The Great Purges
description
Transcript of The Great Purges
The Great Purges
Learning objectives
• To understand what is meant by the term purges.
• To understand how the purges developed. • What was the significance of Sergei Kirov?• How did the purges affect the Russian
population?
Key terms• Great purges• Great terror• Show trials (1, 2 and 3) • Sergei Kirov• Zinoviev and Kamenev• NKVD• Mass graves
Read p105-7 and answer the questions
17th Party Congress• 26th February 1934: 17th party congress. • Many prominent members of the party felt
that the ‘economic groundwork’ had been done and the
Task 2: Complete the source exercise on the murder of Sergei
Kirov
p108/9 q1-6
Tuesday: Begin with discussion
Lesson objective-
• To understand how the purges escalated. • To understand the impact of the purges on
Russian society. • To understand why Stalin carried them out.
The Purges- Stages• 1934- Purges begin with the death of Sergei Kirov under the
leadership of Yagoda• 1934-36- Purging of the Communist party to remove ‘undesirable
elements’• 1936-38-‘Yezhovschina’ Purge of all society under Yezhov the new
head of the NKVD. He was known as the ‘bloodthirsty dwarf’. • Yagoda was expelled from the party as he was implicated in the
death of Kirov and because Stalin felt he was not brutal enough. Yagoda recommended slowing down the purges.
• 1937-38- Purge of the armed forces. Marshall Tukhachevsky along with 7 other Generals were executed. The Army, Navy and Airforce were all purges of their best commanders. This left Russia in a very weak position at the start of WW2.
Yezhov- NKVD leader 1936-9• ‘Sadistic inclinations’• ‘repellent personality’ • Lacked ‘any trace of
conscience or moral principles’
The Purges- Why did Stalin carry them out?
Cult of Stalin
• Question: How was Stalin portrayed to the people of Russia?