Stalin and his associates in the Politburo and the NKVD influenced the Soviet people with these methods so much that in some cases the lowest class of people would exclaim statements like: “When the woman I love gives me a child, the first word I will teach it shall be 'Stalin'” (A.O. Avidicenko, February 1935) The main methods that Stalin used to maintain his grip on the USSR was the Terror and utter fear that he spread throughout the Soviet union, which was transmitted through the NKVD. These ruthless individuals were Stalin's secret police and were headed by Yakoda and Yeshov in the 1930's. Stalin's great terror was kick started by his secret, well organised murder of Sergie Kirov. A member of the Politburo, who seemed to be in the public spotlight.
By comparing the key events in terms of opposition like the Assassination of Alexander II in 1881, Blood Sunday and the October manifesto in 1905, the February and October revolution in 1917, and how effectively they were dealt with, then we can come to a judgment on the argument. Stalin’s most intense opposition came at the beginning of his quest to becoming ruler to Russia from 1924 to 1929. Before Lenin passed away from his stroke he had left a testament stating that Stalin was dangerous and should be dismissed also he had chosen Trotsky the leader of Red army as his successor. Stalin was given the position of General sectary of the communist party in 1922 which everyone associated as a dull and unimportant Job. However he managed to manipulate the leftists Zinoviev and Kamenev in the politburo into covering up Lenin’s
Thus we can see that by the end of the 1920s, Stalin had definitely created a totalitarian state, but to what extent? One example of the way in which the USSR under Stalin was a totalitarian state was the great purges. The purges were the process by which Stalin eliminated all the competition that he had in the communist party, including Communist Party members and Government officials who were potential rivals or threats to him, those who criticized his policies and even the innocent few. Stalin held show trials for those party members who opposed him – including famously the trial of the sixteen, seventeen and twenty one, which all individually eliminated Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin and Rykov. These trials were meant for the people to see and serve as a warning to any people planning to oppose Stalin.
The police and the SA arrested all the communist leaders, their meetings were broken up and newspapers closed down. Also the banning of the trade unions was a contributing factor. He filled all of the legal positions with Nazis so that they can get the results that they wanted. The judges who weren’t Nazis were only allowed to be reappointed if they took an oath of loyalty to Hitler. The enabling law gave him complete control when it was passed on the 23rd March 1933.
They had the ability to tap phone lines, intercept mail and to spy on people. Anyone who was suspected as being against the Nazi Party and Hitler would be immediately arrested and detained for as long as they wished. The Gestapo was what ordinary Germans feared every day, as no one was safe from late night police raids or deportation to the concentration camps. By 1939, 150,000 political prisoners were put under ‘protective arrest’. The Nazis also controlled and altered the German judiciary system to benefit themselves.
Macbeth killed his best friend and numerous other people when offered the prospect of power. Stalin had political opponents assassinated, arrested, and run out in order to ensure that he would rise to power. Macbeth, once he got power, became paranoid and twisted. Stalin had his secret police, who even turned each other in once in a while. They would both send out spies (secret police) to watch over the people they were supposed to be ruling Macbeth cared little about his people and was preoccupied trying to cover his tracks than anything else.
This event led to labor unrest, peasant insurrections, student demonstrations, as well as army and navy mutinies. Although the shooting was not Nicholas II’s fault, he was given the nickname, “ The Bloody Murderer” and stated that he was not going to make any changes for the people. This was the last major event before the Revolution of 1905 officially broke out. New councils created by urban workers in order to better organize strikes were created called Soviets. During this time, Russian cities were dying because all the workers and peasants were focused on rebelling against the government and seizing the land of their landlords, instead of working in the factories and living the life of a peasant or urban worker.
Lenin also suppressed democracy, closing down the constituent assembly in January 1918 after ‘one day of democracy’. Both the Tsars and the communist rulers also showed no hesitation in the use of secret police and mass terror. Each regime had its own secret police - the Third Section under Alexander II, the Okhrana under Alexander III and Nicholas II, the Cheka, the NKVD and the KGB under the communists. The suppression of opponents was also a common practice throughout the period. Under the term of Pyotr Stolypin as Prime Minister (1906-11), hundreds of opponents were hanged - earning the hangman’s noose the nickname - ‘the Stolypin necktie’.
The Nazis in trial above were the Very high level Nazis who had influence in the Holocaust. Many of the higher level Nazis were executed or imprisoned. Nazis committed suicide in fear of getting caught including those who were captured in prisons by the Allies. In Eastern Germany the soviets would capture Nazis and send them into camps in Siberia to work and starve. Some were executed without
There were signs of an early revolution in the making when the people had had enough off being ruled by an autocratic government. On January 9, 1905 in St. Petersburg, the civilians of Russia peacefully marched to the palace of the tsar with just a simple compromise in which the Russian government was not very fond of due to the fact that they thought an autocratic government was the only government that could rule Russia. They ordered to soldiers to open fire on the demonstrators killing nearly 1,000 people. Russian’s were furious with this and throughout the year, they went on strikes in which one strike paralyzed the country, which then compelled Nicholas the second to grant civil and political freedoms to the people. The document was known as The October Manifesto.