The Great Purges and Show Trials
- Stalin's fear of a counter revolution culminated in his creation of the NKVD, which was a government police force tasked with killing the people who opposed Stalin.
- The people who were seen as threatening were:
- Old heroes of the revolution
- Military Generals (1 in 5 were killed)
- A common technique for the Purges were Show Trials, in which people were forced to admit they had committed crimes under duress.
Translation: "Death to World Imperialism." Displays Stalin's focus on Socialism within Russian rather than without.
THE GREAT PURGES |
"The people who cast the votes don't decide an election, the people who count the votes do."
-Joseph Stalin Subjunctive Question: What if Stalin hadn't killed the leading army generals in the army, but rather used different methods to gain their total allegiance? How would this have affected the outcome of WWII? |