"Stalin was personally responsible for the Purges in Russia in the 1930s". Agree or disagree?

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Alicia Fleming 13E        A2 History Russian Essay        Mr Chapman

“Stalin was personally responsible for the Purges in Russia in the 1930s”. Agree or disagree?

In my opinion, this statement can not be definitely answered. However, I do have some certain facts and interpretations that can be deduced to construct an argument for this question. The expression ‘purge’ is defined as “to remove undesirable elements from…” and in my opinion, the term ‘purge’ in the context of Russia in the 1930s described exactly this. The Purges were the political method adopted by Stalin to rid himself of critics, potential rivals and their supporters.

In Russia during ‘the Great Terror’ which lasted between 1928 and 1940, there were three major purges: the military purge  which began in 1937, the NKVD purge which began in 1939 and the most major purge of all; the political purge, also known as the Yezhovschina, which began in 1936 up until 1938.

I agree with the statement to a greater extent than to which I disagree with it, because this method of “cleansing” of opposition to Stalin’s regime was evident even before the purges began. For example, ‘collectivisation’ and ‘industrialisation’ featured murder on a massive scale. In 1928, there was subtle evidence of opposition to Stalin and his plans when the peasantry did not agree with the ‘collectivisation’ and as a result thousands of Kulaks were executed and an estimated 5 million were deported to Siberia. In my opinion, this is evidence of Stalin’s cruel, exaggerated tactics to handle opposition. The Kulaks had “opposed his plans” by not supplying enough food to industrial workers, which in Stalin’s mind jeopardised the industrial revolution Stalin was trying to create and therefore jeopardised Russia’s attempt to become a strong nation.  Furthermore, when the Ukraine did not agree with ‘collectivisation’ and openly disagreed with Stalin, he personally manufactured a famine which killed 6 to 7 million people and broke the peasants’ resistance. It is evident that he personally manufactured the famine, because it was caused due to the massive increase of the grain quota that the peasants had to give to the state, which Stalin had ordered. Moreover, the Five Year Plans were based on the same methods and were implemented in an identical brutal fashion to the purges, which led to the death of millions of labourers. This therefore brings me to a conclusion that Stalin had experience with this form of “cleansing” which enhances my agreement with the question that he was personally responsible for the Purges, because it was not a new tactic seen in Russia during his reign and furthermore he had the knowledge that this type of method worked to his advantage. In my opinion, the Purges were a historical parallel to the methods used to stop the opposition to the ‘collectivisation’. However, the ‘collectivisation’ methods were only small scale. I therefore judge that the treatment of opposition in the peasantry by Stalin during ‘collectivisation’ was a rehearsal for the purging of opposition in political positions and higher ranks, whose resistance would be much harder to destroy.

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There is evidence of factions in the Party that opposed his rule, such as; Riutin circulated a 200 page anti-Stalin document suggesting that Stalin should be removed from his post as leader. It will be evident therefore that Stalin believed that these differing viewpoints were an unacceptable threat. Anyone not unquestioningly loyal to Stalin were to be “weeded out” and this is only one of the reasons put forward by historians as to why the purges began. Another reason is that Stalin wanted total control and rapid industrialisation of USSR, the Gulags used during the purges offered free labourers ...

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