Shruti Tibrewala

History SL

Paper 1 Notes

The Great Purges

“One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.”

“If there is a person, there is a problem; no person, no problem.”

What were the purges?

Purges refer to “cleansing out”. Purges regularly took place in Russia especially when the leaders wanted to reshape the party or exercise more control.

Three phases in the purges of 1930’s can be identified-

  1. Chistka of 1932-35. 20% of the party was expelled non-violently.
  2. Show trials. Prominent old Bolsheviks were publicly tried and executed.
  3. Mass terror from 1937-38. Many were executed, many died in Soviet labor camps.

There was a clear difference between the Chistka and Mass terror.

What sort of opposition to Stalin had developed before 1934?

1933- Communist party was unpopular- rapid industrialization, forced collectivization and the famine. The peasants, urban workers, priests, industrialists, traders etc were not happy. There were upheavals and unrests. Some of the party members had been disturbed by the methods employed to push the industrialization. The party was in dissent. They found it hard to get the local party secretaries and members to implement their policies. Thus a chistka was launched and 22% of the members were removed.

There was also opposition to Stalin’s leadership. A former Moscow secretary, Ryutin, circulated a documentary which was critical of Stalin. Stalin wanted the death penalty for him but was stopped by some members of the politburo, reminding him that he was still subject to the majority of the politburo. There were some others inside the party who were forming opposition. Stalin wanted to treat them the same way as the outside people- to imprison or execute them but the majority of the politburo would not support it.

Join now!

At the 17th party congress, a split occurred between Stalin and other leading members of the politburo such as Kirov over the grain procurement. The title of general secretary was done away with and Stalin and Kirov were both the title of Secretary of Equal Rank. Stalin was not secure as a leader.

The Kirov Murder Mystery

Kirov was murdered by Nikolayev.

His murder triggered the purges. Stalin instructed for the first arrests. Thousands in the Leningrad party were purged.

There is no proof for to suggest that Stalin planned it. But his motives are clear, to get ...

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