Was Stalins personality the most important reason behind the Purges? (24 Marks)

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Was Stalin’s personality the most important reason behind the Purges?                              (24 Marks)

If one was to define the word purge they would receive the ideology of purification or the removal of incompetent impurities. In Stalin’s’ regime it saw the removal of those who were labelled as “wreckers”, “sabotages”, traitors and in some cases those who were believed to be spies. The Great Purge which lasted four years affected everyone from party members to ordinary civilians who were prosecuted under the suspicion of treason against the regime. The Purges were introduced after the murder of Kirov, which then came to impact the daily life of Russians, the idea of war and Industrial production. However was Kirov’s death just an excuse to allow Stalin to assemble his leadership onto the party or did his personality play too much of an influence?        

Stalin used the murder of Sergei Kirov to his advantage by using it to display corruption within Russia and maybe its party and to show that conspiracies were underway against the regime.  Kirov, who had publically argued with Stalin on several occasions on policies and ideas, threatened Stalin’s influence as he won the support of the majority making Stalin a minority. Later Kirov was assassinated by a younger party member. It is unknown who had hired this assassin, but whether it was an enemy of his or the enemy in Stalin he had create, Stalin used his death to his advantage. This was done through the claim that spies and conspiracy against older party members was present. From here he introduced the Purges. Another reason it is said that the purges took place was to allow Stalin to assert his power on to the party, to allow his ways as a leader to continue.

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By influencing low ranked members of the party to find the traitors from among those in a higher position, denunciation was common during the year of 1937. As it was Stalin’s personal aim to cleanse his party of its traitors. People could be reported as traitors for just making a joke about Stalin which could be found to be prosecution worthy leading to either execution or being sent to a labour camp. All people were in danger of facing such a fate, as this way of life of living in fear spread from the Bolshevik party to the Red Army ...

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