Propaganda, Purges & The Totalitarian State Stalin’s Show Trials

Factors in Stalin’s Show Trials Collectivisation Economic Modernisation Leon Trotsky The Ryutin Platform ‘Old Bolsheviks’ Kirov

Stalin’s Route to Power

The original, surviving members of the October Revolution of 1917, including Lenin & Stalin. Would present an obstacle to Stalin’s revisionism of his minor role in the October Revolution of Stalin targeted these Old Bolsheviks as traitors who sought to undermine the Communist Revolution. Most of these, particularly Trotsky, advocated International Communism, while Stalin advocated ‘Socialism in One Country’. Grigory Zinoviev Lev Kamenev Nikolai Bukharin Genrikh Yagoda Karl Radek Sergey Kirov Vyacheslav Molotov The ‘Old Bolsheviks’

Leon Trotsky: Shadow of the Revolutionary Commander of Red Guards in October Revolution 1917 Founder of the Red Army Very capable organiser & public orator Considered the natural successor to Lenin “The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end. ”

Due to opposition to collectivisation, Stalin introduced forced collectivisation by Kulaks slaughtered their animals in protest and in some cases burnt their grain. Famines resulted in Roughly five million people died. In response, Stalin attempted to eradicate the Kulaks, sending out requisition squads who either killed the Kulaks or sent them to prison in the Gulags. Roughly five million Kulaks had been dispossessed and/ or imprisoned by An attempt to end private ownership of land by peasants and introduce large, collectively-owned farms in which machinery, labour & profits were shared. In some cases, collective farms were state-owned, where farmers were paid a wage similar to workers in a factory. Opposed bitterly by the ‘Kulaks’: peasant land owners. ‘Kulaks’ were an inconsistency with Communism – a wealthy, land-owning class in a Communist State. They were created by Lenin’s New Economic Policy of Many communists supported the forced eradication of these private land owners. COLLECTIVISATION: AN IDEOLOGICAL & ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE

THE FIVE - YEAR PLANS: ECONOMIC MIRACLE AT A PRICE INDUSTRIAL AIMS:AGRICULTURAL AIMS

SERGEI KIROV Leader of the Communist Party in Leningrad Loyal supporter of Stalin Supported Stalin’s policies of Collectivisation and even the readication of the Kulaks. Very popular member of the Communist Party who was elected to the Central Committee in Crucially, Kirov was in favour of a more relaxed style of Communism, even including certain dissidents in the Politburo. Assassinated in 1934, probably by order of Stalin, who feared his growing popularity & influence throughout the Communist movement.

Origin: The ‘Cheka’ (1917 Revolution) State police founded in 1934 from reorganisation by Stalin to be both regular police force and state security apparatus The NKVD, from 1934 onwards, were given a wide mandate & enormous power, including control of fire services, security of borders, civil acts & responsibily for the operation of ‘Gulags’ Chief state instrument of Stalin’s purges and the Show Trials Prominent leaders of the NKVD: Yagoda, Yezhov & Beria Nkvd: Peoples’ Commissariat for internal affairs

Director of the NKVD, 1934 – 1936 Responsible for the deaths of 7 – 10 million Ukranians during forced seizures of grain supplies under the regulations of Collectivisation Organised the Trial of the Sixteen (1936), including the arrest, detention and interrogation of the ‘Old Bolsheviks’ e.g. Kamenev, Zinoviev. Replaced by Yezhov in September 1936 when Stalin accused him of being ‘’unable’’ to expose the true extent of the ‘Trotskyite conspiracy’. Was put on Trial in 1938 (Trial of the Twenty-One), found guilty and shot. GENRIKH YAGODA DIRECTOR OF NKVD ( )

ANDREI VYSHINSKY PROSECUTOR-GENERAL

Trial of the ‘Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre’ THE 1 ST SHOW TRIAL: THE TRIAL OF THE SIXTEEN: (1936)

Zinoviev Kamenev 14 other leading ‘Old Bolsheviks’ Accused of murdering Sergei Kirov Accused of plotting to murder Stalin Accused of working with Trotskyites in an effort to undermine Communism in USSR TRIAL OF THE SIXTEEN (1936) ChargesThe Accused Verdict : All guilty & sentenced to be shot

Trial of the Sixteen The ‘Influence’ of Trotsky Each of the Sixteen defendants took turns to denounce themselves, pleading guilty, incriminating themselves under the false pretense that their lives would be spared once they had publicised Trotsky’s anti-Soviet conspiracy. “I am guilty of this that after Trotsky, I was the second organizer of the Trotsky-Zinoviev bloc which set itself the aim of murdering Stalin, Voroshilov and a number of other leaders of the party and the government. ” - Grigory Zinoviev (1936)

Trial of THE 2 ND SHOW TRIAL: THE TRIAL OF THE SIXTEEN: (1937)

Trial of THE 3 RD SHOW TRIAL: THE TRIAL OF THE SIXTEEN: (1938)