How far was Stalin responsible for the purges of the 1930s?
Stalin was responsible for the great purges of the 1930s to a certain extent. The great purges can be divided into three components: The purge of the party, the purge of the armed forces, and The purge of the people. Of these three segments of the purges, the purge of the party and the armed forces can be attributed to Stalin while the last one, the purge of the people, can instead be attributed to the head of the NKVD, Yezhov. Thus, we can say that Stalin was only partly responsible for the great purges.
The great purges can be defined as a cleansing of perceived threats to Stalin’s rule, executed on a large scale, through the use of terror.
The purge of the party began when Sergei Kirov, secretary of the Leningrad Soviet, was assassinated in 1934. His murder led to a major purge of all accused of being involved in the crime. Many of the old Bolsheviks were accused of having a role to play and Stalin claimed that it had been organised by a circle of “Trotskyites and Leftists” and proceeded to arrest many party members, among them Zinoviev and Kamenev. Soon after, in 1936, the first major show trial took place, which resulted in both Zinoviev and Kamenev’s confession and execution. This can be seen as a purging of the left. Thereafter a purging of the right took place, and the last two major show trials occurred. The second show trial involved Radek and Pyakatov, Lenin’s former favourites. The third and last major show trial saw Bukharin, Rykov and Yagoda (now ex-head of the NKVD) taking the stand. By the end of the show trials, Stalin had gotten rid of all the old Bolsheviks and had gotten rid of all potential threats within the party.
