During the late 1930’s Stalin began the ‘Great Purge’. The first targets were senior members of the party who disagreed with Stalin’s policies. Of the six member’s of the original Politburo during the revolution who lived until the Great Purge, only Stalin survived. Four of the five others were executed, the fifth, Leon Trotsky was assassinated while in exile in Mexico.
Another group to suffer during the Great Purge was the army. Stalin feared the army because Trotsky, his main rival, had led it during the Civil War. Altogether around 30,000 members of the armed forces were purged.
The purges served to remove any threat of rebellion against Stalin, and also to make a climate of fear throughout the population, a fear both of those who had been purged and of being purged themselves.
Before the execution or imprisonment of more prominent party members, ‘show trials’ were often held. These were staged and scripted events in which the accused ‘admitted’ their guilt. The biggest of these were three held in Moscow between 1936 and 1938 to convict several senior party members. In the first the chief defendants were Kamenev and Zinoviev, two of the most prominent members of the Politburo and former competitors for Lenin’s successor. Both were executed. The second was a trial of 17 lesser figures, of which 13 were shot and the others sent o labour camps. In the third trial there were 21 defendants, the main one being Bukharin, another runner for the leadership after Lenin’s death. All of the main defendants were executed. The trials were broadcast to the Russian people, and even internationally. The confessions served to give credence to the executions and imprisonments that were occurring. They also, by ‘discovering’ attempts at revolution by the accused, made the people of Russia fearful, and made them trust more in the ability of Stalin to keep them safe.
The show trials not only gave legitimacy to the purges but also gave the public people to hate, allowing Stalin to direct any anger at those on trial instead of at him.
The NKVD, Stalin’s ‘secret police’, where his main enforcers. It was they who conducted the purges and show trials, and it was them who quickly stamped out any traces of rebellion where they were found. They also ran the gulags, forced labour camps used mostly for political prisoners.
The NKVD created a climate of fear in the USSR. The arrests were so numerous and unexplained that the people believed that they, or anyone they knew, could be taken at anytime.
The NKVD-run gulags contributed much to the modernisation of Russia. They built roads, railways, canals, dams and factories and were used to colonise and develop remote areas such as Siberia, the North and the Far East. At their height in 1939 there were 1.3million people in the gulag camps. The total death rate in the camps from 1931 to 1953 is estimated at 1million.
Stalin’s secret police helped him keep power by removing possible threats to his rule, and also by making the population fearful of his justice if they opposed him. They also, through the gulags, helped to make Russia an industrial nation.
After Lenin’s death Stalin worked hard to more closely associate himself with the former leader. He also tried to create a distance between Trotsky and Lenin. The first instance of this is when he tricked Trotsky about the date of Stalin’s funeral, making his rival miss it. Stalin was chief mourner at the funeral, a position most supposed Trotsky would have. Then Stalin had photos doctored to show himself close to Lenin and remove Trotsky from such pictures. By showing himself as close to the semi-deified former leader, Stalin gave the impression of being a good leader. Stalin also tried to come across as a friendly and benevolent leader. He did this by stage-managed encounters, for example having a child bring him a bouquet of flowers. By portraying himself like this Stalin made himself a leader that the people loved and so were less likely to rebel against.
Stalin’s economic policies were aimed at modernising Russia and making it a powerful industrial nation. His ‘five-year plans’ were aimed at the rapid build up of industry. They involved the Gosplan setting ambitious targets for each industry (for example coal production, oil production, heavy industry etc), each one concentrating on a particular area. The first plan (1928-1932) concentrated on heavy industries, to lay the foundations for future growth. The second (1932-1937) began to make luxury goods (bicycles, vacuum cleaners etc) to improve the quality of life for the Russian people. The third plan was supposed to run from 1938-1942 but was interrupted by the USSR’s entry into WWII. As war approached it had concentrated on building armaments, tanks and weapons. The five-year plans were a mixed success. Many of the targets were met and, perhaps more importantly, Stalin succeeded in moving many factories deeper into Russia, safe from invasion. This was pivotal to the victory in WWII. However the plans did not do much towards improving the lives of ordinary Russian citizens- they were still far behind the West in this aspect. Another of Stalin’s economic policies was collectivisation. This involved grouping together smaller farms into huge collective farms to improve efficiency and allow modern equipment, such as tractors, to be used. This policy did not work well at the beginning, however, due to the rebellion of the kulaks, who killed much of their livestock and destroyed much of their equipment. This meant that for years agricultural production was actually far lower than it had been previously.
Both the five-year plans and the policy of collectivisation faced opposition and even sabotage. The main enemies of collectivisation were the kulaks- these were all executed, sent to labour camps or exiled to unpopulated areas. Those who tried to sabotage the five-year plans were usually executed, or sent to labour camps.
Stalin’s economic policies helped to strengthen Russia, which kept it safe from external enemies. They also made it prosperous, which kept the people happy, although only to a certain extent, since their living conditions were still way behind those of the West.
In conclusion, I believe that all of the reasons were important, since they all fit together to make Stalin a total dictator. His economic policies strengthened Russia and prevented a successful foreign invasion. The NKVD and purges allowed him to keep control of the populace. The show trials directed any anger the populace had at the accused, and the ‘cult of personality’ made Stalin look like a good leader. The most important reasons however were the purges and show trials, because they allowed Stalin to get rid of his enemies and to direct any anger of the populace at someone else.