Between 1936 and 1938, Stalin launched a campaign of terror known as the Great Purges. (a) Describe the main targets of the Great Purges. [4] (b) Why did St...

(a) Describe the main targets of the Great Purges. [4 marks]

• Senior party members: The purges targeted leading Communist Party figures, including Old Bolsheviks who had participated in the 1917 revolution, such as Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin.
• Military leaders: The Red Army was devastated by the purges. Marshal Tukhachevsky and seven other top generals were executed in 1937. Three of five marshals, 13 of 15 army commanders, and an estimated 35,000 officers were purged.
• Industrial and professional class: Factory managers, engineers, scientists and other professionals were accused of sabotage and 'wrecking' to explain industrial failures and accidents.
• Ordinary citizens: The purges extended far beyond the elite. The NKVD was given arrest quotas, and millions of ordinary people were arrested, sent to the Gulag labour camps, or executed. Estimates of total victims range from 750,000 executed to several million imprisoned.

(b) Why did Stalin carry out the purges of the Communist Party and the Red Army? [6 marks]

• Eliminating potential challengers: Stalin was determined to destroy anyone who might challenge his authority, question his policies, or serve as a rallying point for opposition.
• Kirov's murder: The assassination of Sergei Kirov, the popular Leningrad party chief, in December 1934 provided Stalin with a pretext for launching a wider campaign. Some historians suspect Stalin himself ordered Kirov's murder.
• Failures of collectivisation: Stalin feared that the suffering caused by collectivisation and the famine might lead to organised opposition within the party. Purging potential critics was a pre-emptive measure.
• Military independence: Senior Red Army commanders like Tukhachevsky had independent prestige and professional authority that could potentially threaten Stalin's supremacy. Removing them ensured the military was entirely subordinate to Stalin personally.
• Climate of fear: The purges created an atmosphere of terror in which absolute obedience was the only guarantee of survival. Nobody dared question Stalin's decisions or report bad news.
• Scapegoating: Blaming economic failures, food shortages and industrial accidents on 'saboteurs' and 'wreckers' deflected responsibility from Stalin's own policies and provided convenient explanations for the regime's shortcomings.

(c) How effectively did the purges strengthen Stalin's control over the Soviet Union? [10 marks]

Arguments that the purges strengthened control:

• Elimination of all rivals: Every potential challenger to Stalin's authority was removed. The Old Bolsheviks who might have questioned Stalin's ideological credentials or his interpretation of Marxism-Leninism were destroyed.
• New loyal generation: A new generation of officials, entirely loyal to Stalin and owing their positions to the purges, replaced those who were removed. These officials had no independent authority or revolutionary credentials of their own.
• Absolute obedience: The atmosphere of terror ensured that no one dared express dissent, criticise policies, or question Stalin's decisions. The purges demonstrated that even the most senior and powerful figures could be destroyed.
• NKVD as instrument of control: The NKVD under Yezhov (1936-38) and then Beria (from 1938) became an instrument of Stalin's absolute personal power, reporting directly to him and operating outside normal legal constraints.
• Cult of personality reinforced: With all potential critics eliminated, the cult of personality around Stalin grew to extraordinary proportions. He was presented as infallible and all-knowing.

Arguments that the purges had damaging consequences:

• Military weakness: The purge of experienced military commanders severely weakened the Red Army. When Germany invaded in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa), the Soviet military suffered catastrophic defeats partly because competent officers had been replaced by inexperienced, politically loyal commanders.
• Economic disruption: The purge of industrial managers, engineers and scientists disrupted economic planning and production. Experienced professionals were replaced by less competent but politically safe alternatives.
• Culture of dishonesty: The climate of fear stifled initiative and encouraged officials to falsify production figures and report only good news, meaning that Stalin was often making decisions based on inaccurate information.
• Loss of human capital: Many loyal, competent and dedicated party members, military officers and professionals were killed for no reason, representing an enormous waste of talent and experience.
• International reputation: The purges damaged the Soviet Union's international standing and alienated some foreign supporters and sympathisers.

Conclusion: The purges succeeded in making Stalin's personal power absolute. No institution, individual or group could challenge his authority after 1938. However, this power came at an enormous cost. The weakening of the military contributed directly to the disasters of 1941, the culture of fear undermined effective governance, and the destruction of so much talent and expertise damaged the Soviet Union for decades. Stalin achieved total control, but of a state that was weaker and more dysfunctional as a result.