1. The Great Terror: 1936-38 Learning Objective:
- To consider how the Moscow show trials consolidated the power of Stalin
- To understand how the Great Terror escalated
Starter (5 mins): Read through pages Any questions, just ask.

2.  Your task Read p.73-75 (Bunce) and take notes on
Trial of the Sixteen (1936)
Trial of the Seventeen (1937)
Trial of the Twenty-One (1938)
Focus on the key individuals, charges & outcome
Were there any similarities between the trials?

4. Key individuals: Zinoviev & Kamenev
Trial of the Sixteen (1936)
Key individuals: Zinoviev & Kamenev
Charges: murder of Kirov; plotting to disrupt FYP; conspiracy to overthrow State
Outcome: ‘Shoot the mad dogs, every last one of them!’ (Judge Vyshinsky)

5. Trial of the Seventeen (1937)
Individuals: Trotsky’s former allies
Charges: plotting with foreign powers, terrorism, sabotage, contact with Trotsky
Outcome: 13 out 0f 17 executed, remainder sent to gulags
Soviet labour camp

6. Trial of the Twenty-One (1938)
Individuals: Bukharin, Rykov & ‘accomplices’
Charges: overthrow of socialism; murder of Kirov; attempted assassination of Lenin
Outcome: described as ‘a foul-smelling heap of human garbage’ (Vyshinsky) & executed

7. Changes to NKVD
Changes in leadership: Yagoda replaced by Yezhov & executed (Trial of 21)
Recruitment: less restrained agents employed
Targets: for arrests, executions & exiles
Purges within NKVD: removed ‘old fashioned’ communists
Yezhov – now you see him, now you don’t!

8. Impact of purges
Impact on Party: , 330,000 Party members convicted as ‘enemies of the people’
Army: senior generals tortured & executed; 34,000 soldiers ‘purged’ from Red Army
Society: NKVD Order no , targeted 250,000 ‘anti-Soviet elements’
Lavrenti Beria replaced Yezhov and his agents tracked down Trotsky in Mexico, killing him with a pick axe

9. Bunce Chapter 11 – Consequences of the Terror

10. Social impact
Scale of suffering: (Yagoda), ½ million people convicted – 2,300 shot, 405,0000 labour camps, or ‘disappeared’
Certain social groups: urban & educated, aged 30-45, managers & professionals
Ethnic groups: Poles, Romanians & Latvians esp. targeted
Children: expelled from uni or publicly humiliated by teachers & Komsomol

11. Social impact
Factory managers ‘purged’: Yaroslavl trials, workers from rubber factory staged show trials of managers & handed them over to NKVD
Purge of party membership: 1937, massive purges of Party leadership
Emergence of ‘former people’: priests, NEPmen, Kulaks etc. invented new identities, e.g. Valdimir Gromov

12. Economic impact
Problems with statistics: targets & plans distorted due to exaggerated statistics
Lack of leadership: many members of Gosplan & factory managers ‘purged’
Case study: Donbas region – coal production fell during Great Terror

13. Political impact
Consolidated Stalin’s position: removal of opponents & Trotskyites
Deflected criticism from Stalin: diverted public attention from shortages & enabled people to settle personal scores or blame scapegoats, e.g. Kazan party officials
Estimated death toll of Great Terror (1937-8):
500,000 – 1,500,0000
Numbers sent to gulags:
2,0000,000

14. What was the most significant impact of the Great Terror?
 Group task
On a sheet of paper draw a chart similar to the one below. Position the words ‘social’, ‘economic’ and ‘political’ accordingly. Find 3 pieces of evidence explaining your points. Write a ‘REAL’ paragraph explaining your judgement.
Level of impact
Number of people affected

15. Essay Practice
How far does Stalin’s paranoia account for the extent of terror in the USSR between ?
What are the key issues?

16.  Homework
Read p and complete a table similar to the one shown on p.83