In order to do this Stalin instituted a party purge to silence the opposition of Riutin and his supporters, the assassination of Kirov, executed delegated party congresses, The trial of the twenty-one and general Purges. Between the years 1929-34 Stalin faced opposition from within the communist party A purge was the systematic elimination of opponents by Stalin, The assassination of Kirov allowed Stalin to use it as an excuse to begin the purges. In 1932, Kirov had helped to defeat Stalin on an important issue concerning Mikhail Riutin, who had circulated a document that was highly critical of Stalin. Stalin was furious and demanded Ruitins execution. However the central committee and the politburo refused to order Ruitin’s execution, Stalin viewed this as a betrayal.
Many historians have said Alexander II was considering the formation of a parliament in Russia. Furthermore, the assassination caused Alexander III to rule in reactionary nature in which many counter-reforms were created to limit the impact of the Great Reforms done by his father. This supports the view that the People’s Will were highly unsuccessful, even in the taking out of Alexander II. It can be said that the only example in this period of effective political opposition was the October 1917 revolution, where, unquestionably, the Bolsheviks took power and let their political vision be known. They were extremely successful in both the short term and the long term.
However, this simple act of trying to track down communists to save the country turned into past experiences our country had already experienced. The new found “McCarthyism” started out as a task to eliminate communist threats in this country, and it ended being much like the witch hunt trials held in 1692. McCarthy let his paranoia get the best of him on the issue of communism and ultimately ruined an entire
The first documentation about their intention to exterminate the Jews appears in the 1942 Wannsee conference, when Germany faced a difficult situation in the Soviet Union. This illustrates that the Nazis had decided on the complete eradication of the Jews as the war became increasingly difficult. The extreme anti-Semitism displayed by Hitler in his speeches and comments and Nazi propaganda has been used to support the belief that the Nazis had decided on extermination as soon as they gained power. However, Hitler was known to exaggerate in his speeches to the extremist audiences, with remarks such “As soon as I have power, I shall have gallows after gallows erected… Then the Jews will be hanged one after another, and they will stay hanging until they stink”. Clearly, the method mentioned is unfeasible and this had the role of causing a sensation.
These, along with the demolition of the army in 1905 and the massacre of Bloody Sunday, portraying the Tsar’s incompetence, would be perfectly viable reasons for a revolution to take place. Also, the actions of the public would also assume that the Tsar was threatened. City-wide strikes, destruction of property and seizure of land which occurred may not have troubled the Tsar, but the fact that the government’s Minister of Interior, Plehve, was assassinated surely struck fear into the heart of the Tsar. Plehve was somewhat responsible for the failure of Russia in the war with Japan, and this was showing that if the government did something wrong they would get punished for it. I think clear evidence that shows that the Tsar was worried was the concessions that he subsequently made.
How far do you agree with the view that the origins of the Cold War in 1945 and 1946 owed much to ideological differences and little to personalities and conflicting national interests? The origins of the Cold War formed out of ideological differences as well as conflicting national interests such as an expansionist policy by the USSR and a clash of personalities between key leaders, such as Stalin and the new American President Truman. Furthermore, the use of the atomic bomb by the USA had caused mistrust between superpowers and led to heightened tensions causing for a Cold War. To a certain extent the mutual distrust and the ideological differences was a prime reason for the origins of the Cold War between the USSR and the Western allies. The USSR's need to 'defend it's national interests' and safeguard the empire from further attacks, especially after a loss of 20 million Soviet Citizens due to World War 2, caused them to station over 11 million Red Army soldiers to occupy Eastern Europe.
In many ways, Stalin transformed himself to replicate Lenin by adopting his ideas and goals, although the way in which he met these goals are highly controversial by historians. Stalin was quickly acknowledged as a murderous dictator while he used a tactic of systematic killing of political opponents and innocent civilians on a massive scale. The objectives that Stalin was able to accomplish during his political career were truly outstanding and beneficial, however; the way in which he met these goals was truly unethical. Joseph Stalin was an
In December 1905 he was again arrested after showing his public support of the Bolsheviks during his imprisonment Trotsky developed the idea of Permanent revolution – he argued that a revolution could not survive in one country for long it would need an ally. In May 1917 Trotsky returns to Russia and witnesses food shortages and violence in the streets. By now both Trotsky and Lenin believe that the time is right for a socialist revolution. Trotsky’s life includes the significant role he played in the 1917 revolution. Initially he persuaded Lenin to hold off the revolution until November because he believed that the time and place for the transfer of power was the Second Annual all Russian Congress of the soviets so that the Bolsheviks could claim that they were claiming power for the
The Nazis felt like this political group was trying to undermine their “people’s community”. Hitler made it very clear that he did not want the communists in his people community when he and the Nazi party realised their 25 point programme of 1920.However the Nazis also portrayed the socialist and any other party of which had taken part in coalition governments during the Weimar republic as they collaborated with communism and Jewish democracy. Hitler wanted to introduce the policy of volksgeminschaft in this case because if he could eliminate the communists and the other parties who were associated as collaborating with them, the Nazis could then get their votes as they had a high amount of supporters, which would mean them having the majority and coming into power. Anybody who the Nazis believed that represented a threat to the racial purity of which Hitler wanted would come under the socialism categories. This included, Jews, gypsies and those who were seen as mentally or physically unfit.
Stalin's paranoia being one of the considered causes Terror as he feared he would fall from power like other key members of Communist Party like Trotsky and Bukharin. Other considered reasons include Terror Economics, The Congress of Victors of 1934 and Kirov's murder. Although Stalin's paranoia was a factor in the start of The Great Terror, Kirov's murder in 1934 was the main trigger as Stalin used this as evidence of a conspiracy within the Communist Party to get rid of Stalin's government and to restore capitalism in Russia. Stalin was paranoid as he felt he could not trust many within the Communist Party therefore started The Great Terror to remove those he saw as threats. Stalin was an unchallenged ruler but he believed he had many enemies and recent history made Stalin wary.