By 1937 an estimated 18 million people had been transported to gulags and nearly 10 million had died.
Being able to remove those he saw as a threat was not Stalin’s only weapon, he also had total control over the USSR’s secret police. Initially called the OGPU and later the NKVD, the secret police checked up on everyone after the trials, and helped Stalin gain control over his people to such an extent that they would be afraid to even think of opposing him. People were encouraged to denounce their neighbours, even if the allegations were false, just to look loyal to Stalin. Over time, university lecturers, teachers, miners, engineers and farmers all felt the wrath of the NKVD, often for crimes they did not commit. Those who were spared knew this was under the single condition that they led the rest of their lives thinking exactly what Stalin wanted them to.
In order to eliminate individual thinking amongst his people, and therefore eliminate any threat to his own power, Stalin took control of all aspects of everyday life. All newspapers had to be pro Stalin or they could not be published, and history was re-written, with characters such as Trotsky almost wiped from history. This helped Stalin present himself as the rightful heir to Lenin, and while his “personality cult” grew, so did his image as the father of the nation, the traditional status among Russian leaders. Despite the fact that the 5 year plans were a great success, it is almost certain that some of the figures were falsified, to make them even more powerful when Stalin’s propaganda teams shone them out to all corners of the world, depicting Stalin as a genius presiding over a great success story.
With all possible enemies of Stalin erased, the Russian people were deluged with portraits, photographs and statues of their leader. Stalin appeared everywhere within everyday Russian life. Despite having ordered the deaths of millions, the people barely related him to the purges. The Soviet people believed in Stalin as their leader, either because they genuinely believed he was the true face of communism, or because they were so scared to even dare think of speaking their minds. Stalin had achieved his goal of total control over his people, and had even managed to maintain a decent level of trust from followers.
