Totalitarianism — Stalin's USSR
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Flip to reveal answersWhat post did Stalin hold from 1922 that became his power base?
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Question
What post did Stalin hold from 1922 that became his power base?
Answer
General Secretary of the Communist Party — it let him control Party appointments and build a large network of loyal officials.
Question
Define: Ryutin Platform
Answer
A 1932 document by Party official Martemyan Ryutin attacking Stalin's forced collectivization and calling for his removal; Stalin wanted Ryutin executed but the Politburo initially refused.
Question
Who was assassinated in December 1934, giving Stalin a pretext for mass repression?
Answer
Sergei Kirov, the popular Leningrad Party boss — many historians suspect Stalin's involvement, though it remains unproven.
Question
Describe the process by which Stalin eliminated his rivals, 1923–1929.
Answer
He allied with Zinoviev and Kamenev to isolate and expel Trotsky (1927); then allied with Bukharin to remove Zinoviev and Kamenev; then turned on Bukharin, defeating him over the 'Right Deviation' (1929).
Question
Compare Trotsky's and Stalin's positions after Lenin's death in 1924.
Answer
Trotsky had prestige as Red Army organizer and was a brilliant speaker, but was arrogant, disliked, and a Bolshevik latecomer. Stalin had less charisma but controlled Party appointments through the General Secretary post — administrative power beat personal reputation.
Question
What were the Moscow Show Trials (1936–38)?
Answer
Staged public trials where Stalin's former rivals (Zinoviev, Kamenev, later Bukharin) were forced, often through torture, to confess to fabricated charges of treason; all were executed.
Question
Approximately how many people were arrested and executed in the Great Terror of 1937–38?
Answer
About 1.5 million arrested and around 680,000 executed in 1937–38 alone.
Question
How did the Great Terror weaken the Red Army before 1941?
Answer
Around 34,000 officers were purged, including three of the five marshals and most senior generals, badly damaging Soviet military leadership just before WWII began.
Question
Define: collectivization
Answer
Stalin's policy from 1929 forcing peasants to merge small farms into large state-run collective farms (kolkhozes) to feed cities and fund industry.
Question
What was the human cost of collectivization, especially in Ukraine?
Answer
Resistance, dekulakization (arrest/deportation of wealthier peasants), and a catastrophic famine — the Holodomor — that killed an estimated 5–7 million people by 1933.
Question
What were the Five-Year Plans and what did they achieve?
Answer
State-set targets (from 1928) for rapid heavy industrial growth (coal, steel, iron); real industrial output multiplied several times over, but at the cost of harsh conditions and low-quality goods.
Question
Compare the two historical arguments about the cause of the Great Terror.
Answer
One view: it responded to genuine threats (foreign danger, proven dissent like the Ryutin Platform). Other view: its huge scale and fabricated confessions show it was really about eliminating anyone with independent power or popularity.
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Topic 13.8 hub
European totalitarianism (1918–1941)
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