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Stalin's Russia- the purges, Hitoriography, However, the totalitarian…

- - - - Historiography
        
        Robert Thurston- 'Stalin was a fear ridden man who overreacted to events'
        Piers Brendon- Stalin was personally responsible for initiating the terror
        Alan Bullok- 'Stalin's narcisstic personality and the paranoid tendency which led him to picture himself as a great man facing a hostile filled world
        
        economic factors-EVIDENCE THAT STALIN USED THE PURGES TO ENSURE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
        
        From 1935, the combined prisoner population of the gulags remained above over 1 million per year. many have argued that the purges, developed as a way of increasing the free labour available to the soviet regime to carry out the economic developments connected to the 5 year plans
        
        THE GULAGS
        
        by condemning vast numbers of people to the gulag, the terror provided slave labour to carry out dangerous work such as logging and gold-mining in inhospitable regions. Stalin needed the money that these industries earned from foreign exports to buy western technology
        
        purges provided slave labour in and from gulags
        
        from 1936 there was a downturn in the soviet economy as a result of technical problems and stalins poor management of the economy. purged managers and workers became convenient scapegoats for soviet leadership for the economic downturn
        
        purges used to push an unwilling group of people to work even harder already
        
        FEAR OF INVASION
        
        from the mid 1930s the prospect of war with Nazi germany looked increasingly likely. this was reflected in an increased military focus to the 5 year plans, which enormously increased the pressure to develop a modern armaments industry
        
        external threats of war. strong heavy industry base needed for arms industry
        
        Stalin appeared to have been unsure of the loyalty of national minorities within border areas of the USSR. national minorities in eastern Europe were clearly targeted in the purges of 1937-38, showing that the threat of war influenced Stalin to purge anyone who he thought would interfere with his war plans
- - - - The Kirov murder was a key event in the Purges. Sergei Kirov formed part of a 'moderate bloc' around which opponents of Stalin gathered; Stalin saw Kirov as a threat to his leadership credentials, he was shot dead in December 1934. Stalin exploited Kirov's murder, claiming it was part of a Trotskyite plot to overthrow him
      - The Show trials took place to implement fear and ensure loyalty to Stalin, he was suspicious of other people who may have been able to create a power base and reduce less numbers of threat -nobody felt safe if even the party was being purged-
      - The show trials- the aim was to expose a coordinated ring of spies and terrorists organised by former opportunists- confessions were tortured out of them in reality, leading Bolsheviks were targeted in the show trials
      - Historiography
        
        Robert Conquest- 'The one Fundamental Drive- was the strengthening of his own position'
        stephen cohen -Stalin had a need to rid himself of the Old Bolshevik party
      - The totalitarian view is that Stalin intended to kill his opponents to increase his personal power
        
        Debatable who was behind the Kirov murder - the murder provided a good excuse for the purges- if Stalin was behind it the purges came from above (party leadership) if not, party members destroyed each other
        
        The elimination of party members who were not 'faithful'. THIS LINKS TO STALINS PARANIOA as Stalin was worried about spies within the party and the effect of denouncing them was to allow grudges
    - - the great terror reached its height in 1937-8 followed by a policy of mass oppression against the soviet people
      - To ensure the success of Stalin's Economic Policies appears to have been one of the strongest motives for the purges. charges of industrial sabotage were brought against thousands of managers, workers and foreign engineers
      - Reducing opposition in the countryside was another motive; thousands of Kulak's accused of agricultural sabotage were executed or sent to labour camps
      - Many victims of the purges were chosen randomly on the most serious charges simply to fulfil NKVD quotas for arrests and executions 9 Order 00447). This gave quotas to each region of the USSR of how many people were arrested- THIS WOULD SUGGEST THAT THE REVISIONIST VIEW OF THE PURGES IS MORE ACCURATE
        
        Role of the NKVD
        
        Stalin replaced Yagoda who was criticised for not finding enemies of the people quickly enough
        
        purges sustained the importance of the NKVD and they increased the scope of the PURGES
        -people looked for personal gain through the purges and denounced others for their own advantage
        -Encouraged lower levels of the party to criticise those higher up which led to a rush of accusations which got out of control and developed a momentum of their own
        -people forced to look after their own interests, so difficult to unite with each other
        
        In 1936 Stalin replaced Yagoda, the head of the NKVD with Yezhov. Stalin was critical of Yagoda for not finding enemies of the people quickly enough. Yagoda was put on trial at the last major show trial and was shot
        
        Many historians argue that the NKVD itself was instrumental in providing momentum for the terror. the nkvd as an institution greatly benefitted from the terror. the terror raised its profile and made it indispensable to Stalin. local NKVD units did not just aim to meet their targets, they regularly exceeded them
      - to ensure loyalty of the military. there was a purge of the armed forces in 1937; a red army plot to overthrow Stalin was uncovered. 35,000 officers were executed
        
        The disruption caused by the 5 year plans had created a terribly unstable society. mass urbanisation had created social tension and violence in the overcrowded cities which lacked basic facilities and services
        
        There was a great deal of hostility in the cities and countryside towards the communist party and the government was worried about the loss of control in the quicksand society
        
        The government resorted to the terror of the purges to stifle critism of the leadership to control people and to keep them working
      - Historiography
        
        some revisionist historians such as Sheila Fitzpatrick acknowledge the horror of the purges, but claim that Stalin himself was not entirely responsible for the apparatus of the state must take responsibility
        
        some revisionist historians claim there was a strong economic incentives in the purges
        
        steepen Lee - 'industrialisation and collectivisation required a disciplined workforce and compliment peasantry. terror was therefore inseparable from stains vision of modernisation