Stalin’s Show Trials
Stalin’s Show Trials PowerPoint:
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Key Points of Stalin’s Show Trials:
- Stalin’s purge of the ‘Old Bolsheviks’ within the Communist Party
- Stalin’s ambition of complete dominance over Soviet society
- Stalin’s broader purge of potential opponents & dissidents i.e. Red Army, Intelligentsia etc.
- Creation of an-all powerful NKVD (1934)
- Manipulation of Soviet society through propaganda & fear
- Scapegoating for failures of Collectivisation & Five-Year Plans
- Internal Effects of Stalin’s Show Trials:
– terrified the population into submission to Stalin & Communist Party
– established the NKVD as the most powerful organisation in the USSR
– convinced many Soviets that there were conspiracies against the state & communism
– distracted from some of the failures of the Five – Year Plans
– distracted attention from the fallout of Collectivisation & famine
– established Stalin’s absolute dictatorship of Party & Society
- International Impressions of Stalin’s Show Trials:
– many, but not all, international observers were convinced by the legitimacy of the trials
– displayed the personal power of Stalin to foreigners
– used as much to warn off foreign spies as much as punishing internal dissent
Key Questions:
- What events took place in Russia between 1932 & 1938 to enable Stalin to pursue a wide range of purges?
- Why did Stalin want to purge the Party, military & society in general?
- What organisation was centrally involved in extracting ‘confessions’ from the accused?
- What effect did these trials have on the Party & Stalin’s control?
- What effect did these trials have on Soviet society?
- What were the characteristics of Stalin’s ‘Cult of Personality’ (propaganda)?
