Stalin - Consolidation of Power/Purges

Purges

Early Purges

1. Stalin stated “I trust no one, not even myself.”
1. Stalin’s cause for purging was rooted in his severe paranoia. His seizure of power in a revolutionary government placed him in a position that bred enemies, so Stalin was suspicious of everyone. This nature in Stalin contributed to the severity of the purges.
2. Ryutin and his supporters were put on show trial in 1932 for opposing Stalin.
1. Purging of the Ryutinites was the first purge within the Party. This marked the beginning of Stalin’s systematic terrorizing of fellow party members and colleagues. 
3. Stalin subsequently purged one third of the Party between 1933-4 on the grounds that they were “Ryutinites”.
1. The actions of the Ryutinites merely proved to Stalin that organized opposition could be established against him. This ensured that we would be more severe henceforth, since Stalin’s paranoia was heightened.

Assassination of Kirov

4. In December 1934, Sergei Kirov, the party boss of Leningrad, was assassinated. Stalin had good reason to be involved in Kirov’s death.
1. In the 17^th Party Congress, Kirov won more votes than Stalin. His popularity made him a threat to Stalin.
2. Kirov openly condemned Stalin’s policy of industrialization. If organized opposition was to form against Stalin, it was very likely it would occur beneath Kirov.
5. The December Decree was passed following Kirov’s assassinations.
1. This Decree was passed on the grounds that “terrorist activities” similar to Kirov’s assassination could not be tolerated again. It gave the NKVD limitless power in pursuing such “terrorist activities”.

Show Trials

6. Figures like Kamenev and Zinoviev were purged in the Show Trials of 1936. They were charged with involvement in Kirov’s murder and in plotting to kill Stalin.
1. Stalin targeted Old Bolshevik allies from the past because he believed they were a threat to his power.
2. He began the systematic removal of all Old Bolsheviks to ensure that any of their remaining power was removed. In the process he ruined their reputation, so that ultimately he alone could represent the achievements of the revolution.
3. After Kamenev and Zinoviev were readmitted into the Party in 1933, Stalin encouraged their reappearance in public life through the media. Kamenev for example, wrote for the Pravda and edited issues of Bol’sheviks. It was in Stalin’s best interest to portray them as prominent figures in the Party. This made the accusation of a plot to murder Stalin more feasible, and would amplify the impact of their deaths by the show trials.
4. The use of ruthless mental and physical torture was employed to receive false confessions out of Kamenev and Zinoviev that would be used as a basis for later show trials, to incriminate others like Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky.
7. In the Show Trials of 1938, figures like Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky, Radek, and Yagoda were purged.
1. The show trails set the precedent that truly no one was safe from Stalin’s persecution. If men of such political significance could be purge, men of lesser positions had no grounds to resist and plead their innocence.
2. Stalin became the last link to Lenin after complete removal of the Old Bolsheviks.
3. Yagoda, purged because he was becoming too powerful, was replaced by Yezhov as the head of the NKVD. Norman Stone argues in The Other Russian (1990) that Stalin’s systematic purging in the party was effective because it kept the power of individuals in check. …
8. During his purging in 1938, Bukharin said “in reality the whole country stands behind Stalin, he is the hope of the world”.
1. As the victims of the show trails continued to show their loyalty to the Party and to Stalin until the moment of their deaths, the purges were seen as “necessary and fair” and Stalin was portrayed as a defender for the USSR.
2. The victims of the show trials provided Stalin with a scapegoat for all industrial and social problems plaguing the nation.
9. There was mass purging in the armed forces. All 11 war commissars were purged, half of the Commissioned Officer Corps were shot or arrested, and 1 out of 112 air admirals were purged.
1. Purging in the military removed any possibility of armed uprising against Stalin. He completely purged anyone with the military skill and experience to stage such an uprising.
10. The purges of the people saw that 1 in every 18 people were purged in the public.
1. Yezhov carried out the purges to prove as an example for the soviet citizenry. The purges meant to “motivate” them to work harder and more efficiently.
2. The fear created by the people purges contributed to establishing Stalin’s cult of personality.
3. Niccolo Machiavelli “It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved”.

Robert Conquest ,  Stalin “represented a continuity …with the old party of the underground” The Great Terror: Reassessed (1991). Hard-line policy, purging under Lenin. 150 000 purged in 1921 for lack of commitment to the party.

Norman Stone, “in Stalin’s system identical thugs kept on replacing each other, like so many Russian dolls”. The Other Russian (1990).

Michael Lynch “[The Party] ceased, in effect, to have a separate existence. Stalin had become the party.” Stalin and Khrushchev: USSR, 1924-6 (2001).

Erik Van Ree ,“The Great Terror gave Stalin the power of life and death over colleagues” The Political Thought of Joseph Stalin (2002).