By 1936 – mass terror and repression were already enveloping the Soviet Union in fear, but after the death of Kirov the intensity of terror increased. From July 1937, the Yezhovschina began.
Nikolai Yezhov, who had replaced Yagoda as the head of the secret police in 1936, started the ruthless implementation of NKVD Order 00447. Mass purges followed: of ordinary people, of state bureaucrats, of high placed Soviet leaders and of the Army.
Countless people were imprisoned but the Gulag or executed, Yezhov himself was shot in 1940. Nothing stopped the reign of terror until the German invasion of Russia in June1941.
Mass terror and repression at local levels:
Stalin gave the NKVD the power to unleash mass terror through a too-secret directive:
Impact of the order:
Within 1 month – around 100,000people had been arrested and 14,000 sent to the gulags. By the start of 1938, around 575,000 people had been snatched and 258,000 of them executed. All executions were carried out in secret, as were the disposals of the bodies.
The NKVD targeted people who were considered dangerous to the regime, such as former members of other political parties, but many ‘innocent’ people were also caught up n the arrests.
Pressure to meet and exceed arrest quotas was so great that people started to be arrested randomly.
People were encouraged to root out ‘hidden enemies. People denounced their colleagues, friends and family members in the hope of saving themselves.
Mass terror and repression and central levels:
The spread of mass terror through the USSR coincided with the Great purges: a series of show trials of senior Party and the military.
The Trial of 17th January 1937:
Who was targeted?
17 senior Party members, including Karl Radek and Gregorii Sokolnikiv, all confessed and 13 were sentenced to death, accused of plotting with Trotsky, spying and sabotaging industry.
Likely explanation of purge or trial: to eliminate potential rivals.
From exile, Trotsky, asked ‘who can believe such accusations’ of these Old Bolsheviks, who were condemned n ‘monstrous impossible, nightmarish trials’
Military purge, May-June 1937:
Stalin feared that the military might try force him from power after several officer was caught up in the show trials. He decided to purge the military before this could happen.
Who was targeted?
Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky and even other top military commanders accused of spying and plotting with Trotsky. All confessed and were executed- June 1937.
Likely explanation of purge or trial: Stalin’s fear of a military coup.
The ‘Great Purge’ of the Red army followed:
This included some of the of the most senior officers but also spread throughout the Army ranks. Between 1937 and 1939, over 30,000 army leaders were sacked, with thousands arrested and executed
The reason given for the purge was a ‘military facet’ plot with the USSR’s enemies in Germany and Japan, as well as a plot to overthrow Stalin.
Anyone objecting to the trials and purges was arrested too. 74 military officials were shot for refusing to approve the execution of their colleagues.
Stalin’s purge destroyed the Red Army’s command structure at the very time that the USSR was increasing military spending against the threat from Nazi Germany.
The trials of 21st March 1938:
Who was targeted?
Bukharin, Rykov and 19 others. The charge was that Bukharin and the others had plotted to assassinate Stalin and to overthrow the Soviet Union on the orders of Germany and Japan. The accused were all found guilty and executed.
Likely explanation of purge or trial – to eliminate potential rivals.
Similar trials were held throughout the USSR, at which Party Members were often denounced by their colleagues. As a result, by 1938, a third of all party members had been purged.
The gulags and the treatment of national minorities:
The gulags:
More gulags had been built during the 1930s to house political prisoners and class enemies, and to provide prison-camp labour for Stalin’s huge industrial projects.
The Great Purges from 1937 caused a huge surge in the gulag population, from c80,000 in 1935 to between 5.5 and 9.5 million by 1938, according to some estimates.
The aim was no longer to re-educate class enemies; prisoners were worked to death or murdered outright
Mortality rates in the camps were between 4-6 times higher than those in the rest of the USSR, as a result of meagre rations, long working hours and harsh conditions.
The treatment of national minorities:
Stalin was suspicious of minorities from other countries living in the USSR, for example Koreans living in the USSR’s Far East and Germans living in the Volga region.
When war with Japan became a threat in 1937, Stalin had the Korean minority deported from Central Asia. In 1941, over 400,000 Volga Germans were deported to Siberia and Central Asia.
Stalin also purged the Party leadership of the non-Russian republics. Between 1937-1938, virtually all were replaced by those more likely to accept central rule from Moscow.
Anti-Semitic persecution occurred after 2 mil Jews were incorporated into the USSR in 1939-40, following the invasion of Eastern Poland and the Balti republics. Many rabies and religious leaders were arrested in these areas.
The end of the purges and the death of Trotsky:
The end of the purges:
The pace of the purges slowed after the end of 1938, although Stalin continued to target possible opponents into ww2
The Yezhovschina had destabilised the Soviet State and economy, and Stalin pushed the blame for this on to Yezhov.
The Eighteenth Party Congress declared that ‘mass cleansings’ were no longer needed.
Yezhov was secretly tried and executed in 1940; he was replaced by Lavrentii Beria
The death of Trotsky:
August – 1940, Ramon Mercado – Stalinist agent – assassinated Trotsky. Trotsky had been living in a fortified house on the outskirts of Mexico City.
With Trotsky’s death, Stalin ensured that the last of the old Bolsheviks who might have had a greater claim to leadership than him, and who could act as figurehead for other Stalinist opponents, was no longer a threat.
Responsibility for the Terror and purges:
Stalin: Suicide of Stalin’s wife in 1932 may have been a trigger for the start of the Terror
Stalin’s vindictive and even paranoid nature meant he was determined to eliminate potential rivals and seek revenge against old opponents
Stalin was personally responsible for promoting the purges. He also had the power to end the purges sooner but chose not to.
Bolshevik leaders: Bolshevik always used terror to consolidate and maintain power.
The Bolsheviks believed all means were justified to defend the revolution. Stalin simply escalated this, applying terror on a more ruthless larger scale.
Local Party activists: some over-zealous local officials acted on their own agendas.
Some local Party activists promoted terror but knew their actions would not be checked.
Ordinary individuals: Terror escalated out of control as individuals chose to denounce others, who in turn denounce others, and so on.
Individuals denounced others for a variety of reason, such as out of self-preservation, to settle scores or to remove rivals.
The impact of the Terror and purges:
There are no exact figures on the numbers executed during the Terror. According to the same source, the prisoner population of the gulags increased by 1 million between 1937-1938. Other sources put the figure much higher.
The families of those executed or imprisoned for anti-Soviet crimes were punished as well. They lot their jobs, were evicted from their homes, often exiled or sent to the gulag for being ‘a member of the family of a traitor to the Motherland’. Children were discriminated against as ‘a child of the enemy of the people’
850,000 Party members were expelled between 1936 and 1938. By 1939, less than 10% of the Party had joined before 1920.
The military purges meant the loss of around 23,000 experienced officers. Many new officers had to be recruited as the Red Army increased in size.
The military failures of the 1st months of the war must have had some link to the loss of these experienced officers from throughout the military administration.
Skilled personnel were purged at the time when rapid industrialisation depended on their skills.
On the other hand, the purges created a lot of opportunities for others to progress their careers. The fear of denunciation also made bureaucrats and managers do their job more carefully.
By the end of the purges, Stalin was in a position of supreme power. He was a dictator with absolute control over the Party and subservient populace.