Stalin – Terror and Show Trials Answer:
Rian O’ Mahony
The use of terror paved to be one of Stalins most crucial instruments of consolidating his power over Russia. In the early 1930s, Stalin ‘dealt’ with the “Kulaks” who opposed Collectivisation and people who opposed Industrialisation also. Leaders of the Communist Party, Government officials. Red Army generals and cultural figures were all subject to the purges. Also, the Russian Orthodox Church received the same terror, the act of being know as ‘Russification’. The NKVD, secret police, carried out Stalin’s orders of propaganda as well as that the state controlled terror. The terror included public persecution, interrogation, torture and/or death. Many were deported to Gulags, some situated in the arctic regions of Russia leading to starvation, disease and death from over-whelment.
Terror had always been an essential element of policy in Russia. From 1933-1939, Russia was to suffer the Great Terror. Stalin wanted to remove any threat to his power, his did this through a series of purges. In 1933 the first phase of the purges commenced setting out to eliminate “undesirable” elements of the Communist Party. Zinoviev and Kamenev were purged and considered “enemies of the state”. Between 1934-35 the second phase of purges took place, where Kirov, Stalin’s old best-friend, was killed. This would suggest Stalin feared that he knew too much. Also during this purge, Red Army generals who swore loyalty to Trotsky were killed leading to 98 out of the original 139 killed.
Between 1936-38, the third phase of the purges occurred and saw the 1st trial of 16. Leading party members were put on trial and accused of attempting to kill Stalin aswell as plotting against the state. These trials were masterminded by Yagoda and prosecuted by Vyshinsky. In this trial Zinoviev and Kamenev admitted to attempting to kill Stalin. The 2nd show trial of 17, saw all 17 either executed or sent to Labour camps for admitting to working for Nazis and Japan. Karl Radek however avoided execution as swearing to agreeing to implicate other leaders, culminating to the 3rd and final show trial.
The 3rd show trial of 21 saw all of the 21 executed including Bukharin leading member of the Politburo. Yagoda was also executed, suggesting Stalin felt he knew too much about the show trials. By the end of the trial the old guard consisted of three members were living, two being Stalin and Molotov. Apart from the trials a military coup was held in 1937 lasting until 1939 where 35,000 officers were killed or imprisoned. This meat Russia was totally unprepared for war in 1939 and German invasion in 1941.
By the end of the 1930’s terror had achieved its purpose, Stalin’s rule was unchallenged, even with Russia being unprepared for War. Through terror the cult of Stalin arose throughout those years in which pictures, statues and renaming of places(Stalingrad, Stalinsk) and were used as propaganda tools for Stalin. Historian Robert Conquest estimated that by 1938 7-8 million people were victims to the purges and found themselves in Labour camps.
Stalin’s reign of terror reigned madness throughout the USSR seeing approximately 21 million deaths.