Stalin and Stalinism - Literature review Example

Stalin’s Purges Stalins purges alternatively known as Stalins reign of terror refers to the mass execution and imprisonment of millions of ordinary citizens who were accused of harboring anti-nationalistic and anti-Party agendas. These civilians, several of whom comprised of women and children and even the elderly were categorically chosen, harassed, threatened and punished for crimes as trivial as mere association or acquaintance with someone who worked with the opposition. Stalin, one of the most influential leaders of the twentieth century was known to have relentlessly carried out his own political agendas, killing and eliminating millions of innocent and harmless citizens with the help of the NKVD, in the pursuit of his goal of making Soviet Union, a socialist and leading country in the world (McCauley, p. 3). His purges began in the year 1934 after the mysterious murder of Sergei Kirov, the leader of the Leningrad Party and a highly influential member of the ruling elite. According to the accounts of Eugenia Ginzburg, a teacher by profession and both victim as well as witness of Stalins reign of terror, it all began on December 1, 1934 when she was summoned to the committee office by a phone call in the middle of the night. Approximately forty teachers, all communists, were called in by the party; for interrogation and the news of the murder of Kirov was relayed to them. The murderer was allegedly a Communist and hence most of the people indicted for committing the crime, as published in the newspapers, were prominent members of the Leningrad Komsomol, including Nikolaev, Rumyantsev, and Katalynov among others (Ginzburg, p. 8). The repercussions of such allegations rapidly spread far and wide. One such member who got caught in the blame game was Professor Elvov, who was the author of the four volume History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik), that contained the controversial chapter on the events of 1905. The treatment of the theory of permanent revolution, put forward by Elvov was found to be objectionable and was particularly condemned by Stalin, as was made apparent by his famous letter to the editor of the review Proletarian Revolution. After the letter, the errors were made all the more apparent and defined more specially, accusing Elvov of supporting Trotskyist ideas (Ginzburg, p. 12). Such matters and accusations however were treated with far less concern prior to the shooting and murder of Kirov. Semyonovna, who worked briefly alongside Elvov, eventually came to be indicted of a range of accusations of being a "purveyor of Trotskyist contraband"; and writing "crushing reviews" of the source book on Tartar history among others. No amount of pleading or denying the accusations worked. Soon the number of people held for conspiring against the Party were held and summoned at Party offices. The reality of the situation could only be described by the filling up of large lecture halls, which were used as public confessionals, and were filled with people charged for conspiring against their leader. Millions of people were forced to confess for a range of offences they never committed (Ginzburg, p. 20). Their forced confessions included: - People "repenting" for misunderstanding the theory of permanent revolution and abstaining from the vote on the program of opposition in 1923 - For failing to purge themselves of great power chauvinism - For being associated with, worked with or merely being acquainted with a "sinner" and even for matters as trivial as "liking Meyerholds theater" (Ginzburg, p. 20). These confessions were forced by the almighty NKVD, which had by now become the official law enforcement agency of the Soviet Union and the leader of the Communist Party. By the year 1935, the NKVD had officially begun to arrest just about anyone who was even remotely connected with the opposition. This was the time when the purges of this scale and extent was ever carried out in accordance with a premeditated plan that had far ranging repercussions on almost all sections of the society, regardless of their age, status or gender (Ginzburg, p. 37). The author herself was "reprimanded" for lack of adequate political vigilance and for sharing Elvovs blasphemous political views. The people accused of having known or worked with the opposition, were labeled as "appeasers"; "left right mongrels"; "Trotskyist abortions" and "Mangy opportunists". Though a series of trials and numerous attempts to extract forced confessions, the author was eventually punished with a solitary confinement in a solitary prison or felled trees in the forests of Kolyma (Ginzburg, p. 33). Instances of innocent civilians charged and unfairly alienated from the society grew by leaps and bounds, forcing them to live in dire circumstances in conditions worse than death itself. Some such instances are discussed below. In 1935, a school teacher Pitkovskyaa, was held and interrogated by the NKVD who charged in, at her house in the middle of the night and arrested her husband for working with the opposition. Right after her husbands arrest, Pitkovskyaa herself was accused of being associated with the opposition and despite being a dedicated Party member, was charged with treason and conspiracy, was dismissed for association with the enemy, expelled from the Party, forced out of her job and left homeless to fend for herself and her young son. Her son was also expelled from his kindergarten and they were alienated and shunned by the society. With no money or means of earning livelihood, and no one to support her, she eventually committed suicide by drinking acetic acid along with her young child (Ginzburg, p.39). In yet another instance, a harmless frail old man Fyodor Gladkov, who ran a printing business and was part of a political study circle, was arrested and charged for simply not knowing the name of the party leader. He was guilty of not being able to name the party leader and ended up blurting out Plekhanov. For this ignorance, he was labelled as a Menshevik simply because there were allegedly many of them in the printing trade. Similar to other innumerable cases, he too lost his job, while his family suffered from starvation and his wife who suffered from rheumatism lied on her death bed awaiting death (Ginzburg, p. 57). Ginzburgs verdict which was announced after repeated interrogations by Beylin and Malyuta, called for a severe reprimand and was given a warning for compromising with "hostile" elements followed by the withdrawal of her licence to teach (Ginzburg, p. 41). By February 1937; Stalins purges continued and in fact grew in intensity and scale. The situation worsened after the Zinovyev-Kamenev trial, the Kemerovo affair, and the trial of Pyatakov and Radek. People from all parts of the country were randomly picked and accused for running campaigns for the opposition (Ginzburg, p. 51). Stalins purges depicted his callous disregard for human life and the extent to which his paranoia led to the suffering of millions of people across the country. The methods adopted by him to rid the nation of his "enemies" and his forced beliefs in building a socialist state, cost millions of innocent lives. His unrestricted totalitarian dictatorship did result in achieving rapid industrialization and a drastic rise in productivity. The sadistic revolution and perhaps one of the most murderous ones in history resulted in revitalization of the country and the defeat of the socialist Germany in the Second World War. On the day of the victory, on May 9, 1945 Stalins key objective behind the purges was finally achieved. Russia which was initially number eight in world rankings during the year 1914 rose up to number two by the year 1945, second only to the United States. However such unprecedented success came at a great price - that of human lives (McCauley, p. 3). During the period of Stalins reign from the year 1924 till his death in the year 1953, the Soviet Union underwent significant transformations both positive as well as negative. In the year 1929, in response to the dwindling state of the economy, Stalin launched a violent and phenomenally ambitious strategy aimed at achieving nationwide economic stability and modernisation. His vision was to rise to power and achieve the status of world super power at par with the United States. In accordance with this plan, several initiatives including forced industrialisation and forced collectivism were introduced with the sole purpose of transforming the country. Such changes were believed to contribute towards the building and restructuring of Russia, as the strongest nation on earth (McCauley, p. 6). Along with the industrialisation and modernisation measures, Stalins agenda also included expansion of the military might and economy. Wars were considered not only critical for the countrys success but also inevitable in its pursuit of achieving the much-coveted super power status. The ambitious plan of military expansion bore fruit and proved to be highly beneficial, when Berlin was occupied by the Red Army in May 1945. Soviet Union had by then achieved the status of military super power as empires were added in the eastern as well as southeastern Europe, and the country was practically impregnable even after Stalins death in 1953. The Stalin revolution or the Stalins purges were hence both phenomenally successful and a crashing failure (McCauley, p. 7). Stalins unprecedented popularity in the Soviet Union, despite the suffering he inflicted upon millions of Soviet citizens could be explained by the long-term positive consequences that the country could achieve because of his forced and highly aggressive approach of moulding society. The country, which was no where close to the world power rank prior to his reign, suddenly became a force to reckon with and posed a significant threat to countries as strong and mighty as the United States. Furthermore, he single handedly contributed to improving the countrys productivity, albeit through devious means and stabilized the dwindling economy. Furthermore, his foresight in expanding military power proved to be highly crucial and prevented the country from invasions and complete destruction during the highly critical World War phase. Thus Stalin, through his coercion and highly aggressive means managed to protect the country and even improve the state of its economy (McCauley, p. 7). Also, he was perceived as a highly perceptive leader who could easily read through his enemys agendas and outsmart them. He was able to effectively outsmart and handle Churchill who was known to be highly pugnacious through his perceptive nature and highly skillful abilities of reading the minds of his enemies. The ailing Roosevelt was also proved to be no match for the powerful and able Stalin. He was also highly skilled in the art of devising exceptionally effective foreign and defense policies (McCauley, p. 8). Given his strong character and leadership skills, that brought the Soviet Union to the top of the league, and the fact that the Soviets were taught to perceive his evil policies and atrocities as a necessary evil, it is safe to assume that the long-term benefits that he was able to achieve far outshined his malicious policies and the atrocities that he carried out on his own people. The sheer manner in which Stalin operated made it almost impossible for his enemies to penetrate into the Soviet system and analyze the manner in which Soviet communism worked. The country was practically closed off which not only perplexed the western democracies but made it impossible for them to carry out academic research. The way in which the political agendas were executed was highly exceptional where everything was done in utmost secrecy. The Soviet diplomats were restricted from contacting anyone outside their own circles and the NKVD, thus making it impossible for people to leak any sort of information, handpicked even the servants. The political system and policies were practically closed off for anyone outside the Soviet Union, making it impossible to leak secrets or information of any kind to outsiders (McCauley, p. 8). Given his strong character and leadership skills, that brought the Soviet Union to the top of the league, and the fact that the Soviets were taught to perceive his evil policies and atrocities as a necessary evil, it is safe to assume that the long-term benefits that he was able to achieve far outshined his malicious policies and the atrocities that he carried out on his own people. References: Ginzburg, E., (2002). Journey into the whirlwind. Mariner Books Publication. McCauley, M., (2003). Stalin and Stalinism. Longman Publishing. Read More