Show trials and purges Stalin’s use of terror

Stalin made extensive use of terror in two ways Punishment of those who appeared to be ‘enemies of the state’ by not working hard enough or being loyal enough Kulaks and peasants during collectivisation Workers and managers who missed their quotas and norms during the 5 Year Plans Officers and servicemen who were suspected of disloyalty Elimination of those who might have threatened his absolute political control of USSR Political opponents His own supporters who were suspected of not being loyal enough His own supporters who were suspected of becoming too popular or powerful His own supporters who were no longer useful.

The economic show trials 1928 – coal-mining town of Shakhty – 53 engineers arrested and accused of being German agents. Found guilty, 11 shot, 42 sent to a Gulag 1933 – 6 British engineers arrested but released due to pressure by the UK Government From 1930 onwards political purity and loyalty were more important than training and ability

The Riutin affair 1934 – Riutin and his supporters were arrested. He had written a 200-page critical critique of Stalin and his policies ~ described Stalin as ‘an evil genius’ and called for his removal along with the rest of his supporters. Riutin had been a member of the Central Committee and was well- respected in the Party. Stalin demanded his execution but the Central Committee and the Politburo only voted to have him expelled from the Party. Stalin realised that the document had been widely circulated in the Party and that many members agreed with it. He manufactured an excuse to have 1,000,000 members expelled from the Party. He also realise that there were people, like Bukharin, on the Central Committee who were planning to have him removed.

The assassination of Kirov Sergei Kirov was head of the Communist Party in Leningrad. He was well respected, popular, charismatic and regarded as a potential successor to Stalin as General Secretary. He was also a close personal friend of Stalin. 1 December 1934 he was shot in the street by Leonid Nikolaev. Nikolaev was a disillusioned Party member. It was also claimed that Kirov was having an affair with his wife. Stalin claimed that this evidence of a conspiracy within the Party (Nikolaev claimed he had worked alone) and used this as am excuse for conducting widespread investigations throughout the Party and the USSR.

How Stalin used the assassination to his benefit Nikolaev claimed he had acted alone but 13 other ‘conspirators’ were arrested, tried and shot. All had been connected to the secret opposition to Stalin within the Communist Party. In addition a further 103 Party Members who did not seem to have any connection with the crime were executed. The assassination gave Stalin the excuse to purge the Party of his enemies. Of the 1,966 delegates to the 1934 Party Conference 1,108 were arrested, along with 98 of the 139 members of the Central Committee

The first show trials In August 1936 public trials were held of Kamenev and Zinoviev ~ the international and national press were invited as were members of the public. Both were accused of being in league with Trotsky to bring down Stalin and the State, of being responsible for murders of loyal officials and stirring up discontent. They confessed to these crimes but refused to implicate any other Party Members. They were found guilty and shot

Show trials in January 1937 Pyatakov, Radek, Sokolnikov were all accused of being Trotskyists and industrial saboteurs. They were found guilty and shot. Their conviction triggered local trials of thousands of minor officials and factory workers across the USSR. Marshall Mikhail Tukhachevsky, the most important General in the Red Army, along with 4 other generals were accused of espionage, treason and involvement in a ‘gigantic conspiracy’. This provided the excuse for the purging of the Red Army’s Officer Corps.

The last of the great show trials ~ 2 nd March 1938 Bukharin, Rykov and Yagoda (ex-head of OGPU then the NKVD) were all arrested. Tomsky would also have been arrested but he committed suicide instead. Vyshinsky (the State prosecutor) accused them of: being part of a 1918 plot to kill Lenin; a conspiracy with Germany and Japan to occupy and partition the USSR whilst restoring capitalism; being Trotskyites. They were found guilty and shot.

The local show trials continued People denounced their rivals and their enemies, or to get another Party member’s position or possessions or as an act of revenge. Questioning was conducted by the NKVD and confessions were extracted by torture. Those who did not break were tried in secret. Over a third of the members of the Communist Party were executed or sent to Gulags. In the end the new head of the NKVD, Yezhov, was executed and replaced by Beria. In 1939 Stalin told the Communist Party that the purge had been ‘unavoidable and its results, on the whole, beneficial’ although he did admit that some mistakes had been made. He declared that he would not be resorting to another mass purge.

Trotsky Trotsky had been in exile since He had travelled widely before settling in Mexico. He continued to promote an alternative interpretation of Marx’s works (Trotskyism) and to be publically critical of Stalin. In 1938 Trotsky’s son was murdered whilst receiving treatment in a Paris hospital, and one of Trotsky’s close friends, Klement, was murdered and dumped in the Seine. In May 1940 NKVD assassins broke in to his heavily fortified house and machine-gunned his bedroom (he survived) On 20 th August 1940 Ramon Mercador, who had infiltrated Trotsky’s household, killed him with an ice pick.

Why did the purges take place? Historians have found it difficult to find rational explanations for them. It has been pointed out that there were those who opposed the rate and nature of the change which Stalin’s policies of collectivisation and industrialisation imposed. The purges cleared these people out of the way. There were also those who were conspiring against Stalin within the Communist Party. The Purges removed them. Stalin may have wanted to clear out the ‘old’ Bolsheviks from the revolutionary era as being too old-fashioned. It may have been that he was a ‘criminally deranged psychopath’ (Wood)

How much was Stalin’s sole responsibility? It is still unproven that he arranged Kirov’s assassination. He did initiate the purges and made no effort to restrain the willingness of Party officials and the NKVD in the provinces to commit excesses. He was willing to turn against anyone, including his own family, and anyone who could have given some indication of how far he was really involved had been executed by the end of the purges.

What were the consequences of the purges? Stalin’s grip on power was absolute. Foreign opinion was horrified. Industry and agriculture were disrupted by the loss of skilled, experienced managers and farmers. Government was disrupted by the loss of so many skilled administrators. Education at all levels was weakened by the loss of teachers and lecturers. The Red Army was weakened by the loss of two thirds of its officers.