1. The Consequences of the Great Terror
Learning Objective:
To analyse the impact of the Great Terror on Russia

2. Consequences of the Terror (20 mins)
Using pp create a spider gram with three main headings:
Social Impact
Economic Impact
Political Impact
Stalin Inside the Terror (Show from 57mins – ½ hr clip)

3. During it is estimated that 10% of adult males were sent to labour camps. Specific groups targeted were….
The women most affected by the terror were….
The national groups most affected were,…
Wives of party officials were…
Children of party officials were affected because….
Existing managers of factories were affected because….
When elections took place in local Communist Party organisations, junior members acted like the NKVD…
Some groups of people completely reinvented themselves. For example…
There 3 ways of doing this:
The purges had a terrible effect on the planning of the economy because…
The Donbas region is a good example of the effect of the purges on the Russian economy…
Alec Nove argues that…
The Purges allowed Stalin to finally remove his greatest rivals from the party
Stalin emerged from the terror stronger than ever before - it had removed threats from within the military, economic and political leadership of Russia
The terror provided scapegoats for Russia’s failure to meet the targets of the five year plans
Estimates for the number of executions range from 500,000 to 1,500,000. In additions, 2,000,000 people died working in labour camps (gulags)
Page 78 – 81 Bunce. Complete sentences then colour code social, economic , political impact

4. What were the Consequences of the Terror?
Social Consequences
Political Consequences
Economic Consequences

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. What was the most significant impact of the Great Terror?
Complete p82 task
Level of impact
Number of people affected

10. How far do you agree that Stalin’s paranoia was the main cause of the Great Terror?
Write your own introduction, opening paragraph and conclusion to this question.
Now write an introduction and a conclusion to the following question.
How far do you agree that the main consequence of the Great Terror was Stalin’s removal of rivals?
Model intros and conclusion for this question – Bunce p93 and 95

11. How far do you agree that Stalin’s paranoia was the main cause of the Great Terror?
Complete Spot the Mistake activity – P94 Bunce
Write your own introduction to this question.
Now write an introduction and a conclusion to the following question.
How far do you agree that the main consequence of the Great Terror was Stalin’s removal of rivals?
Model intros and conclusion for this question – Bunce p93 and 95

12. Write an essay plan, intro and conclusion to the following question: How far do you agree that the main consequence of the Great Terror was Stalin’s removal of rivals?

13. How far do you agree that the most important result of the repression of 1934–38 was the strengthening of Stalin’s political dominance?
30 marks