The great terror, Stalin

The Great Terror that began with Kirov’s death had many far-reaching results. One of the main results was that Stalin’s political dominance was reinforced a thousand fold, but there were other consequences of the purges, both social and economic. These consequences changed the lives of ordinary Russian people to a huge extent – food shortages and killings became commonplace. However, I would argue that despite these other outcomes of the Great terror, the most important result of the 1934-38 repression was the strengthening of Stalin’s political dominance. The political impact of the Great Terror was colossal. It publicly established the guilt and corruption of those who had once opposed Stalin, which cemented the people’s belief in Stalin, and provided scapegoats for all that, went wrong under Stalin’s regime, so that Stalin was never to blame. The three Moscow trial ‘proved’ that Stalin’s opponents were in the wrong: Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin, who would have been rallying points for any resistance to Stalin’s regime, were ‘exposed’ as traitors to Russia – thus, resistance and followers of any leader other than Stalin were effectively destroyed. The show trials were also an effective method for diverting people’s attention away from the hardships of life under Communist rule. Stalin encouraged workers to hold their bosses to account for anything that went wrong in the workplace, which meant that government employees, Party officials and factory managers were all held to account for the people’s frustrations. In Kazan, for example, Communist officials were publicly tried for misusing government funds for a luxurious lifestyle. No crime had actually been committed, as membership of the Communist Party meant an entitlement to luxury, but local people felt that their accusations had been justified and vented their anger. However, the impact of the Great Terror was not merely in politics: the social impact of the repression was also immense. Purges