C) Source D is an eye witness account which is from an interview of Pavel Medvedev by the white Russians. Medvedev was a Bolshevik. It tells you a lot more detail about what happened when the Romanov family were killed.
This source is reliable because he was there when the shots were fired, however it could be unreliable because he was outside when the actual shots were fired. This means that anything that happened after when he went outside may not be true.
Source D could be reliable because he was there when they were led into the room when they were killed. Medvedev tells everything which he saw; everything he says seems quite true. On the other hand, Medvedev could have been tortured by the Whites, because they wanted to know what happened when they were shot. This means that the source could be unreliable. It could also be unreliable because it does not agree to what his wife says in source E. This is because she says that her husband fired the shots too. This contradicts what source E days because in source D, Medvedev told the whites that he was told to go outside to see whether the shots could be heard by anyone. Also, the wife mentions that Medvedev “emptied two or three bullets into the Tsar…” How can this be true if he said that he was told to go outside? Medvedev was probably tortured by the whites, which meant he probably didn’t want anymore to know that he had shot them too.
Source D is an eyewitness account. This would make you think it was quite unreliable. However, he could have got everything wrong about what went on and what he saw because he was under pressure by the people who supposedly tortured him.
Medvedev produced this source because he was forced to tell the whites everything which happened. Over all, this source is quite unreliable because none of the other sources back this one up. The fact that he could have been tortured means that everything he says could be false, as he might not want people to find out what really happened.
D) Source F is a photograph of the basement where the murders are supposed to have taken place. Source G is a painting of the death of the Tsar based on the investigation carried out by the whites. Source H is a diagram which shows the position of people in the basement.
As source F is a photograph, it could be useful because it shows where the Romanov family were supposedly shop. It could also be a little un-useful because the photo could have possibly been tampered with, and therefore changing it to make it look worse than it probably was. Where the holes are where the bullets are supposed to have gone through the wall, look much bigger than a shot from a guy, which suggests that they might have perpously made massive holes in the walls to make it look worse than just a few shots. We also don’t know who it was who took the photo and when it was taken, so this means it could be fake.
Source G is a painting of the death of the Tsar, It was based on an investigation carried out by the whites but we have no idea who actually painted it. We also don’t know when, which means that it could have been painted years after the murders actually happened. The painting is as if it is from the view of someone who was shooting them. This could mean that it was painted by someone who was there. However, there are no records to say who it was who painted it, so it could have been anyone. The person who painted this picture probably wanted to paint it because s/he wanted to let everyone know what the Reds did to the Tsar to stop the whites from using his as their leader. The source is definitely one sided because it is based of what the whites found from their investigation. This means that they might not have taken into account of what the Reds said happened.
Source H is a diagram of the positions of the people in the basement according to the witnesses he interviewed. The source is a diagram which suggests that some of it may be wrong, plus it is just a load of dots on a piece of paper which means nothing to someone studying the book which Judge Sokolov produced. He doesn’t tell us who he interviewed, which means that Sokolov might have just made it all up. This makes it very un-useful to a historian because we don’t know who it was that he interviewed. He probably produced this source because he wanted to show everyone where the people were positioned in the room. Also on the diagram, there are four boxed, but he doesn’t even tell us what they are. This makes it un-useful because the boxes could be anything. The diagram doesn’t tell us anything about what happened when they were all killed, and according to some of the other sources, it states that 5 people were shot in the house. This totally contradicts this source because there are 11 black dots which represent the family and their servants. Source D tells us that 11 men walked into the room and shot everyone. This also contradicts source H because according to the white dots which represent the guards, there are 12. This means that source H could be quite un-useful.
None of these sources are that useful to finding out what actually happened to the Tsar and his family. Source F doesn’t tell you who took the photo and when it was taken, which means that someone could have easily made it all up which is the same for source G. Source H is just as bad because a load of dots on a page doesn’t help you find out anything.
The only source which would be a little useful to a historian is source G because it tells you want it is based on.
E) Source I is a message from the district Soviet of the Ural to Bolsheviks in Petrograd. As it is a message, it means that it could be true. On the other hand, someone could have written it because they wanted to cover up the fact that they probably did kill them all. It is also from the Bolsheviks, who executed the Tsar and according to the other sources, the rest of the family too. Someone could have also changed the message so that it said things which were not meant to have been said.
The source was supposedly produced later after they had killed the Tsar. It was sent on 26th July in 1918 and was sent to other Bolsheviks. It was probably not written by anyone who actually killed the Tsar, but was probably written from someone who was informed that they had executed the Tsar. This means that there is no evidence to say whether they did actually kill the Tsar, Tsarina and their son.
The person who wrote the source probably wrote it because they wanted to tell the rest of the reds what they had finally done to the Tsar. The reds probably killed the Tsar because they wanted to stop the whites from getting the Tsar because they wanted him to be their leader.
I am surprised at the fact that source I says that the wife and son had been sent off to a secure place. This totally contradicts what the other sources say because they mainly all state that all of the Romanov family were killed. This might be code for ‘the wife and son have been sent to a secure place i.e. heaven.’ On the other hand, source A says that the Tsar was killed in the house but the wife and son were supposedly not killed.
F) Source J is a British newspaper report. It talks about a find of the remains of the Romanov family. It was written in 1994, and was probably written because they waned to let the British public find out what they regarded as the truth. The journalist was trying to find out information.
Source J contradicts some of the other sources, such as source C, which says that the bodies where chopped up, burned and then were allowed to sink into the ground. This is totally different to what source J says because it says they found their bodies in a burial pit. Source J also says at the end that the lorry in which they carried the bodies bogged down in a swamp, so they buried the remains right there. This is strange because before that, it says they found the remains in a burial pit.
As the source is from a newspaper report, it means that a lot of people who had read it would have probably have believed everything they say. The person who wrote the article was not there at the time they were killed. He would have been relying on other people’s finding from years ago and what the archaeologists found.
Source C also backs up source J because they both say that they both say that they used bayonets to finish off the ones who didn’t die just from the bullets. Source C also says that the bodies were taken to a mine, which is the same as what source J says except they both say different things as to what they actually did with the bodies.
Source D backs up source J because they both say that they used a lorry to carry the bodies after they had killed them.
History coursework part 2
A) Explain Trotsky’s contribution to the success of the Bolsheviks up to 1922.
Trotsky’s contributed a lot to the success of the Bolsheviks up to 1922. The Bolsheviks had their headquarters in the Smolny Institute, where Trotsky organised the take over of the city. He helped to organise everything to with this take over, and even planned the date – 7th November. Finally, on the 7th November early in the morning, Trotsky and small groups of reds made themselves into the city. Everything went fine; they managed to seize control of the bridges, the main telegraph office, the railway stations and the power stations. After that, they went to the Winter Palace, which was where the Provisional Government was meeting. When they got there, there was little fighting. When they met the military cadets, they all gave up, and so did the Provisional Government. Trotsky had finally led the Reds to success and had gained control of Petrograd.
Trotsky built up a very good army. He did this my making sure that all Reds in the army followed all his rules and didn’t do one single thing wrong.
He made sure that everyone understood that if they did one thing wrong, then they would be shot, for example, some of his orders to the Red army were; every soldier of the Red army who voluntarily deserts his post will be shot and those guilty of harbouring deserters are liable to shot. He had complete control of the Red army and knew exactly how to control them.
Trotsky also made sure that he and his Red army fought at the most dangerous areas, when they were fighting. He used a special train which took them to the different fronts. This ensured that the Bolsheviks were seen as great people.
B) Explain why Stalin, not Trotsky, emerged as Lenin’s successor.
Stalin was the general secretary of the communist party. He was incredibly dull and considered humourless by other communists. He believed that Russia should build a communist state by itself without the help of other countries. Stalin however being very “dull” was politically cunning. The only thing standing in his way was the fact of Lenin not liking him.
Trotsky however, was the leader of the Red army. He believed fully in helping other communists in other countries. He called his policies the “Permanent Revolution.” His great organisation of the Red army has led to the victory in the civil war. Trotsky was the only leading communist who could rival Lenin as a speaker and writer about revolutionary ideas, plus he was a good war leader. Trotsky had a lot of weaknesses; he often suffered fever attacks which affected his strength, he was incredibly arrogant and many people were worried that he would become a dictator. They also doubted him loyalty to the party, because he had not joined until 1917.
When Lenin died in 1924, Stalin had a massive problem if he wanted to become the new leader. Lenin had written a testament about how he was very concerned about Stalin and his growing power. His testament contained a lot of evidence as to why Lenin hated Stalin so much. It also contained information on how he had put down the Georgians and also how he had insulted Lenin’s wife. In his very last testament, he warned everyone against him.
At Lenin’s funeral, Stalin gained his first advantage to becoming the new leader. He tricked Trotsky into not going to the funeral because he was ill. Lots of people who went to the funeral believed that he could not be bothered to go to the funeral, when really Stalin had told him not to go. Stalin lied to the people, saying that he was Lenin’s best friend, and how he was his disciple when really Trotsky was more of a friend that Stalin would have ever been.
When they were going to publish Lenin’s testament, the leading communists decided against making it public. This was because it contained lots of criticisms of the leading communists, as well as Stalin. Stalin was very relieved because if they had have published his testament, then Trotsky would have diffidently won the fight to be the leader.
Trotsky lost his role as leader of the red army. This was because in 1924 as the first Party Congress, Zinoviev and Kanenev joined forces with Stalin to help defeat Trotsky. Trotsky therefore lost all of the votes because Stalin had extra help. However, in 1926, Stalin decided to turn against Zinoviev and Kanenev because he wanted to join forces with the right wing of the party. After doing this, he was able to put forward his ideas on Socialism in one country. As always, Stalin won all the votes because he had a lot of supporters who followed him all the way.
Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kanenev were later expelled from the party in 1927. In 1929, he celebrated him 50th birthday as the leader of the USSR. Stalin decided to have Trotsky expelled from the USSR to stop him getting in the way and trying to make a come back.
C) The following were equally important reasons why Stalin was able to hold onto power in the Soviet Union;
- Purges and show trials
- Secret Police
- Propaganda and cult of the personality
- Stalin’s economic policies
Explain how far you agree with this statement.
The great purges lasted from 1934-38 and many Russians were arrested and mainly shot or sent to labour camps. They used show trials where old Bolsheviks confessed to crimes against the Soviet Union, which many of them had never even done.
He used the purges to get rid of anyone who was against him in the communist party. Zinoviev and Kanenev were killed and so were many others. He believed that getting rid of them gave him a much better chance of being able to keep hold of power. They were all put on trial and the whole world listened to what they called as a show trial on the radio. They were charged with high treason, murder, espionage and also plotting to kill Lenin. Stalin always wanted everyone to confess because that showed that Stalin was right. However, confessing meant that you were instantly killed, which was what happened to Zinoviev and Kanenev and the many others who were tried with them.
Another main show trial took place in 1937. Senior party members were accused of industrial sabotage and spying. The third and last great show trial was in 1938.
However, it didn’t stop there. The purges continued. Stalin believed that many normal Russian people were against him, and so removed lots of people without them even knowing. Many were never seen again. Most of the people who were taken, were sent straight to labour camps without even being tried. All of these people never even committed a crime – everything was made up. This showed that Stalin was a great person for being able to “save” Russia from these evil people who hated Stalin.
The secret police were used to mainly scare people, so that they would never think anything bad about Stalin. If someone said one thing bad about him, then you could be guaranteed that the secret police would be knocking on your door and take you off to one of the labour camps. The secret police were also called the NKVD. They drove around in black cars which they called ravens. They especially liked to call on people in the early hours of the morning. Sometimes even though you had never done anything wrong, they would come knocking on your door. The use of the secret police was so that everyone would be scared of saying anything bad about Stalin. That way it seemed as though because everyone liked him, he would be able to keep control of the Soviet Union for much longer.
Propaganda was used to make people see that Stalin was the only right person for the leader of the USSR. He made posters and slogans so that people would still know that he was always going to be the best. Propaganda was also used so that people didn’t decide to go against him. That way he had more followers. He made propaganda posters saying that all women would be able to keep in socialist reconstruction. He also used propaganda to encourage families to stay together. Staling made loads of posters which showed Stalin thanking the Soviet Union. It made everyone think that the soviet people were lucky to have Stalin to care for them in all possible ways. Because people believed that Stalin was doing the best for everyone, he was able to hold onto power longer.
Stalin got rid of the old Communists, who knew a lot about the past. He decided to rewrite history and change all the photographs so that all of these people disappeared from the pictures. Stalin also wanted people to believe that he had been incredibly close to Lenin. To do this he also changed documents and pictures so that he was standing near Lenin in the pictures. This made everyone believe that he was a great friend of Lenin’s. In lots of photos, Stalin was added to all the pictures of Lenin, even though if you were to closely look at them you would be able to see that he had just been added to them instead of actually been there when it was taken. This made people believe that he was meant to be the leader and deserved to stay the leader because it would have been what Stalin would have wanted.
Stalin also introduced economic policies. This was because in 1928, the USSR was still very poor and was producing fewer industrial goods. Stalin believed that the way to develop industry was though state planning. He did this because he wanted to make the county a wealthier place, so that everyone who lived in the USSR would think that Stalin was the answers to their prayers because he stopped them from going incredibly poor. He wanted people to see him as the best thing which had ever happened to the USSR.
I agree with the statement because people were too scared to even go against Stalin because they feared being put into a labour camp or maybe being executed. However, I don’t believe that the Purges helped him to be able to hold onto power. This is because by killing off loads of people, he lost people who could have been supporters of him, even though he believed that they were against him. On the other hand, I believe that introducing the economic polices meant that people believed that he would help save them from wasting away from poverty because their economy was bad.