Secondly, there was the Secret police. The secret police, also known as the NVKD, played a major role in Stalin’s reign in power. The purges and show trials would most likely have failed without the brute force of the NVKD, who were lead by Yezhov, as they were the workforce behind the idea. Stalin used the secret police to crush any potential opposition and they were a much feared organisation shrouded in terrible rumours and tales of disappearances and deaths. They were responsible for arrests and executions of hundreds of thousands of people and made lists of victims they wished to kill next. Stalin then was given the list for him to authorise it. Records show Stalin approved nearly 400 of the names on the list which contained approximately 40,000 names. The official Soviet records show that nearly 700,000 people were executed during the Great Terror of 1937-8. Victims of the police state who were not executed for their crimes were usually sent to labour camps, which were situated in some of the most remote areas of the Soviet Union. The prisoners were used as slaves, made to do hard labour, and many did not survive the harsh conditions. By 1938 the terror was beginning to have severe effects on the economy as the numbers of business managers and workers that disappeared meant that many organisations were struggling.
Thirdly, there was Stalin’s use of propaganda and the cult of personality. Propaganda and the cult of personality were crucial to Stalin. Propaganda influenced almost every aspect of life, through radio, films and newspapers. Posters and messages issued by the state could be found everywhere, in the streets, workplaces and schools. Music, drama, art and other ways of expressing feelings and points of view were controlled so that no one got any new ideas or tried to speak against Stalin in public. People were under the control of the state and were not allowed to create anything that did not highlight the glorious achievements of communism and anything judged to be in opposition to Stalin was filtered out by the close censors Stalin implemented. The most important message of the propaganda was that Stalin was the greatest genius of his time and Russian people were literally brainwashed into believing Stalin was a god like hero. His image could be seen everywhere, even towns and cities were named after him, like Stalingrad and Stalino. His role in the revolution was exaggerated, as was his relationship with Lenin. His enemies were portrayed as traitors to Russia. Even schools were affected, children were taught of the greatness of Stalin in textbooks that were specifically created to support Stalin. All these created a type of Hero worship as the people never herd a single word of criticism about him. This was the cult of personality.
Finally, there were Stalin’s economic policies. These policies were enforced to improve the industry in Russia and to catch up with outside nations as he was concerned that sooner or later they would be invaded by the capitalist powers that would destroy the achievements of communism if they do not build up Russia’s economic strength. To do this he introduced his five-year plans which began in 1928. His first five year plan emphasised the importance in building up heavy industries like coal and steel. To improve these Stalin set targets for each worker to increase the production of oil, coal, iron and electricity. Although these targets were not reached because most were unrealistic the production rate did increase significantly. The Russia workers however suffered as a result of Stalin’s aspirations. They were set individual targets and if they did not succeed in reaching these targets were fined. Ruthless punishments were created and many workers on the larger products were prisoners, conditions were poor and about 100,000 workers died. However despite this more people including woman were beginning to work and an economy was being gradually established. Not only did the workers pay but so too did Russia’s transport system as it could not cope with all the extra goods that were being produced. Towards the end of the plan the growth of the industries started to slow down. Also in the first five-year plan Stalin worked on the agricultural side of Russia. Stalin knew agriculture and industrial development were closely linked and that whilst industrialisation was vital if the Soviet Union was to compete with hostile industrial neighbours that industrialisation was only possible if agriculture was sustainable. Farming in the 1920’s had hardly changed since the revolution and was not producing enough food to feed the rapidly growing towns. Stalin’s solution to this problem was the collectivisation of agriculture whereby peasants were encouraged and later forced to join collectives working for the common good. The result of this was more food being produced for the workers in the cities who then had the strength to work harder. The second of the five-year plans (1933-7) concentrated on improvements in transport and in the production of machinery. The third five-year plan (1928-41) was to transfer more resources into defence-related industries. However, the third plan was cut short, to three and a half years, because of war and the invasion of Germany.
After looking in detail at all the reasons above I have come to the conclusion that without all of them Stalin would have never been able to maintain power of the Soviet Union. I feel that the purges and show trials were probably the most important reason as this enabled him to dispose of all his enemies and potential threats. This made his job much easier as he never had any competition for his position. However, without the help of the secret police the purges would have never been a success, as the secret police were the force behind the plan and hunted out all of Stalin’s potential threats. Not only the secret police, but the use of propaganda and the cult of personality helped the purges as it encouraged Russian citizens to denounce traitors, making it easier for the secret police to hunt them down. People would snitch on traitors of Stalin as most people looked towards him as a hero, which was established by the cult of personality. Propaganda also helped the show trails as it showed the people on trail to be traitors to the homeland and Stalin. His economic policies were also a major part of Stalin’s success as he turned Russia into a great power of the world that produced many important products. This helped improve the country and gain him support from the citizens of Russia as he was making a better life style for many off the. Nevertheless, without the use of propaganda and the secret police Stalin’s economic policies might not have worked. This is because the secret police controlled the people, making them work and punishing them for not meeting targets of slacking at work. The propaganda also portrayed to the Russian people look that the workers did not mind being made to work in slave labour conditions as they were loyal to Stalin and improving Russia. This shows that, overall, without all of the above Stalin’s plans might have not worked out and Russia could have been a different place.