The XXth Century Political History of Russia: lecture materials

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PREFACE

INTRODUCTION. Theme 1. THE STUDY OF MODERN RUSSIAN HISTORY: MAIN CHARACTERISTICS AND TRENDS

Theme 2. RUSSIA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY: ITS SELF-IMAGE, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION, AND CONTRADICTIONS OF ITS DEVELOPMENT

Theme 3. FESTIVAL OF THE OPPRESSED OR SOCIAL DISEASE? THE NATURE OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS

Theme 4. EMERGENCY MEASURES AND THE «EXTREME EMERGENCY REGIME» IN THE SOVIET REPUBLIC AND OTHER STATE FORMATIONS ON THE TERRITORY OF RUSSIA, 1918‒1920

Theme 5. FROM «WAR COMMUNISM» TO THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY: CONTRADICTIONS OF THE NEP

Theme 6. NEP DOWNSIZING AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE POLICY OF EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES INTO A PERMANENT SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

Theme 7. THE 1930S: CRISES, REFORMS, REPRESSIONS

Theme 8. THE HIERARCHY OF THE GREAT TERROR

Theme 9. ILLUSIONS AND AWAKENING OF THE GENERATION OF 1930S

Theme 10. THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR 1941‒1945: MAIN EVENTS AND POPULAR MOOD IN THE UNOCCUPIED SOVIET UNION

Theme 11. THE PEOPLE AND PROBLEMS OF THE POST-WAR ERA

Theme 12. THE KHRUSHCHEV’S THAW AND ITS REVERSE SIDE

Theme 13. SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES: FROM REFORMS TO STAGNATION

Theme 14. THE 1980S: THE SPACE OF POWER AND A SEARCH FOR NEW WAYS OF HISTORICAL PROGRESS

Theme 15. AUGUST PUTSCH OF 1991 AND THE TERMIDOR OF YELTSIN

CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA. WITH WHAT DOES RUSSIA ENTER THE NEW MILLENNIUM?. Theme 16. THE REALM OF POWER UNDER VLADIMIR PUTIN

Theme 17. REFORMS AND THE HIERARCHY OF NATIONAL PROJECTS

Theme 18. LOCATING OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD OF 1917 IN RUSSIAN HISTORICAL MEMORY

Theme 19. THE GREAT VICTORY OF 1945 IN HISTORICAL MEMORY

Theme 20. TWENTIETH-CENTURY RUSSIAN UTOPIAS: ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE FUTURE AS IMAGINED BY THE STATE AND DESIRED BY THE INTELLIGENTSIA

MAIN EVENTS, DATES AND GLOSSARY

SELECTED BIOGRAPHIES

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Theme 8.
THE HIERARCHY OF THE GREAT TERROR

On August 5, 1937, political repressions on a mass scale, known as Great Terror, began in the USSR. How did the idea of mass purges emerge? Who was in the «target groups» of terror? Who controlled the repressions — Stalin or Yezhov? Or was social violence from below, characterized by its own logic, the reason for the Terror?

On July 3, 1937, Joseph Stalin sent a decision, made by the Politburo the day before, to Nikolai Yezhov, head of the state security services. Krai and oblast party committees and Central Committees of the national communist parties in the Republics were directed to register all former kulaks and criminals who had returned from the exile. These people were associated with numerous crimes and acts of economic sabotage. The results of this work were to be reported within five days. Between July 4 and 26 the requested information on the proposed scale of the repression was presented to the Central Committee and the NKVD. A directive was announced at regional meetings: to keep absolutely top secret the scale of the repressions as well as the suspension of the procedures for arrest and of the authority of the prosecutor’s office as stated by the Constitution.

A. N. Poskrebishev, head of the chancery of the secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee received a 19-page typed document — Order #00447. The preamble of the document clearly stated: the action is aimed at a definitive solution of the problem of internal enemies of the Soviet Union, i.e. at a preventive societal purge in a pre-war situation.

Issue # 1 of the document contained a list of subjects of the operation: a large and mixed mass of enemies of the Soviet regime. It is important to note that the directive did not mention administration heads and party workers, military men and writers, i.e. the elite, representatives of which were placed in the dock during the notorious Moscow show trials, and who formed our first impression of the Great terror victims. The political purge (the so called «cadre revolution» that began in the autumn of 1936) was another side of the repressions.

Special lists determined «target groups» in a general way. Their peculiar feature was that to the traditional groups of «enemies of the system» («former kulaks,» «members of anti-Soviet parties,» «participants in rebel, fascist and spy groups, «churchmen,» and so on) a new category was added: criminals (ruffians, burglars, thieves, smugglers, con men and so on). This combination indicates the main intent of Order #00447. The political administration of the USSR criminalized social spontaneity and insubordination on the one hand, and on the other hand politicized ordinary crimes, thus making them equal in their anti-Soviet character.

Issue # 2 specified the punishment (the death sentence to the first category convicts, 10 year imprisonment in a prison or a labor camp for the second category). It also determined repression quotas in oblasts, krais and republics of the USSR. A total number of 268,950 «anti-soviet elements» was declared. The fact that the quotas in the decree were mere approximations was crucial for the dynamic of the operation. This was a facility that stimulated regional authorities to compete for the highest numbers and at the same time allowed the central authorities to control the scale of the operation. Later on, one of the NKVD apparatchiks would explain: «The chief that was the first to fulfill his limit of several thousands of people would get a new additional limit from the people’s commissar and be regarded as the best worker.» Thus on November 20, 1937, the troika in Karelia convicted 705 people, 629 of them were sentenced to death. That result that was bested by the troika of Omsk, that sentenced 1301 people on October 10, 1937, and 1014 people on March 15, 1938. 937 and 354 people were sentenced to death respectively.

История Bordyugov G., Devyatov S., Kotelenet E. The XXth Century Political History of Russia: lecture materials

История Bordyugov G., Devyatov S., Kotelenet E. The XXth Century Political History of Russia: lecture materials

The XXth Century Political History of Russia presents lecture materials for academics working with undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students as well as researchers of Russian history.<br /> The chapters are an unusual insight into the Russian past, which makes the readers think, analyze and also reconsider some events of the Russian history. It is an exciting blend of stories of the past and future trends, allowing to make forecasts and predictions.

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