Great Purge

“Stalin showed in a whole series of cases his intolerance, his brutality and his abuse of power,” This claim from Khrushchev is clearly vindicated by Stalin’s actions during what is known as the Great Purges. On the 1st of December in 1934, Sergei Kirov, a highly ranked government official who was making his way through the ranks of the communist party at the time was murdered. ("Purge Trials | History & Facts"). This event had a chain reaction, it led to one of the most the extreme methods Stalin used in order to make sure he held onto total power, the Great Purges. The Great Purges of the 1930’s was shown in many form, one of these being ‘the show trials’ or the Moscow Trials, these trials entailed Stalin putting his political opponents on trial for ridiculous crimes of treason. He did this in order to make sure his status as supreme leader stayed. An example of this is the Staff of the recently replaced NKVD chief at the time. 17 co-defendants were accused of forming an “anti-Soviet Trotskyite centre,” which had allegedly collaborated with Trotsky to conduct sabotage, wrecking, and terrorist activities that would ruin the Soviet…

communist leader who spread fear, terror, and other horrid emotions to his people. Many hate Stalin for his brutal leadership and have even called him worse than Hitler in terms of authority and deaths among his people. Like many strong dictators, Stalin used many different forms of horror to keep a iron grip reserving his position of lead in his country. But how exactly did Joseph Stalin keep the Soviet Union under his control with so many against him? He used four primary tactics:show trials,…

Hitler placed Jews in concentration camps and even some labor camps, the conditions in these camps were very harsh… a few camps were even Death Camps. Stalin also put people in camps most of the camps that Stalin placed people in were labor camps he did not really have any death camps but due to the conditions in the camps about 6 Million died altogether. By looking at these facts you can see how Hitler and Stalin were racing for power. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were two incredibly terrible…

Kirov, the head of the Leningrad Party organization. Owing to Joseph Stalin’s growing suspicion of party members, the death of Kirov opened the door for what became known as The Great Terror. By the end of 1939 over two million people were directly impacted by the purges, estimates put the death toll close to 800,000 people killed outright, and hundreds of thousands more sent to labor camps where many subsequently died. The Stalin left no stone unturned in his quest to eliminate threats to his…

Horror by Paranoia In late 1934, Stalin launched a campaign of political terror, otherwise know as the Great Purge. After Lenin’s death in 1924 Stalin maneuvered his way up the political ranks until he became the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (History.com Staff). Under his leadership came a period of terror across Russia. The Great purge, 1934 to 1939, was an unjust era of false persecution, high police surveillance, suspicion of…

How Lenin Paved The Way For Stalin’s Great Terror Throughout the history of the Soviet Union, there have been numerous leaders who would influence future leaders with their policies and actions. However, there has been no greater influence than Vladimir Lenin had on Joseph Stalin’s style of leadership. Lenin’s policies and actions from 1917 to 1924 indirectly caused many of Stalin’s ideas to come to fruition, including his infamous Great Terror movement from 1936 to 1938. The Great Terror is…

also various differences between how Hitler and Stalin aced upon accomplishing their goals. Although both suffered from paranoia to a certain extent, Stalin was filled with a greater amount of paranoia than Hitler, leading to his orders to kill anyone he thought was against him even if they had not acted in a manner that confirmed Stalin’s suspicion. Hitler on the other hand received active participation from his government, which enabled him to more efficiently attempt to completely eradicate…

defendants are Grigorii Petrovich Neposedov and Fyodor Mochulsky, who were accused of being enemies of the people. The trial occurs as part of the Great Purge. Neposedov was the director of a factory that processed lumber. According to the prosecution, he deliberately broke all sort of laws, stole from the state, embezzled funds, and made shady deals in order to meet his production quota. In 1937 he was arrested by the NKVD on these actions, which he was accused of undertaking on behalf of…

twelve hour period. “The Purge” is a movie directed by James DeMonaco that is centrally placed in 2022 where the economic growth is high and homelessness is lower that it has ever been. There is still one persistent issue, the crime rate is at an all time high and prisons are beyond overcrowded. Hence, what allowed the “Founding Fathers” to allow all crime to be legal including murder. It’s every man for themselves. Are you up for a challenge?…

dekulakization, the Holodomor, attacks on enemy nationalities, and the purges of 1937-38 purges should all be classified as the “crime of crimes”: genocide. Currently the four events are simply viewed as massacres or mass killings of a gargantuan scale. He goes further to assert that it was Stalin alone who facilitated and enabled these genocides to occur. By reclassifying them as genocide, Naimark hopes that Stalin’s crimes will finally get the recognition and proper classification that they…