Another reason for Stalin launching the Great Terror may have been that Hitler two years previous had implemented the Night of the Long Knives. This event both gave the example of killing your own top men, to seize full control of your party and country. It also showed Stalin that Hitler was a serious threat to Russia, because up to then Stalin had seen Hitler as not much of a threat, but once he turned on his own men, it showed Stalin that Hitler should be taken seriously. Part of Stalin’s reasons for launching the Great Terror may have been also that he wanted to show Hitler that he to was tough, but still tougher than his enemies in Germany. The Army Purge in 1937 generals including the main strategic thinker of the Red Army were shot and many officers were arrested – either placed in labor camps or shot. This was to get rid of all the thinkers in the Red Army who may question Stalin and o replace them with young ‘yes’ men who would do what they were told to do. With this dramatic change at the top of the Red Army, Stalin reduced the risk of senior Red Army men questioning his orders, yet instead just following them out. If Hitler had not inflicted the Night of the Long Knives on his senior men, then Stalin may have still replaced many of the Generals and Officers, but maybe not on such a huge scale.
The Mass Purge between 1937 and 1938 was carried out by the secret police, the NKVD who made storm arrests. These arrests hit the party and mainly the Central Committee hard with 110 out of 139 CC members arrested and also in Congress 1108 members out of 1966 members were also arrested – most were killed or put in labour camps. This was very effective in getting all of the old generation out who had voted for Kirov and remembered Lenin’s testament and replacing these with young impressionable ‘yes’ men who believed what they were told. The momentum of the NKVD was increasing and they were making more arrests including upon themselves. The NKVD were split up into two groups and when the other group was falling behind the other in arrests they were accused of being part of the conspiracy and were arrested. The purge ended when the head of the NKVD, Yeshov was arrested and Beria became head of the NKVD. If the NKVD had not made so many arrests then the purge would not have been as ruthless or successful in getting the amount of arrests, which would have meant a new generation could not come through and replace the old entirely or there be enough people in labor camps to keep up crash industrialisation.
After what happened with Kirov, Stalin knew that h would face opposition from the Congress unless they were removed and replaced with young people who did not know of Lenin’s Testament; so from all the propaganda would have believed that Stalin was really close to Lenin. This would provide Stalin with a generation of ‘yes’ men (apparatchiks) who would follow his instruction without question. This could have been a key reason why Stalin launched the Great Terror to eliminate anyone who knew of the testament and wanted him removed from power. If so then this allowed him to take absolute control over congress and also make sure that no clever, ‘thinking’ men in the party questioned his methods, but instead did what he ordered. This new generation would have been very impressionable to all of the propaganda and would believe most of it, this again is an example of Russia being a Totalitarian State with Stalin controlling the thoughts of the people of Russia.
All of these arrests increased the labor force dramatically with an estimated 7 million put in camps by 1938 (Conquest). They were controlled by the Gulag, criminals who were rewarded in their job for being tough on the people in the camps. This slave labor helped construct canals, dig and operate mines, and build railways, which connected Russia up making it easier to move troops and supplies around the country. Without this slave labor the second Five Year Plan would not have been so productive and crash industrialisation may not have worked. So if this was one of Stalin’s reasons for launching the Great Terror or just a by-product of the arrests, it helped Russia catch the rest of the world up and to increase its military capabilities.
To conclude, there were many reasons to why Stalin launched the Great Terror, but there are two overriding reasons, which all the others lead to and help create. One main reason for the Great Terror was that Stalin wanted total control over Russia; he did this through creating a Totalitarian State through fear. This was from his one invention of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Conspiracy, where everyone who was not producing enough was arrested for conspiring against communism. This made people fear thinking anti-communist, if there had been no conspiracy it is unlikely that Stalin would have found another way as effective in controlling the Russians and may not have had total control. Another reason towards total control was bringing in the new generation of young apparatchiks who knew nothing of Lenin’s testament and had been brought up on Stalin’s propaganda, so believing what he said and also following what he said. If Stalin had not got rid of the older generation of communists he would still have faced opposition for his dismissal as General Secretary. This allowed him to control the party and he also did the same to the army, which allowed him to control the Red Army, without clever Generals, or Officers questioning his orders. Total control must have been a strong reason for Stalin to launch the Great Terror, because of the Kirov incident, which showed him that he still was not in a hundred percent control of the country.
The other main reason was his personality, which was ruthless and malicious, he wanted to get the people he defeated in the struggle for power and humiliate them in show trials, he wanted to make the people who voted for Kirov, making Kirov more popular in 1934 to pay for going against him – the man who put him there in the first place. This personality could have been an overriding factor in why he launched the Great Terror, because he wanted to show these people who had gone against him, who was the leader of the country. Also he may have wanted to show Hitler who was the more ruthless leader, who had total control over his people.
If so, then the two reasons go with each other showing Stalin’s personality, because he held grudges and wanted total control over Russia to show these people who had gone against him. So if he had been in total control before 1936 and had not faced opposition from Ryutin and Kirov and not been so popular with congress, the Great Terror may not have been launched. Although he still needed a work force and needed the workers to be more productive to ensure the success of crash industrialisation, and he still would have held a grudge against Trotsky, Zinoviev and Bukharin, so he probably would have still gone ahead with the Great Terror whatever the circumstance. Yet the two main reasons were his personality, which gave him that ruthless streak, which demanded total control, the Great Terror was the only way Stalin could have done this with a ruthless act that showed everyone what he really was like and also gave him the complete control of the workforce, army and government.
