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Political Opposition to Stalin and the Origins of the Terror in Russia, 1932–1936

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Jonathan Haslam
Jonathan Haslam
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University
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Extract

There are few questions as intriguing and as baffling as the reasons for the terror unleashed upon the U.S.S.R. from 1936. The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the issue in the light of further research into the social, economic and political problems faced by Stalin from 1932.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , June 1986 , pp. 395 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

1 This subject is now being opened up by new interpretations: Getty, J., Origins of the great purges: the Soviet Communist party reconsidered 1933–1938 (Cambridge, 1985)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The strength of the work is its demolition of the totalitarian model of Soviet society. However, the structure substituted is no more sound than what it purports to replace. Whereas writers such as Conquest, R. (The great terror (London, 1968)Google Scholar tend to exaggerate the degree to which Stalin ‘planned’ the terror, for Stalin, Getty merely ‘sanctioned’ rather than initiated ‘the destruction of the opposition’ (p. 195)Google Scholar. As the reader will see, the interpretation offered in the text above contradicts that of Getty and further elaborates rather than substitutes for the findings of Conquest.

2 ‘Protsess Trotskistsko-Zinovievskogo terroristicheskogo tsentra: obvinitel'noe zaklyuchenie’, Pravda 20 August 1936).

3 Ibid. (25 January 1937).

4 Ibid. (26 January 1937).

5 Ibid. (7 March 1938).

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8 Zelenin, I., ‘Politotdely MTS (1933–34gg)’ Istoncheskie Zapiski, ed. Sidorov, A. (Moscow, 1965), p. 44Google Scholar Also ‘Tabriz political diary’, no. 5 (May 1932), and no 10 (October 1932): F[oreign] O[ffice] 371/16339.

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25 Editorial, ‘Na vstrechu chetvertoi bol'shevistskoi vesne’, Krasnaya Zvezda (10 February 1933).

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36 In a speech after the central committee plenum in January 1933, Voroshilov referred to the fact that ‘The plenum approved and confirmed the Politburo's decision on the Party purge’ – speech to garrison, Moscow Party activists, 20 January 1933: Krasnaya Zvezda (25 01 1933)Google Scholar.

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69 Strang (Moscow) to London, 28 September 1931: ibid.

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78 Pravda (2 December and 4 December 1934).

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99 ibid (29 January 1935)

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102 Partiinoe Stroitel' stvo, no II (June 1935)

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104 Ibid (27 June 1935)

105 Editorial, ‘Vsegda I vezde v boevoi gotovnosti’, ibid (8 June 1935)

106 Speech to Leningrad Party activists, 13–14 June 1935 ibid. (19 June 1935)

107 Chilston (Moscow) to Hoare (London), 15 June 1935 F O, 371/19450 In his memoirs, a former member of the German embassy in Moscow writes ‘“Sergo” Ordzhonikidze who was then responsible for economic affairs, and Abel Enukidze, the Secretary General of the Party [sic] – both Georgians were humane and decent and one could talk openly with them They were thoroughly agreeable, and did not make one feel that their personalities had been much affected by their being Communists’ von Herwarth, J., Against two evils memoirs of a diplomat-soldier during the Third Reich (London 1981)Google Scholar The book has unfortunately been marred by poor editing There were rumours that liberalism was being suppressed, in Sotsialistichesku Vestmk (25 February 1935)

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109 ‘Itogi proverki partiinykh dokumentov’, central committee plenum resolution, 25 December 1935 Pravda (26 December 1935)

110 Ibid

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112 International Press Correspondence, 6 June 1936

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118 A phrase Stalin used in his interview with Howard: ibid. (5 March 1936).

119 Editorial, ‘Istoricheskii plenum stalinskogo Tsentral'nogo Komiteta’, ibid. (5 June 1936).

120 Unsigned, ‘Stalinskaya Konstitutsiya pobedivshego sotsializma’, ibid. (12 June 1936).

121 ‘Ob itogakh iyunskogo plenuma TsK VKP (b)’, ibid.

122 Editorial, ‘Kollektivnost' v partiinom rukovodstve’, ibid. (27 July 1936).

123 Quoted by Stalin in his speech to the central committee plenum, 3 March 1937: ibid. (29 March 1937).

124 The role of Spain in this process was first alluded to by Slusser, R. in ‘The role of the Foreign Ministry’, Russian foreign policy: essays in a historical perspective, ed. Lederer, I., pp. 218–20Google Scholar.

125 Payart, (Moscow) to Delbos, (Paris), 2 October 1936: Documents Diplomatiques Français 1932–1939, 2e série (1936–9), III (Paris 1966)Google Scholar, doc. 310.

126 Coulondre (Moscow) to Delbos (Paris), 16 November 1936: ibid. doc. 497.

127 Editorial, ‘Umet' rasponznavat' vraga’, Pravda (7 August 1936); editorial, ‘Bol'shevistskaya bditel'nost' na lyubom uchastke’, ibid. (9 August 1936).

128 Editorial, ‘Prezrennye dvurushniki’, ibid. (13 August 1936).

129 Ibid. (22 August 1936).

130 Editorial, ‘Gnily liberaly – posobniki vragov’, ibid. (27 August 1936).

131 The crimes.