The End of the Purges
By Melinda and ClarissaIB History
Bandung International School
Stalin stopped the terror
1938, Yezhov had been replaced by Beria
Arrested slowed down But central committee and army still being
purged in 1939
1940, all of the old Bolsheviks had been wiped out Trotsky was murdered by Stalin’s hit man Going to World War II, purges much reduced
Purges Destabilized Russian
Administrative system were falling apart
Negative effect on industrial production
Stalin blamed Yezhov and the NKVD for the excesses of the terror
Source Analysis
“The worst thing is when you have no one waiting for you, when no one needs you. I and my brothers might have had children and grandchildren, families. The accursed Tamerlaine (Stalin) smashed and trampled everything. He took the future away from citizens who were not born because he killed their mothers and fathers. I’m living out my life alone and I still cant understand how it was that we didn’t see that ‘our’ leader was a monster; how the people could let it happen.”
—Stepan Ivanovich Semenov, a Muscovite, who spent 15years in camps. His wife died in prison and his brothers were shot
Who were the victims of the Purges???
Writers and Artists
It was easy to step out of line
1933, Osip Mandelstam composed a sixteen-line poetic epigram about Stalin
Yagoda was struck by the poem Recited it to Stalin
Mandelstam was arrested Defended by Bukharin wasn’t shot or sent to labor
camp Exiled for 3 years
When he returned Tried to write a poem praising Stalin, but never published
Leading Party Members
Congress favored Kirov over Stalin
70% members of the Central Committee at Seventeenth party arrested and shot
1,108 out of 1,966 delegates arrested
Party Officials
Radek and Pyatakov Accused of working for Trotsky and foreign
governments to weaken the Soviet economy Real cream: to criticize the Five-Year-Plans
Party and state leaders
Charged with treason or bourgeois nationalism
2 state prime ministers
4 out of 5 regional party secretaries
Thousands of lesser officials Lost their posts
The Secret Police
Yagoda replaced by Yezhov AKA “The bloody dwarf” Oversaw most excessive phrases of purges 1936 –
1938 Purged his own personnel Yezhovchina stopped and dismissed himself 1938
Scapegoat
Kulak and Nepmen
“Joke”
First Man: What do you think of our great leader Stalin?
Second Man: Exactly the same as you, comrade.
First Man: In that case I must arrest you.
NKVD
Yagoda: head of NKVD Arrested 1937 Responsible of a lot of people’s
death A soviet remark:
‘low moral’ and ‘sadistic inclinations’
Enemies saw purges paranoid tendencies of Stalin Mistrusted everyone (including
fam. Members)
Trotsky: Stalin’s betrayal and creation of personal dictatorship
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The Red Army (1937 – 1938)
3 out of 5 marshals
14 out of 15 army commanders
37,000 officers shot/imprisoned
Accusation of armed forces links with foreign countries
Can be true contact with German army Only evidence
Peasantry morale decreased (collectivization) detrimental effect on army morale
Senior military officers
Tukhachevsky: chief of General Staff
11 war commissars
3 out of 5 marshals of the USSR
Admirals commanding fleets (replacements)
All but one of senior commander of air force
Overall: 35,000 officers: imprisoned or shot 11,000 reinstated middle of 1940
Managers, engineers and scientists
Almost all managers were purged
Railways hard hit Physicists and biologists arrested as well
Peasants, industrial workers and more
Arrested, imprisoned, shot (A LOT OF THEM) Included: children, colleagues, subordinates,
relatives, wives, friends and associates
Most died during collectivization and the famine
Contact abroad: foreign trade officials, diplomats, raliwaymen, sportsmen
Former Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries
Priests, members of religious groups
Media, artists and historians
Estimates of victims of the Great Terror 1937 – 1938 By Robert Conquest (1990)
Arrests 7-8 million
Executions 1-1.5 million
Population of camps 7-8 million
Died in camps 2 million
1932 – 1933: Famine 7 million
1929 – 1953: Deaths (total) 20 million
Take to account that these results have been from different time frames!!!
Historiography
"Stalin was a true Leninist in that he faithfully followed his patron's political philosophy and practices. Every ingredient of what has come to be known as Stalinism save one -- murdering fellow Communists -- he had learned from Lenin, and that includes the two actions for which he is most severely condemned: collectivization and mass terror. Stalin's megalomania, his vindictiveness, his morbid paranoia, and other odious personal qualities should not obscure the fact that his ideology and modus operandi were Lenin's. A man of meager education, he had no other source of ideas.“
—Richard Pipes, Russia under the Bolshevik Regime
Bibliography
Corin, Chris. "The end of the purges." In Communist Russia Under Lenin and Stalin, by Chris Corin, 219. London: John Murray, Ltd, 2002.
Corin, Chris. "Who were the victims?" In Communist Russia Under Lenin and Stalin, by Chris Corin, edited by Ian Dawson, 220. London: John Murray, Ltd, 2002.
Philips. "The Purges."
Remembering Stalin's Great Purge Victims. Performed by RT. 2009.