The Purges, or the Great Terror, 1930s

What were the purges?

The Soviet purges involved the mass arrests, imprisonment and executions of political prisoners, dissidents and people considered a threat to Stalin.

When were the purges?

The Great Purge, also known as the Great Terror, took place between 1936 and 1938.

Who was in charge of carrying out the purges?

The purges were carried out by the secret police, or the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) under the leadership of:

• ❖ Yagoda from 1934 to 1936.
• ❖ Yezhov from 1936 to 1938.

Who was targeted by the purges?

A wide range of groups were targeted as 'enemies of the people':

• ❖ Members of the Communist Party, in particular Old Bolsheviks who had worked with Lenin, such as Kamenev and Zinoviev.
• ❖ Leading members in the Central Committee.
• ❖ The armed forces.
• ❖ Artists, writers and musicians.
• ❖ Kulaks.
• ❖ Priests.
• ❖ Scientists.

What were the reasons for the purges?

There were political and economic reasons for the purges.

What were the political reasons for the purges?

There were 8 political reasons for the purges:

• ❖ Stalin was paranoid and he saw enemies and opposition everywhere.
• ❖ It would give Stalin total control of the Communist Party and the country.
• ❖ People were incredibly unhappy because of the negative impact of collectivisation and industrialisation so there was more political opposition.
• ❖ There was growing political opposition in the Communist Party because of Stalin's policies of rapid industrialisation and collectivisation.
• ❖ One leading Party member, Ryutin, openly criticised Stalin in 1932. However, when Stalin demanded the death penalty, the Politburo, including Kirov, voted against it.
• ❖ At the 17th Party Congress in 1934, Kirov, a member of the Politburo, spoke out against rapid collectivisation and received a longer standing ovation than Stalin.
• ❖ Kirov received more votes than Stalin in the elections to the Central Committee so he had become a threat to Stalin's position as general secretary of the Party.
• ❖ On 1st December 1934, Sergei Kirov, was murdered and Stalin claimed Kamenev, Zinoviev and Trotsky were to blame and used it as an excuse to start the purges.

What were the economic reasons for the purges?

There were 3 main economic reasons for the purges:

• ❖ Those targeted could be blamed for the economic issues, for example missed targets.
• ❖ Economically, the purges helped Stalin as they provided free labour from the gulags.
• ❖ The fear created by the purges could be used as a weapon to pressure people into meeting their economic targets.

What were the show trials during the purges?

Show trials were an important part of the purge:

• ❖ They were held for those with a high profile and people Stalin viewed as an enemy.
• ❖ The scripts were written beforehand and everyone already knew what the outcome would be.
• ❖ The accused were tortured into confessing, often to save their families.

When were the show trials during the purges?

The show trials occurred between 1936 and 1938.

Which were the most important show trials during the purges?

There three trials that were the most important:

• ❖ Trial of 16 in August 1936, which included Zinoviev and Kamenev.
• ❖ Trial of 17 in January 1937, of party officials.
• ❖ Trial of 21 in March 1938, which included Bukharin and Yagoda (ex-head of the NKVD).

What happened during the Trial of 16 during the purges?

The following 3 key events happened during the Trial of 16, in 1936:

• ❖ 16 people, including Zinoviev and Kamenev, were accused of disrupting the Five Year Plans and Kirov's murder.
• ❖ They were tortured and threatened so they would confess.
• ❖ They were executed.

What happened during the Trial of 17 during the purges?

The following 3 key events happened during the Trial of 17, in 1937:

• ❖ Party officials were accused of plotting to overthrow the government, disrupting the Five Year Plans and Kirov's murder.
• ❖ They were tortured and threatened so they would confess.
• ❖ Thirteen were executed and 4 sent to the Gulags.

What happened during the Trial of 21 during the purges?

The following 4 key events happened during the Trial of 21, in 1938:

• ❖ 21 people, including Bukharin and Yagoda (ex-head of the NKVD), were accused of plotting to overthrow the government, disrupting the Five Year Plans and Kirov's murder.
• ❖ They were tortured and threatened so they would confess.
• ❖ Bukharin attempted to speak out against show trials to prove that the trials were false and unjust.
• ❖ Again, the accused were executed.

What happened during the Great Purge?

There were 7 key events during the Great Purge:

• ❖ There were mass arrests, forced confessions and people were either executed or imprisoned in a Gulag.
• ❖ The show trials of 1936 to 1938.
• ❖ The NKVD relied on ordinary people to inform on their neighbours.
• ❖ Between 1936 and 1938, the terror escalated under the NKVD leader, Yezhov. This period is called Yezhovshchina.
• ❖ From May 1937, the armed forces were purged starting with 8 generals, including Marshal Tukhachevsky, who was accused of plotting against Stalin.
• ❖ In July 1937, Yezhov passed NKVD Order 00447. This set quotas for how many people had to be arrested, of whom 28% were shot and the rest sent to Gulags.
• ❖ By the end of the purge of the military, all naval admirals and all but one air force commander had been executed, along with the majority of the army's command.

Why were many of the Old Bolsheviks executed during the purges?

Many 'Old Bolsheviks' who were part of the October 1917 revolution were killed during the purges because it enabled Stalin to consolidate his position as the dictator of both the Communist Party and the USSR. Bukharin and Kamenev were among those he executed.

Why did the purges end?

There were 2 main reasons why Stalin halted the purges by the end of 1938:

• ❖ They had destabilised society and were escalating out of control as neighbour turned on neighbour.
• ❖ They were disrupting the economy to such an extent that the targets of the Five Year Plans were not being met because key workers were caught up in the terror.

What were the results of the Great Purge?

The impact of the purges was significant in 4 main ways:

• ❖ The cost in human life was horrific, with an estimated 7 to 8 million arrested, 2 million dead in the gulags, and 1 to 1.5 million executed.
• ❖ Politically, Stalin had created a personal dictatorship in which any opposition from within the party or outside had been killed off.
• ❖ Economically, the purges were a huge disruption as the experienced people needed to meet the targets of the Five Year Plans were removed from their jobs.
• ❖ Militarily, the purges meant that the USSR was less able to fight Nazi Germany when they invaded in 1941.

Were there purges during the Second World War?

There were 2 key purges during the Second World War:

• ❖ The Volga Germans were considered suspect when the Nazis invaded the USSR in 1941. Therefore, they were deported to Siberia.
• ❖ The USSR deported ethnic Finns and internally placed them in exile when Finland supported the Nazi invasion of the USSR.

Who was targeted in purges after the Second World War?

There were 4 key groups that were purged after the Second World War:

• ❖ Nationalists.
• ❖ Soldiers who were German prisoners of war.
• ❖ The Leningrad Communist Party.
• ❖ Jews.

How were the Jews purged after the Second World War?

The Jews were purged after the Second World War in 3 key ways:

• ❖ Any Jewish person in a position of responsibility lost their job.
• ❖ Leaders of the Jewish community were arrested.
• ❖ In 1953, Stalin claimed there was a 'Doctor's Plot' in which 10 Jewish doctors were plotting to assassinate him. It led to mass arrests but Stalin died before anything else happened.

What were the purges of soldiers after the Second World War?

After the Second World War, Soviet soldiers that had been German Prisoners of War were purged:

• ❖ 1.5 million Soviet soldiers that had been held as prisoners of war by Nazi Germany were returned to the USSR.
• ❖ They were considered traitors and deported to the Gulags in Siberia.

What were the purges of nationalists after the Second World War?

After the Second World War, nationalists were purged in 3 main ways:

• ❖ Some of the USSR's republics attempted to win their independence at the end of the war.
• ❖ Lithuania, Ukraine, Estonia and Latvia had all taken up arms against the USSR.
• ❖ In response, there were mass deportations.

How was the Communist Party purged after the Second World War?

After the Second World War, the Communist Party was purged:

• ❖ In 1949, Stalin attacked the top party officials of the Leningrad Communist Party because he thought it was a threat.
• ❖ 200 members were arrested on charges of spying for Britain and corruption. Some members were shot, some were imprisoned and some were exiled.
• ❖ About 2,000 officials also lost their jobs.