THE GREAT PURGES

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THE GREAT PURGES
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AIMS

• To understand what the purges were.
• To understand why they took place.

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Seven year-old Engelsina Cheshkova was bored,
sitting with her bunch of flowers at a party
meeting in 1936. So she got up and wandered
towards the platform. Stalin picked her up,
cameras clicked, and Engelsina became famous. A
statue was erected in Moscow based on the
picture Thankyou Comrade Stalin, for my happy
childhood.
In December 1937, Engelsinas father, a minor
party official, disappeared. Engelsina, who was
now the daughter of an enemy of the people,
wrote a letter, dictated by her mother, to Stalin
asking for help she did not link her fathers
arrest with Stalin. The letter led to the arrest
of her mother, who died in exile in Turkestan.
Engelsina never saw her father again.
When Stalin died Engelsina cried because her
eight-month old daughter would never see him
alive.
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WHAT WERE THE PURGES?

• To purge is to cleanse an organism of impurities.
• There were three stages1. The chistka (1932-5)
  over 20 of the party were expelled
  non-violently.2. The show trials of old
  Bolsheviks.3. The Yezhovshchina (1937-8) a
  period of mass terror when thousands of people
  were denounced and arrested.
• Robert Conquest puts the death toll at around 10
  million.

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THE STALIN CONSTITUTION, 1936

• Freedom from arbitrary arrest.
• Freedom of speech.
• Freedom of the press.
• The right to demonstrate.
• Respect for the privacy of the home and private
  correspondence.
• Employment for all.
• Universal suffrage for all over 18s, free
  elections and secret ballots.

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OPPOSITION

• Growing due to harsh economic policies.
• Some party members called for the removal of
  Stalin.
• Ryutin described him as the evil genius of the
  Russian revolution.
• Stalin wanted Ryutin executed, the Poliburo would
  not sanction execution for Ryutin.
• 17th Party Congress opposition grew around the
  handsome popular Sergei Kirov.
• Kirov Stalin were Secretary of Equal Rank.

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2nd December, 1934 Kirov was murdered.
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THE KIROV MURDER MYSTERY

• Robert Conquest argues that the murder was a
  turning point in Soviet history and led to the
  wave of terror being unleashed.
• Read through pages 208-211.
• Was Stalin involved in Kirovs murder?
• If Stalin was involved, what were his motives?
• What is your evidence for your conclusion?
• Why was this murder so important?