In the early 1930’s Stalin felt threatened by his growing opposition and was determined to bring the party under his total control. At the 17th Party Congress in 1934, Sergei Kirov received the vast majority of votes which led to his assassination due to the threat that he posed to Stalin’s leadership. Many argued that this was a turning point in Russian history. It unleased a terror that killed millions in the next four years. Stalin was able to eliminate all effective opposition through a series of purges.
Chapter 5: “Seizing Power” This chapter is about how Joseph rises to take power in the Communist government. A. Stalin threatened Lenin’s wife so she would not give a letter to the head of the Communist Party about how unfit he was to be General Secretary. B. He formed an alliance with Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinovyev but betrayed them to take the power for himself. Chapter 6: “The Peasants Purges” This chapter is about how Joseph turns the country to collectivization system.
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. This lead to him using purges as a way to enforce his power and secure his position. His constant worry over the potential loss of power is clearly illustrated by the fact his purges initially began internally and also, if we’re to run with the idea that he was responsible for the murder of Kirov, the kirov case of 1934. Purges wasn’t a new method of eliminating those who did not follow the ideology put forward, Lenin in fact was infamous for using this technique. What was new was the purges being utilized as a weapon to eliminate those within the party.
The results were catastrophic for the Austrian army: his actions contributed to the deaths of half a million Austrians. Redl committed suicide after Austrian police discovered his betrayal. 2、Harold Cole was the deputy commander of Scotland Yard during the end of the World War 2 and is considered one of the worst traitors of the war. He was responsible for divulging information to the Gestapo about the French resistance escape lines, which he had helped create. He also divulged information about the French resistance leaders to the Axis, resulting in the death of at least 150 people.
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.
Joseph Stalin’s killing spree started in the 1930’s with a Great Purge of the communist party. Those targeted were deported, executed or sent to the Gulag Labour Camps. By 1937 all the original members of Lenin’s cabinet who had not died of natural causes before the purge, were executed. At least 1 million people were killed for political offences. Mass operations of the NKVD (The secret police) targeted foreign ethnicities such as Poles, Germans and Koreans.
‘How far do you agree with the view that the most important cause of the Great Terror was the murder of Kirov in 1934?’ Sergey Kirov’s murder in 1934 was undoubtedly a decisive factor in the outbreak of the Great Terror in 1936. Stalin’s claim that Kirov’s murder was part of a widespread conspiracy against the government gave him a convenient excuse to begin arresting and executing several enemies within the Communist Party whom he deemed ‘suspicious’, despite several people believing Stalin himself was responsible due to the threat that Kirov posed to his leadership. There are however other factors, such as Stalin’s paranoia, Stalin’s personal ambitions, and the ever-increasing likelihood of war between the USSR and Nazi Germany, that can also be considered potential decisive factors in Stalin’s decision to implement the Purges. This essay shall explore the aforementioned factors and attempt to evaluate their significance. It shall eventually be concluded that Kirov’s murder was a significant, but not a solely responsible, cause of the Great Terror.
In 1924, Lenin had died due to his increasingly worse condition after he was shot in 1918. This meant that the Bolshevik party had no leader who would continue Lenin’s work on communism. However, there were many contenders that wanted this leadership as it meant they would become the next ruler of Russia, effectively, these people were: Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin and Stalin. Although many were stuck in a power vacuum for the leadership, only one could be the true successor to Lenin and eventually, through cunning and skill, Stalin claimed that he was this very person. One reason why Stalin won the power struggle was through his positioning within the party.
How important was Stalin’s use of purges to his conciliation of power? During the 1930s, Stalin launched a regime of the Great Purges against prominent party members. This was the form of terror used by Stalin and his supporters to remove enemies. The victims of the purges were enemies of the state or people who were accused of crimes they could not have possibly committed. Show trials were held where public enemies of the state were accused and then, in the majority of cases, executed.
He was also tricked by Stalin into not attending Lenin’s funeral. Despite him being very close to Lenin in life, these events convinced his opponents that Trotsky did not actually revere the man, as the rest of them did. and also verged close to trying to factionalise the