Stalinist terror is understood as the repressions that began in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and ended in 1953. During this period, mass arrests took place, special camps were created for political prisoners. No historian can name the exact number of victims of Stalinist repressions. Under article 58, more than a million people were convicted.
Origin of the term
Stalinist terror affected almost all sections of society. For more than twenty years, Soviet citizens lived in constant fear - one wrong word or even a gesture could cost their lives. It is impossible to unequivocally answer the question of what the Stalinist terror was based on. But of course, the main component of this phenomenon is fear.
The word terror in Latin is “horror”. The method of governing the country, based on the inspiration of fear, rulers have used since ancient times. For the Soviet leader, Ivan the Terrible served as a historical example. Stalinist terror is in some way a more modern version of the Oprichnina.
Ideology
Midwife of history - as Karl Marx called violence. The German philosopher saw in the safety, inviolability of members of society only evil. The idea of ​​Marx was used by Stalin.
The ideological basis of the repressions that began in the 1920s was formulated in July 1928 in the Short Course on the History of the CPSU. At first, the Stalinist terror was a class struggle that was supposedly needed to resist the overthrown forces. But the repression continued even after all the so-called counter-revolutionaries fell into camps or were shot. The peculiarity of Stalin's policy was the complete non-compliance with the Soviet Constitution.
If at the beginning of the Stalinist repressions the state security organs fought against the opponents of the revolution, then by the mid-thirties the arrests of the old communists began - people who were completely devoted to the party. Ordinary Soviet citizens were already afraid not only of the NKVD officers, but also of each other. Whistleblowing has become the main tool in the fight against "enemies of the people."
Stalin’s repressions were preceded by the “Red Terror,” which began during the Civil War. These two political phenomena have many similarities. However, after the Civil War ended, almost all cases of political crimes were based on falsification of charges. Under the “Red Terror”, prisoners were sent to prison and executed, primarily those who disagreed with the new regime, of which there were many at the stages of the creation of the new state.
The case of lyceum students
Officially, the period of Stalinist repression begins in 1922. But one of the first high-profile cases dates back to 1925. It was this year that a special case was fabricated by a special department of the NKVD on charges of counter-revolutionary activities by graduates of the Alexander Lyceum.
On February 15, over 150 people were arrested. Not all of them were related to the above educational institution. Among the convicted were former students of the School of Law and officers of the Life Guards of the Semenovsky Regiment. The arrested were accused of promoting the international bourgeoisie.
Many were shot already in June. 25 people were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. 29 arrested were sent to exile. Vladimir Schilder - a former teacher of the Alexander Lyceum - at that time was 70 years old. He died during the investigation. Nikolai Golitsyn, the last chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire, was sentenced to death.
Shakhty affair
The charges under Article 58 were ridiculous. A person who does not speak foreign languages ​​and has never talked with a citizen of a Western state in his life could easily be accused of conspiring with American agents. During the investigation, torture was often used. Only the strongest could withstand them. Often the defendants signed a confession only to complete the execution, which sometimes lasted for weeks.
In July 1928, coal industry experts became victims of the Stalinist terror. This case is called "Shakhty". The leaders of the Donbass enterprises were accused of sabotage, sabotage, the creation of an underground counter-revolutionary organization, and assistance to foreign spies.
In the 20s there were several high-profile cases. Until the beginning of the thirties, dispossession continued. The number of victims of Stalinist repressions is impossible to calculate, because no one in those times carefully kept statistics. In the nineties, the KGB archives became available, but even after that, the researchers did not receive comprehensive information. However, separate death lists were released, which became a terrible symbol of the Stalinist repressions.
The Great Terror is a term that applies to a short period of Soviet history. It lasted only two years - from 1937 to 1938. Researchers provide more accurate data on victims during this period. 1,548,366 people were arrested. Shot - 681 692. It was a struggle "against the remnants of the capitalist classes."
Reasons for the "Great Terror"
In Stalin's time, a doctrine was developed to strengthen the class struggle. It was only a formal reason for the destruction of hundreds of people. Among the victims of the Stalinist terror of the 30s - writers, scientists, military, engineers. Why was it necessary to get rid of the representatives of the intelligentsia, specialists who could benefit the Soviet state? Historians offer various answers to these questions.
Among modern scholars there are those who are convinced that Stalin had only an indirect relation to the repressions of 1937-1938. However, his signature appears in almost every firing list, in addition, there is a lot of documentary evidence of his involvement in mass arrests.
Stalin strove for sole power. Any relief could lead to a real, not fictitious plot. One of the foreign historians compared the Stalinist terror of the 30s with the Jacobin terror. But if the last phenomenon that took place in France at the end of the 18th century involved the extermination of representatives of a certain social class, then in the USSR often unrelated people were arrested and executed.
So, the reason for the repression was the desire for sole, unconditional power. But a formulation was needed, an official justification for the need for mass arrests.
Occasion
December 1, 1934 Kirov was killed. This event was a formal occasion for political repression. The killer was arrested. According to the results of the investigation, again fabricated, Leonid Nikolaev acted not independently, but as a member of an opposition organization. Stalin subsequently used the killing of Kirov in the fight against political opponents. Zinoviev, Kamenev and all their supporters were arrested.
The trial of officers of the Red Army
After the assassination of Kirov, trials of the military began. One of the first victims of the Great Terror was G. D. Guy. The commander was arrested for the phrase "Stalin must be removed", which he uttered while intoxicated. It is worth saying that in the mid-thirties, denunciation reached its zenith. People who have worked in one organization for many years, ceased to trust each other. Denunciations were written not only to enemies, but also to friends. Not only for selfish reasons, but also out of fear.
In 1937, a trial of a group of officers of the Red Army took place. They were accused of anti-Soviet activity and assistance to Trotsky, who by that time was already abroad. Hit list:
- Tukhachevsky M.N.
- Yakir I.E.
- Uborevich I.P.
- Eideman R.P.
- Putna V.K.
- Primakov V.M.
- Gamarnik Ya. B.
- Feldman B.M.
The witch hunt continued. In the hands of the NKVD officers was a record of Kamenev’s talks with Bukharin - the creation of a “right-left” opposition was discussed. In early March 1937, Stalin made a report, which spoke about the need to eliminate the Trotskyists.
According to the report of the Secretary General of the State Security, Yezhov, Bukharin and Rykov planned terror against the leader. In Stalinist terminology, a new term appeared - "Trotsky-Bukharin", which means "directed against the interests of the party."
In addition to the aforementioned politicians, about 70 people were arrested. 52 shot. Among them were those who were directly involved in the repression of the 20s. So, the officers of state security and political figures Yakov Agronom, Alexander Gurevich, Levon Mirzoyan, Vladimir Polonsky, Nikolai Popov and others were shot.
In the "Tukhachevsky case" Lavrenty Beria was involved, but he managed to survive the "purge". In 1941, he took the post of General Commissioner of State Security. Beria was already shot after the death of Stalin - in December 1953.
Repressed scientists
In 1937, revolutionaries and politicians became victims of the Stalinist terror. And very soon the arrests of representatives of completely different social strata began. People who had nothing to do with politics were sent to camps. It is easy to guess what the consequences of the Stalinist repressions are by reading the lists below. The Great Terror became a brake on the development of science, culture, and art.
Scientists who became victims of Stalinist repression:
- Matvey Bronstein.
- Alexander Witt.
- Hans Gelman.
- Semen Shubin.
- Evgeny Pereplekin.
- Innocent Balanovsky.
- Dmitry Eropkin.
- Boris Numerov.
- Nikolay Vavilov.
- Sergey Korolev.
Writers and Poets
In 1933, Osip Mandelstam wrote an epigram with a clear anti-Stalinist subtext, which was read to several dozen people. Boris Pasternak called the poet's act suicide. He was right. Mandelstam was arrested, sent to exile in Cherdyn. There he made an unsuccessful attempt at suicide, and a little later, with the assistance of Bukharin, he was transferred to Voronezh.
In 1937, the term of exile ended. In March, the poet left with his wife in a sanatorium near Moscow, where he was arrested again. Osip Mandelstam died in the camp in his forty-eighth year of life.
Boris Pilnyak in 1926 wrote "The Story of the Unladen Moon." The characters of this work are fictional, at least, as the author claims in the preface. But to everyone who read the story in the 1920s, it became clear that it was based on the version of the murder of Mikhail Frunze.
Somehow, the work of Pilnyak got into print. But it was soon banned. Pilniak was arrested only in 1937, and before that he remained one of the most published prose writers. The writer's case, like all others, was completely fabricated - he was accused of spying for Japan. Shot in Moscow in 1937.
Other writers and poets subjected to Stalinist repression:
- Victor Bagrov.
- Julius Berzin.
- Pavel Vasiliev.
- Sergey Klychkov.
- Vladimir Narbut.
- Peter Parfyonov.
- Sergey Tretyakov.
It is worth talking about the famous theatrical figure, accused under Article 58 and sentenced to capital punishment.
Vsevolod Meyerhold
The director was arrested at the end of June 1939. His apartment was later searched. A few days later, Meyerhold’s wife Zinaida Reich was killed . The circumstances of her death have not yet been clarified. There is a version that her NKVD officers killed her.
Meyerhold was interrogated for three weeks, tortured. He signed everything that the investigators demanded. On February 1, 1940, Vsevolod Meyerhold was sentenced to death. The sentence was executed the next day.
During the war
In 1941, the illusion of the abolition of repression appeared. In Stalin's pre-war times, there were many officers in the camps who were now needed on the loose. Together with them, about six hundred thousand people were released from prison. But it was a temporary relief. In the late forties, a new wave of repression began. Now the ranks of the "enemies of the people" were replenished by soldiers and officers who were in captivity.
Amnesty 1953
March 5, Stalin died. Three weeks later, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree according to which a third of prisoners were subject to release. About a million people were released. But the first to leave the camp were not political prisoners, but criminals, which instantly worsened the criminal situation in the country.