He later accused Zinoniev, Kamenev and Trotsky of being spies for foreign countries. As normal procedures go for this sort of unpatriotic betrayal, they were all shot. The trial in August 1936 marked the beginning of the ‘Great Terror.’ Secret police hunted down all of Stalin’s enemies and made sure that life was safe, however no citizen in Russia could be 100% safe.
During 1937, the red army was seen to be plotting against Stalin. BIG MISTAKE… The members, including senior officers were shot and then the rest were purged.
There were many ways in which Stalin used to rule Russia; unfortunately, most of them were through forceful means. The Great Terror really was the great terror.
One of the ways was through the secret police that were used to murder and protect Stalin’s authority. However, they did more damage to the Russian state, in my opinion than if they had not been invented. Seven hundred thousand people were killed. This shows the loyalty of Russia and the lack of trust for each other in Russia.
The economy was severely damaged due to the Great Terror. This was because of the many high ranking men and women who owned businesses disappeared. Companies were forced to close down. Stalin’s enemies had all been completely killed.
Stalin’s Russia at this point was totalitarian. This means that it was a country where any sign of individual business would be crushed down on. Any dodgy work would have the people involved shot or sent to the camps. We see examples of this totalitarianism in the proletarian text of George Orwell. By the time at the end of the 1930’s, there were no opposes against Stalin, if there were then they were either mad or just had a death wish. People kept their thoughts to themselves, due to informers who would tell the NKVD about a hearing made by an offender to the state of Russia or Stalin and the person involved in the saying/action would be informed upon.
Prison camps were set up to captivate people not executed for their wrongdoings. The prison camps had very bad conditions. In fact, the conditions were so bad that one wonders if dying would be the better choice. Similar to Hitler’s propaganda, there was a lot going on. People were not allowed to think for themselves. Children in schools were taught communist history, science and many other subjects biased in favour of communism, Stalin and the upkeep to Stalin’s Russia.
Stalin was now in control and had a lot of power behind him. He was in a position where no one would or could stand up to him. Just raising a hand was enough to be dismissed. When Stalin dismissed people, they vanished off the face of the earth! He was so well established and well connected that all the power and more was given so that he could rule the USSR. Maintaining it was easy for him, after he had proved his point that people against him would be gotten rid off. Stalin got and maintained his total control over Russia.
