The development of disputes over the period of Stalin’s rule is facilitated by the fact that many documents of the NKVD are still classified. Different numbers are given on the number of victims of the political regime. That is why this period remains to be studied for a long time.
How many people were killed by Stalin: years of rule, historical facts, repressions during the Stalin regime
The historical figures who built the dictatorial regime have distinctive psychological characteristics. Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili in this is no exception. Stalin is not a surname, but a pseudonym that clearly reflects his personality.
Could anyone suggest that a lonely mother-washerwoman (later a modist was a rather popular profession at that time) would raise a son from a Georgian village who would defeat fascist Germany, establish industrial industry in a vast country and make millions shudder just by sounding his name?
Now that knowledge is ready for our generation from any field, people know that a harsh childhood forms unpredictably strong personalities. So it was not only with Stalin, but also with Ivan the Terrible, Genghis Khan and with the same Hitler. What is most interesting, the two most odious figures in the history of the last century have a similar childhood: a tyrant father, an unfortunate mother, their early death, studying in schools with a spiritual bias, and a love of art. Few people know about such facts, because basically everyone is looking for information about how many people Stalin killed.
The path to politics
The reins of power of the largest power in the hands of Dzhugashvili lasted from 1928 to 1953, until his death. What policy he intended to conduct, Stalin announced in 1928 at an official speech. For the rest of the term he did not depart from his own. Evidence of this is the facts about how many people Stalin killed.
When it comes to the number of victims of the system, part of the destructive decisions is attributed to his approximate: N. Yezhov and L. Beria. But at the end of all documents is the signature of Stalin. As a result, in 1940 N. Yezhov himself became a victim of repression and was shot.
Motives
The goals of the Stalinist repressions pursued several motives, and each of them reached their fullest. They are as follows:
- The reprisals haunted the political opponents of the leader.
- Repression was an instrument of intimidation of citizens in order to strengthen Soviet power.
- A necessary measure to boost the economy of the state (repression was carried out in this direction).
- Exploitation of free labor.
Terror at its peak
The peak of repression is considered to be 1937-1938. Regarding how many people Stalin killed, statistics during this period give impressive figures - more than 1.5 million. The NKVD order number 00447 was distinguished by the fact that it chose its victims on national and territorial grounds. Representatives of nations different from the ethnic composition of the USSR were especially persecuted.
How many people did Stalin kill on the basis of Nazism? The figures are as follows: more than 25,000 Germans, 85,000 Poles, about 6,000 Romanians, 11,000 Greeks, 17,000 Latvians and 9,000 Finns. Those who were not killed were expelled from their territory without the right to help. Their relatives quit their jobs, the military were expelled from the army.
Figures
Anti-Stalinists do not miss the opportunity to exaggerate real data once again. For instance:
- The dissident Roy Medvedev believes that there were 40 million of them.
- Another dissident A.V. Antonov-Ovseenko did not trifle and exaggerated the data at once twice - 80 million.
- There is also a version owned by the rehabilitators of the victims of repression. According to their version, the number of deaths was more than 100 million.
- Most surprised the audience was Boris Nemtsov, who in 2003 announced 150 million victims on the air.
In fact, only official documents can give the answer to the question of how many people Stalin killed. One of them is a memorandum of N. S. Khrushchev from 1954. It contains data from 1921 to 1953. According to the document, more than 642,000 people received the death penalty, that is, a little more than half a million, but not 100 and not 150 million. The total number of convicts was over 2 million 300 thousand. Of these, 765,180 were sent to the link.
Repression during the Second World War
The Great Patriotic War forced a slight decrease in the rate of extermination of the people of his country, but the phenomenon as such was not stopped. Now the "culprits" were sent to the front lines of the front. If you wonder how many people Stalin killed by the hands of the Nazis, then there is no exact data. There was no time to judge the culprits. From this period, the catch phrase about the decisions “without trial and investigation” remained. The legal basis now was the order of Lorenius Beria.
Even emigrants became victims of the system: they were returned en masse and made decisions. Almost all cases were qualified by article 58. But this is conditional. In practice, the law was often ignored.
The characteristic features of the Stalin period
After the war, repression acquired a new mass character. About how many people died under Stalin from among the intelligentsia, the "Case of Doctors" testifies. The culprits in this case were the doctors who served at the front, and many scientists. If we analyze the history of the development of science, then the vast majority of the "mysterious" deaths of scientists accounted for that period. A large-scale campaign against the Jewish people is also the fruit of the politics of the time.
Severity
Speaking about how many people died in the repressions of Stalin, it cannot be said that all the accused were shot. There were many ways to torture people both physically and psychologically. For example, if relatives of the accused are expelled from their place of residence, then they are deprived of access to medical care and food products. So thousands of people died of cold, hunger or heat.
Prisoners were kept for a long time in cold rooms without food, without drinking and the right to sleep. For some, they didn’t take off handcuffs for months. None of them had the right to communicate with the outside world. Notification of their fate was not practiced either. Severe beating with broken bones and spine did not pass anyone. Another type of psychological torture is to arrest and “forget” for years. There were people "forgotten" for 14 years.
Mass
Specific figures are difficult to cite for many reasons. Firstly, should relatives of prisoners be considered? Should we consider those who died even without arrest, "under mysterious circumstances"? Secondly, the previous census was carried out before the start of the civil war, in 1917, and during the reign of Stalin - only after the Second World War. There is no accurate information on the total population.
Politicization and anti-people
It was believed that repression rid people of spies, terrorists, saboteurs, and those who do not support the ideology of Soviet power. However, in practice, completely different people became victims of the state machine: peasants, ordinary workers, public figures and entire nations who wished to preserve national identity.
The first preparatory work on the creation of the Gulag dates back to 1929. Today they are compared with the German concentration camps, and very fairly. If you are interested in how many people died during Stalin in them, then figures from 2 to 4 million are given.
Attack on the "cream of society"
The greatest damage was caused by the attack on the "cream of society." According to experts, the repression of these people greatly delayed the development of science, medicine and other aspects of society. A simple example - publication in foreign publications, cooperation with foreign colleagues or conducting scientific experiments could easily end in arrest. Creative people were published under pseudonyms.
By the middle of the Stalin period, the country was practically without specialists. Most of those arrested and killed were graduates of monarchical educational institutions. They closed just some 10-15 years ago. There were no specialists with Soviet training. If Stalin waged an active struggle against class, then he practically achieved this: only poor peasants and an uneducated layer remained in the country.
Studying genetics was forbidden, since it was "too bourgeois in nature." To psychology was the same attitude. And psychiatry was engaged in punitive activity, imprisoning thousands of bright minds in special hospitals.
Judicial system
The number of people who died in the camps under Stalin can be clearly seen if we consider the judicial system. If at the early stage some investigations were carried out and cases were considered in court, then after 2-3 years of the beginning of repressions a simplified system was introduced. Such a mechanism did not give the accused the right to a defense in court. The decision was made on the basis of the testimony of the accusing party. The decision was not subject to appeal and was put into effect no later than the next day after the adoption.
Repression violated all the principles of human rights and freedoms, according to which other countries at that time had lived for several centuries. Researchers note that the attitude towards the repressed was no different from the way the Nazis treated prisoners of war.
Conclusion
Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili died in 1953. After his death, it turned out that the whole system was built around his personal ambitions. An example of this is the cessation of criminal cases and prosecutions in many cases. Those around him also knew Lavrentiy Beria as a quick-tempered person with inappropriate behavior. But at the same time, he significantly changed the situation by prohibiting torture of the accused and recognizing the unfoundedness of many cases.
Stalin is compared with the Italian ruler - dictator Benetto Mussolini. But the victims of Mussolini were a total of about 40,000 people, as opposed to Stalin's 4.5 million plus. In addition, those arrested in Italy retained the right to communication, to protection, and even to write books behind bars.
It is impossible not to note the achievements of that time. Victory in the Second World War, of course, is beyond any discussion. But due to the labor of the Gulag residents throughout the country, a huge number of buildings, roads, canals, railways and other structures were built. Despite the hardships of the post-war years, the country was able to restore an acceptable standard of living.