Stalin was able to eliminate all effective opposition through a series of purges. The Show Trials, which began in 1936, were designed to create an atmosphere of intimidation and paranoia. As the purges swept through the party, many highly prominent Bolsheviks were put on trial and accused of being part of a Trotsky counter-revolutionary bloc. During the first Show Trial, of 1936, Stalin eliminated Kamenev and Zinoviev, who forcibly confessed to being part of Trotsky’s conspiracy and were consequently executed. In 1937 Stalin began the purge of the military, accusing them of spying for Nazi Germany.
It displays Lenin’s striking similarity to the way the Tsar reacted to political pressure from opposing ideologies and factions. In other words, he simply illustrated that he was not the democratic and just leader he made himself out to be before the Revolution. The formation of the Red Army and Cheka also demonstrated Lenin’s likeness to the Tsar on many occasions after the takeover of the Winter Palace. Both bodies were significant instruments of Terror and both stringently enforced compliance to the communist government by committing atrocities against both the White Armies and dissident Worker and peasants. These atrocities included things such as torture, imprisoning the wives of enemies and seriously wounding prisoners
The aim of Night of Long Knives was to eliminate all who Hitler perceived as a threat to Germany and his cause like leaders of the SA and other ‘enemies’ like communists and Jews. The SA were seen as thugs that tainted the image of Hitler, communists were seen as a major threat as they believed in equality of all people while also appealing to the working class and Jews were seen as inferior to the purity of German race, all these factors contributed to the atrocities as Hitler looked to establish himself as Fuhrer. Following the Night of Long Knives, Hitler made it clear that he was the supreme autocratic ruler of Germany, he had complete control as he was able to get away with his evil act and had the power derived from his rise to dictatorship to decide whether people lived or died for his own benefit. The fact that Hitler was beginning to fear his place and revolt from the SA army is supported by SA
This resulted in risings such as the Spartacist rising where communists fuelled by the success of the Russian revolution almost occupied nearly every major city in Germany. However, the Reichstag led by the SPD had stepped into a power that was left by the Kaiser, and as a result of this it had no real option but to accept the Versailles Treaty. The most irritating part for the German people was the to pay reparations to Britain and France. Germany's failure to pay her debt led to the invasion of the Ruhr, resulted in very little success for France but did succeed in the complete collapse of the German economy. This led to the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 Hitler aided by General Lundendorff and a few hundred supporters marched on the Munich town hall as a pretext to a national revolution, unfortunately for Hitler this attempt failed and he was sent to prison.
While he was careful to protect the spirit of Lenin, Khrushchev attacked the crimes committed by Stalin and his closest associates. Throughout the four hours, Khrushchev accused Stalin of creating a regime based on "suspicion, fear, and terror." Khrushchev added that he wanted to break the cult of Stalin, who had died three years before. He condemned the mass repressions that took place between 1936 and 1938, lashed out at Stalin's foreign policy during World War II, and accused him of nationalism and anti-Semitism (rferl.org). In the speech Khrushchev denounced Stalin and Stalinism, and stated the Stalin was wrong.
How did Stalin's dictatorship develop? Stalin made his way into becoming dictator by a series of manipulative and clever tactics he would use to aid his influence. After Lenin and his party took over the election of the Provisional government which had been elected after the fall of the tsarist regime through a series of well-aimed political hits and armed threats; Stalin ascended the ranks of the government through extensive manipulation and threats as well as gaining the strong loyalty of some socialist idealists. In 1922 Stalin received the majority vote to become the General Secretary of the Communist party; a role that really no one else in the party really wanted as they deemed it unimportant and much like “House-chores”. What the other members of the soviet party such as Trotsky did not realize however; was that Stalin would use the position to gain a mass of followers for his socialist ideals and would use it as a stepping stone to achieve greater political influence and manipulate his way even further in the ranks.
The purges and show trials aimed to terrorise Soviet society into compliance with Stalin’s regime, and ‘remove potential enemies,’ to allow Stalin to found an almost entirely ‘new’ Communist party, which comprised of ‘more dependable’ members. The Terror fundamentally had the impact of manipulating and destroying social norms, and disarranging the political and military structure which had formed in Russia following the Bolshevik revolution. During the purges and show trials which comprised the Terror, the Communist Party were forced into submission, which essentially impacted the party in an adverse manner. 90 per cent of the once established Bolshevik party members were purged, including Bukharin, Yagoda and Rykov at show trials, and the remaining members were exhausted of any power. The removal of these skilled and able members was detrimental for the Communist party, as it weakened them industrially and economically, and resulted in an endemic lack of experience across the party.
Causes of the Great Terror In 1918, the Bolshevik party, through means of insurrection, seized control of the government in Russia and, in so doing, forever changed the lives of the Russian people and their society. Promising to bring an end to repression and tyranny by the rich and powerful, the new Soviet government quickly transformed itself into one of the most cruel and repressive regimes that human beings have ever been forced to endure under. While the terror and repression was something that continually waxed and waned from 1918 until the death of Stalin in 1955, there occurred a most vicious and peculiar period of violence at the end of the 1930’s that has forever been remembered since as the “Great Terror”. What makes this period of violence so noteworthy is that during this time the Bolsheviks launched their campaign of carnage against members of their own party. Indeed, those caught up in this nightmare thought that Stalin’s only perceivable motive was to destroy the best people in the party.
Why did Stalin instigate the great purges? Stalin is a man known for the ruthless methods he adopted to counteract oppositions, the harsh plans he set in order to industrialize Russia and also the way he shamelessly consolidated his power to secure his position in USSR. He’s infamous for his manipulative behavior, his temperamental ways and historically, the reign of terror (also referenced to as the great purges) he had initiated and allowed to unfurled upon the USSR. Stalin endeavored to: Secure his position within the party as well as a prominent figure in the USSR; build a strong and independent Russia made so by the five year plans he had developed;to have complete and total control of Russia, its people and industries; And he believed that the relentless terror he descended upon russia was the perfect medium which would allow him to achieve his goals. Stalin was engulfed by a sort-of paranoia, which didn’t always work against him but it did generally mean he was constantly worried by the thought of being thrown out of power, especially by those within his party.
1953 saw the death of Soviet Russia’s greatest leader, in a never-ending atmosphere of anxiety, betrayal and paranoia. Stalin had become the state, not through the path of diplomacy, but through tumultuous bloodshed and trickery. He held absolute power and anyone foolish enough to protest against him and his path to the ultimate communist Utopia would find them selves dead or in a forced labor camp. The roots of this ultimate power lie in the years 1929-39, where Stalin employed the ‘Great Terror’, with the purges to secure political and economic control over the Soviet state. This essay will deduce how effective the ‘terror’ was employed to secure these corner stones.