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?