1. Presentation for POL 328 Dr. Kevin Lasher

2. Stalin in Power, 1929-53 Collectivization of agriculture
Industrialization
Repression and Great Terror
Great Patriotic War
Early Cold War with US

5. Terror -- violence or threats of violence used as a means of intimidation or coercion.

6. Stalinist Great Terror
What was it?
Attack on party members and military officials
Show trials of Old Bolsheviks
Intensified repression of millions (?) of Soviet citizens
Creation of a mind-set of fear and obedience throughout Soviet society

7. Stalinist Great Terror
Why did it occur?
Because Stalin was evil and insane
(not really)

8. Stalinist Great Terror
Why did it occur?
Fed Stalin’s need for absolute power
Eliminate any possible opposition to Stalin
New blood: create party absolutely loyal to Stalin
To terrorize/atomize society
Manpower for GULAGs
International threats (?)
Excesses of “little Stalins”

9. Totalitarianism
A form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed.

10. Totalitarianism An official ideology A single mass party
Terroristic police control
Monopoly of communication
Monopoly of control of armed forces
Central control of economy
CJ Friedrich and Z. Brzezinski, Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy.

11. Totalitarianism Stalinist Variant Stalin’s cabinet
Stalin’s secret police
Show trials
GULAGs
Cult of personality

12. Great Terror, in context
: Considerable repression with Red Terror, GULAGs, collectivization, de-kulakization, famine, arrests, other actions
: Considerable repression with GULAGs, deportation of ethnic groups, persecution of returning Soviet POWs, persecution of East Europeans, mini-purges, attacks on Jews, other actions
: Highly intensive attack on party officials and Soviet citizens (also, randomness)

13. Congress of Victors: 1934
17th Party Congress in which CPSU “celebrates” the victory of collectivization and industrialization.

14. Congress of Victors: 1934
Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin and others humiliate themselves by praising Stalin’s greatness
There is a sense of accomplishment (or at least survival) but also a hope that some kind of normalcy will return to USSR
Improving collectivization and industrialization
Sense that Stalin’s methods were too extreme

15. Congress of Victors: 1934 Popular leader of Leningrad Party (Russian)
Group of delegates approach Kirov about making him General Secretary (replacing Stalin)
Kirov declines and notifies Stalin
Sergei Kirov

16. Congress of Victors: 1934
For Central Committee, Stalin receives 300 negative votes while Kirov receives 3
Votes are falsified with both receiving 3 negative votes
Sergei Kirov

17. Congress of Victors: 1934
Regardless of the details, election results showed that there was still a party faction opposed to Stalin’s leadership
How serious was this opposition?
Any opposition to Stalin’s power was unacceptable by this time
He decided to rebuild the CPSU to create a totally obedient organization

18. Congress of Victors: 1934
Later on 1108/1966 party delegates were arrested and either shot or sent to GULAG
98/139 delegates elected to Central Committee were arrested and either shot or sent to GULAG
-- according to Nikita Khrushchev in 1956

19. Assassination of Kirov
Killed in Leningrad office in December 1934
Historians do not agree whether Stalin ordered the assassination or not
Regardless, Stalin takes advantage of Kirov’s murder
Sergei Kirov

20. Assassination of Kirov
Stalin works with NKVD to put in place the mechanism of the Great Terror
Builds in 1935 and 1936
Kirov’s death is portrayed as part of a grand conspiracy between Trotsky, Zinoviev and other Old Bolsheviks
Sergei Kirov

21. Moscow Show Trials
Three stage-managed “trials” in which Old Bolsheviks like Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin, Rykov and others are forced to admit to crimes of attempted assassination plots on Lenin, Stalin and others, cooperation with Nazi Germany and Japan, and efforts to sabotage and destroy the Soviet economy.

22. Moscow Show Trials Trotsky-Zinoviev Terrorist Center (August 1936)
Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center (January 1937)
Anti-Soviet Right-Trotskyite Bloc (March 1938)
Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin, Rykov, Yagoda and many other “Old Bolsheviks” who were defeated in 1920s
54 individuals tried and convicted, all but a few are shot with the rest being sent to the GULAG

23. Yezhov-schina Head of NKVD from September 1936-November 1938
Worked closely with Stalin on the details of arrests and sentencing of “Soviet enemies”
Arrested, tried and shot in 1940
Nikolai Yezhov

24. Targets of Terror Top party and military officials
Regional and local party/govt officials
Economic managers, trade union leaders, specialists
NKVD officials

25. Targets of Terror Intellectuals, artists, writers, etc.
People with “foreign contaminants”
“Old enemies” — kulaks, tsarist officials, White Guardists, other parties, clergy, capitalists
Colleagues, subordinates, relatives, friends, acquaintances, etc. of above categories
Average citizens (for a variety of reasons)

26. Targets of Terror Party members – from any and all levels
Non-party members -- former CPSU, other banned parties, tsarist officials, White Guards, priests, ex-kulaks, ethnic groups, intellectuals, petty criminals, everyday citizens, others

27. Targets of Terror
Both groups faced execution or sentences in the GULAG
Probably more executions for party members and more GULAG sentences for non-party members
GULAG prisoners – executed, died in prison, released

28. Targets of Terror
357 lists of names with 44,500 individuals to be shot
Provided by NKVD and signed by Stalin and other Politburo members
Both party and non-party members
“Stalin’s Shooting Lists”

29. Targets of Terror
No stronger evidence that much of Great Terror was planned and controlled by Stalin
“Stalin’s Shooting Lists”

30. Considerations Party members who had “blood on their hands”
Oppositionists
Concern about 5th column and collaboration with foreign enemies

31. Considerations There was a kind of “threat” to Stalin and his rule
A partial explanation NOT a justification

32. End of Great Terror Yezhov removed as head of NKVD in summer of 1938
Joint decree of Sovnarkom and Central Committee banned mass operations by NKVD
Return to “normal level” of repression in 1939 and beyond

33. Stalin in Power, 1929-53 Repression and Great Terror
Great Patriotic War
Early Cold War with US

34. The End