Question 1

Purpose and scale of the purges

Accepted Answer

Stalin used the purges to remove anyone who was a threat to his authority. The purges began in 1932 but stemmed from the show trials of the FYPs, although prosecutions were not just for industry but also for criticising Stalin and calling for his removal.

Question 2

First purges

Accepted Answer

Ryutin, a critic of Stalin, and his supporters were put on trial and removed from the party, along with a million members between 1933 and 1934. Initially, purges as these were just membership expulsion.

Question 3

Stalin's motivation for the purges

Accepted Answer

Attempts to criticise Stalin led him to believe there was still resistance against him. He was deeply suspicious and became paranoid as he grew older. Possibly his Georgian roots led him to want to settle scores with class enemies.

Question 4

Kirov's murder

Accepted Answer

On December 1, 1934, Leonid Nicolaev killed Sergei Kirov, secretary of the Leningrad, allegedly because of an affair with his wife. Kirov was a popular Bolshevik, whose death Stalin could take advantage of, and Stalin's role in the murder is debated.

Question 5

Immediate response to Kirov's murder

Accepted Answer

Within two hours of discovering Kirov's death, Stalin signed a decree to give the NKVD absolute power, leading to 3,000 executions or imprisonments, as well as tens of thousands of deportations.

Question 6

Replacement of officials following Kirov's murder

Accepted Answer

Roles were filled by Stalin supporters, such as Zhdanov, Kruschev and Beria. Stalin therefore controlled all of Soviet bureaucracy - out of 2,000 delegates at the 1934 Party Congress, 1,000 were executed, including 3/4s of the Central Committee.

Question 7

The Stalin enrolment

Accepted Answer

Between 1931 and 1941, the party brought on more skilled workers and industrial managers than any time since 1917, with many owing their career progress to this. This made loyal Stalin supporters, who supported the purges as it improved promotion chances.

Question 8

Start of the Great Purge

Accepted Answer

Despite his absolute control, Stalin's paranoia led him to enacting the 'Great Purge' in 1936-39, which removed former Bolshevik heroes from their power. Groups were labelled as 'left', 'right', or 'centre' Bolsheviks, or were referred to as 'Trotskyite'.

Question 9

Three show trials of the Great Purge: 1936

Accepted Answer

In 1936, Kamenev, Zinoviev and 14 other leading Bolsheviks were executed after accusations of involvement in Kirov's murder. Kamenev and Zinoviev were forced (from torture) to confess in public, making it difficult for future victims to plead innocence.

Question 10

Three show trials of the Great Purge: 1937

Accepted Answer

In 1937, seventeen Bolsheviks were charged with spying for Germany, with fourteen of them executed.

Question 11

Three show trials of the Great Purge: 1938

Accepted Answer

In 1938, the Right Communists (Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky and twenty others) were branded 'Trotskyite-Rightists' and were tried on various accounts, including plotting to kill Stalin. Bukharin and Rykov were executed, Tomsky killed himself.

Question 12

Use of public trials in the Great Purge

Accepted Answer

Stalin's use of public trials instead of assassinations created open court confessions which could reveal the scale of the conspiracy against him, therefore justifying future purges.

Question 13

Delays in Stalin purging the Right

Accepted Answer

Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky were not charged immediately, as some older members of the Politburo did not want to denounce their comrades. Stalin replaced Yagoda with Yezhov as head of the NKVD to speed up the process. Yagoda was later purged.

Question 14

The Stalin Constitution

Accepted Answer

Drafted by Bukharin, Stalin described it as the 'most democratic in the world'. It was intended to impress Western Communists and counter Nazi Germany. Civil rights were 'guaranteed', but did not define the powers of the party, giving Stalin full control.

Question 15

Actions Stalin took prior to the Purge of the military

Accepted Answer

Them military was a largely independent body, and could therefore represent a threat to Stalin. Stalin organised a large number of transfers within higher ranks to weaken resistance when the purge came.

Question 16

Purge of the military starts

Accepted Answer

In May 1937, Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky (a founder of the Red Army) was arrested with seven other generals, all 'heroes of the Civil War'. The trial was held secretly to prevent a military coup, they were charged with treason and then shot.

Question 17

Personal influence on the Purge of the military

Accepted Answer

The president of the court who delivered the death sentences was Marshal Voroshilov, a Stalinist who had been jealous of Tukhachevsky's talent and popularity.

Question 18

Scale of the Purge of the military in the 18 months after it began

Accepted Answer

All eleven war commissars were removed, three of the five chief marshals were removed, 90% of the Supreme Military Council were arrested, of which 80 were shot, 14 of 16 army commanders were removed, all serving fleet admirals were shot.

Question 19

Irrationality of the Purge of the military

Accepted Answer

By 1939 the three services were seriously undermanned, with inexperienced or incompetent replacements. Given the defence needs of the USSR (which Stalin constantly stressed), the effect on the military is the purge which seems most irrational.

Question 20

The Great Purge of the people

Accepted Answer

Purges enforced the FYPs by charging managers and workers with sabotage, and could be used to enforce loyalty from across Russia via the use of the extensive prison and labour camps (gulag).

Question 21

The gulag

Accepted Answer

By 1941, 8 million prisoners were in the gulag, with an average of 10 year sentences. The harsh conditions were equivalent to a death sentence. One in eight of the population were arrested, and almost every family lost one of its members.

Question 22

Harshest aspects of the Great Purge of the people

Accepted Answer

In 1937-38, NKVD squads entered villages and executed hundreds. Quotas existed for arrests; there were no appeals against sentences and executions were carried out immediately in special zones. Mass graves of up to 20,000 began to form.

Question 23

The purges go 'full circle'

Accepted Answer

To uncover further conspiracy, interrogators were arrested themselves. The fear created by the purges destroyed traditional loyalties. Purges terrorised minorities and Stalin once signed over 200 death warrants in a day in 1938.

Question 24

Responsibility for the purges

Accepted Answer

Stalin began the purges, but bureaucracy allowed local officials to use their initiative, while purges were also used to settle old scores or by lower officials to rise ranks. Some believed the ruthlessness would drive Russia away from its backwardness.

Question 25

Characteristics of Stalin's totalitarian state by 1941

Accepted Answer

The USSR was a one party state, with a terror system used to create a centralised economy and a cult of personality. His paranoia created a mentality that put the Soviet people on permanent guard. Belief systems other than Stalinism were censored.

Question 26

The nomenklatura

Accepted Answer

The nomenklatura were the elite Soviet officials who ran the party machine, and benefited by loyalty to Stalin. They replaced the old Bolsheviks. They enjoyed special rights, and compromised around 1.2% of the population.

Question 27

Stalin as a hero

Accepted Answer

Stalin's cult of personality meant that all Soviet achievements were attributed to him, and he was constantly glorified - even Khrushchev praised him in the 1936 Kamenev-Zinoviev trial. Stalin began to transcend politics and became the nation itself.

Question 28

Propaganda under Stalin

Accepted Answer

The USSR leadership developed claims that Shakespeare was Russian, Russians had discovered the Americas and Russian mathematicians discovered Einstein's relativity first. The cult of personality therefore came from the Soviet leadership, not the masses.

Question 29

Komsomol

Accepted Answer

The 'Communist Union of Youth', which pledged itself to Stalin, and attracted youth by offering full membership of the CPSU. It grew from 2 million members in 1927 to 10 million in 1940. Komsomol members enthusiastically supported the FYPs.

Question 30

The Nazi threat to Stalin

Accepted Answer

After the Nazis took power, the Stalin's policy was concerned with finding allies to counter Germany. The 1938 Munich agreement worried Stalin, as Britain and France ignored his calls for an alliance.

Question 31

Germany-USSR Treaty

Accepted Answer

In 1939, Germany and the USSR signed a pact to maintain peace for at least 10 years, as well as dividing up Eastern Europe. This worked, and the USSR recovered large parts of lost land, but in June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

Question 32

Stalin's relationship with China

Accepted Answer

In the Chinese civil war (from 1935), Stalin gave little help to Mao's Communist Party, as he described them as 'whites in red jackets', as Mao had resisted Stalinism. Stalin saw the Nationalists as stronger, so backed Chiang Kai-Shek, to resist Japan.

Question 33

Stalin and the Spanish Civil War

Accepted Answer

Stalin sent agents to support the pro-Republican (somewhat Communist) fronts, and wanted to distract the public from the purges. Military equipment was sent, but the Republic's gold reserves were transferred to Russia, so Stalin cared little who won.

Russia Chapter 8

Stalin's Dictatorship, 1929-1941. OCR A Level History, Russia 1894-1941

"Know" box contains:
Time elapsed:
Retries: