Many influential people such as university lecturers, teachers and factory managers disappeared. There was one incident in a factory when a tribute to comrade Stalin was called for. Everyone stood up and began to clap, the applause carried on for 11 minuets, no-one dared stop after all NKVD men were standing in the hall waiting to see who would stop first. Finally the factory director stopped and sat down, everyone else followed. The same night the factory director was arrested. This was how Stalin found out, who the individuals were, the ones who had their own opinion and weren’t afraid to voice it. Stalin viewed these people as potential threats.
Trials called show trials were set up; these were trials, which were all a front to disguise the fact that Stalin was killing so many people without sound reason. By setting up show trials Stalin cunningly was able to dispose of whoever he wanted without looking like a murderer, it also probably helped to clear his conscious as he tricked himself as well as everyone else into believing that the people on trial had actually committed a crime.
Stalin like Hitler and his SS also had a secret police called the Cheka or NKVD who played a major part in the purges. Spies working for Stalin were everywhere. People felt unsafe and afraid. The innocent were afraid of being falsely accused of being traitors. No one felt they could speak out against Stalin in case they were talking to a spy of his. So everyone continued normal day life, looking after number one and making sure that they didn’t draw any unwanted attention to themselves. The Russian people ignored the murders and disappearances that were happening all around them and pretended to be happy and content. However the truth was that everyone was too scared to speak out against Stalin and the people that had the courage to do so were removed from society before they had the chance.
Propaganda and the cult of personality were crucial to Stalin. Stalin appeared everywhere, in most towns it was common for a street or road to be named after Stalin and a statue of him to feature in the square. Processions were regularly organised in Stalin’s name. Music, drama, art and other ways of expressing feelings and points of view were monitored so no one got any new ideas or tried to speak against Stalin in public. History was practically rewritten so that Stalin and Lenin were the “Good Guys” and the younger generations were given books to study from which praised Stalin and his ideas. People were brainwashed so that they believed that what Stalin was doing was right, this was the cult of personalities.
Stalin took over a country shattered economically by war, however he was ambitious and determined to get Russia back on her feet again. Stalin introduced his economic policies in order to achieve this. Stalin set the workers targets 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 established 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. This in itself helped Stalin to show the Russian people that he was strong and powerful and could transform Russia if they worked with him.
Stalin also had the idea that collectivisation was the way forward. Small-scale farming he believed was not profitable as the farmers generally only saw the need to produce enough food for their families. Stalin tried to convince farmers to collectivise so that they could use machinery on their farms, which would increase production rates. Stalin even offered the farmers free seed so that they would begin to produce enough for their whole town; he did this in the hope that he could change their ancestral previous ways. Many however refused to co operate with Stalin and were dealt with severely. Communists came and took what they believed was rightfully theirs; the farmers in response burnt their crops and killed their animals. As a result of this people starved, and where collectivisation did occur farmers were unfamiliar with the new technology, as a result there was a famine and thousands died. Moral was low now amongst the Russian people, no one knew what the future held and were terrified by Stalin and his secret police. Stalin used their fear to his advantage, taking and plundering all he needed no one dared oppose him.
All of the above were valid reasons, which contributed to Stalin being able to hold his power in the Soviet Union. However I believe that the purges were the main reason that Stalin was so powerful. By getting rid of his opponents and anyone who was individual and had strong beliefs Stalin was able to control and brainwash the Russians who had no one to speak out for them and voice their opinions. Due to his ideas of collectivisation and the resulting famine the Russian people were too exhausted and tired to pose much of a threat to Stalin. Everyone just wanted to stay out of trouble and keep their heads down. So when all around them was in turmoil fear kept the Russian people quite, they already knew what happened to troublemakers. The purges were such a blow to the peace craving Russians that they were unable to fight Stalin, so stood by and watched, as he grew increasingly powerful.
