKVD Special Military Court created for “serious crimes” –Post-Kirov Purges th Party Congress Sergei Kirov (head of the Leningrad Party) gets more votes than Stalin for Central Committee Kirov assassinated Dec by husband of Kirov’s lover Probable Stalin approved it or organized it In two hours Stalin signs Decree Against Terrorist Acts Claims Trotskyites/Leftist to blame and rounds them up, many executed

Yezhov The Timeline of the Purges –Post-Kirov Purges 114 shot immediately, 3000 Kamenev (K)/Zinoviev(Z) supporters arrested, 1000’s deported Stalin Proteges brought in Now no area of Soviet Bureaucracy Stalin doesn’t control Status of victims is high, K and Z are arrested and imprisoned No one safe, arbitrary arrest and summary execution is the norm Example: Of 1996 members at 1934 Congress; 1108 shot in next 3 years 98 of 139 Central Comm. Members shot

WHY? Violence a normal part of the Soviet State? How? NKVD –Police, Secret Police, Camps, Border and security guards –Special Military courts Stalin’s cronies put in place after Kirov Murder –Yagoda, Yezhov, NKVD –Vyshinsky – Prosecutor –Zhdanov: Leningrad Party Leader –Beria, State Security –Poskrebyshov – Secretariat –No Party of Party Bureacracy Stalin doesn’t control

Yagoda The Great Purge –Stalin declares State of seige –Purge effects entire population Purge of the Party –Memo in 1936 warns of Trotskyite- Kamenenite-Zinovievite-Leftist- Counter-Revolutionary Bloc –K and Z, arrested 1935, tried and confess their guilt to Kirov murder and attempted overthrow of government –Called the Trial of the 16 ( T, Z, K Counter-revolutionary Line) Confess under torture Confessions mean others have no defense Public confessions also give Stalin justification to continue the purge –Yagoda who was replaced by Yezhov as head of the NKVD

Yagoda The Great Purge –1937 Trial of 17 (Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center) Alleged plot with Germans Most prominent is Lenin favorite Radek whoe groveling confession implicates Bukharin –1937 Decree of Anti-Soviet Elements Regional quota arrests and executions NKVD ordered to execute 28% of those arrested Official list is 353,000 dead (underestimate) –1938 Trial of 21 (Trotskyite Rightists) –B, R, T all tried, 18 others including –Bukharin still accepts the infallability of the Party and Stalin in his final speech –328,000 executed (again 3 is too low)

Military Purge –Eliminate independence of the military is next goal –Stalin precedes purge with massive transfers to disorganize any opposition –Tukhachevsky and 7 generals arrested tried, shot for spying for Germans/Japan –In 18 months All 11 War Commissars shot –3 of 5 Marshalls –91 of 101 on Military Council –14 of 16 Army Commanders –35,000 Officers about 50% of toatl –All but one Air Force General and all Navy Admirals shot –All units end up understaffed, inexperienced

Purge of the people Stalin dominates Party, Gov’t, Military but search for enemies continues –Yezhovschina Force regions and nationalities into submission 2 Prime Ministers, 80% of Party Secretaries and 1000’s of lesser officials lose jobs –Despite high profile Show trials the worst of the purges falls on the people –1/8 are arrested, virtually every family has at least one victim –NKVD squads arrest 100’s at a time, 20,000 bodies in one mass grave –Quota system, no appeal, execution “…to be carried out immdiately…” –Fear is a way of life –1934 – 1 mi arrested – mi. in camps –1939 – 5-7 mi. more –1940 – 2 mi deported – ethnic deportations Later Purge –Leningrad Affair –Doctors Plot

Purge of the people Purges finally scaled down 1939 –NKVD and interrogators now purged –Yezhov arrested 1938, Beria replaces him –23,000 NKVD arrested –Betray your own family to survive –Innocence and guilt mean nothing, mass of population is terrified and bewildered

Later Purges –Purges do not end with WWII but they are scaled back –During WWII Military failures labeled sabotage and purges result –After WWII Stalin is even harder, also more suspicious of outside world Desertions in WWII lead to new purges of Army after the war 1947 CC and P-buro abolished Leningrad Affair –January 1949 Leningrad Trade Fair organized by Leningrad leaders who were heroes from WWII –fair was attacked by official Soviet propaganda –falsely portrayed as a scheme to use the federal budget from Moscow for Leningrad,

Later Purges Leningrad Affair (con’t) –Other accusations Leningrad's leaders competing with Moscow-centered communist government –Over two thousand people from city government arrested –Also arrested were many industrial managers, scientists and university professors. –first prosecution, on 30 September 1950 leaders were sentenced to death –About 2,000 of Leningrad's public figures were removed from their positions and exiled from their city, –Intellectuals were harshly persecuted for the slightest signs of dissent –Doctors Plot

Later Purges Doctors Plot –Dr. against Jewish Doctors that dominated the Moscow medical profession –Really done because Stalin’s daughter had an affair with Jewish doctor –Doctors accused of plot to murder Stalin –Plan was to devastate medical profession like the army, but Stalin dies before it is implemented Post war Gulag –2.8 million captured soldiers arrested after their return from Nazi captivity –Only 500,000 return home –New labor camps built – million in the camps –Purge trials now in Soviet occupied states in Eastern Europe

Purges and Stalin’s Power –1934 – 1 mi arrested – mi. in labor camps –1939 – 5-7 mi. more arrested, 1 mi. shot, 2mi. Die in camps –1940 – Baltic states occupied and 2 mi deported – ethnic deportations of ethnic Germans, Kalmyks, Ukrainians, Chechens, Tartars: 1.3 mi. die – million to camps after screening from Nazi occupied areas: 5-6 mi. die – one million die from various purges Worse than Nazi holocaust and Stalin is so isolated he is prisoner in his own system

J. Arch Getty Why the Purges ? –Stalin wants to retain power –Stalin wants sole credit for Soviet successes –Stalin’s Personality –There are some actual opponents (Ryutin, Kirov) on issues like collectivization Revisionists –Service argues Stalin need help and purges are popular with some groups –J. Arch Getty, Sheila Fitzpatrick –Not just Stalin –Party officials want to eliminate rivals –Stalin can’t control all local officials Purges generate own momentum –Background of forced collectivization and Nazi rise breeds violence –Yezhov/NKVD use purges to increase power –Nomenklatura (new bureaucrats use purges to get power/promotions –conscience gone cold