The Sakharov Center hosted a discussion “Stalin’s Terror: Mechanisms and Legal Assessment,” organized jointly with the Free Historical Society. The discussion was attended by Oleg Khlevnyuk, leading researcher at the International Center for the History and Sociology of the Second World War and Its Consequences at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, and Nikita Petrov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Memorial Center. Lenta.ru recorded the main points of their speeches.

Oleg Khlevnyuk:

Historians have long been grappling with the question of whether Stalin's repressions were necessary from the point of view of elementary expediency. Most experts are inclined to believe that such methods are not necessary for the progressive development of the country.

There is a point of view according to which terror became a kind of response to the crisis in the country (in particular, the economic one). I believe that Stalin decided to carry out repressions on such a scale precisely because everything was relatively good in the USSR by that time. After the completely disastrous first five-year plan, the policy of the second five-year plan was more balanced and successful. As a result, the country entered the so-called three good years (1934-1936), which were marked by successful rates of industrial growth, the abolition of the rationing system, the emergence of new incentives to work and relative stabilization in the countryside.

It was terror that plunged the country's economy and social well-being into a new crisis. If there had been no Stalin, then there would not have been not only mass repressions (at least in 1937-1938), but also collectivization in the form in which we know it.

Terror or fight against enemies of the people?

From the very beginning, the Soviet authorities did not try to hide the terror. The USSR government tried to make trials as public as possible, not only within the country, but also in the international arena: transcripts of court hearings were published in the main European languages.

The attitude towards terrorism was not clear from the very beginning. For example, the American Ambassador to the USSR Joseph Davis believed that enemies of the people were really in the dock. At the same time, the left defended the innocence of their comrades - the Old Bolsheviks.

Later, experts began to pay attention to the fact that terror was a broader process that covered not only the top of the Bolsheviks - after all, people of intellectual labor also fell into its millstones. But at that time, due to a lack of sources of information, there were no clear ideas about how all this was happening, who was being arrested and why.

Some Western historians continued to defend the theory of the significance of terror, while revisionist historians said that terror was a spontaneous, rather random phenomenon, to which Stalin himself had nothing to do. Some wrote that the number of those arrested was small and numbered in the thousands.

When the archives were opened, more accurate figures became known, and departmental statistics from the NKVD and MGB appeared, which recorded arrests and convictions. The Gulag statistics contained figures on the number of prisoners in the camps, mortality, and even the national composition of prisoners.

It turned out that this Stalinist system was extremely centralized. We saw how mass repressions were planned in full accordance with the planned nature of the state. At the same time, the true scope of Stalin’s terror was not determined by routine political arrests. It was expressed in large waves - two of them are associated with collectivization and the Great Terror.

In 1930, it was decided to launch an operation against peasant kulaks. The corresponding lists were prepared locally, the NKVD issued orders on the progress of the operation, and the Politburo approved them. They were executed with certain excesses, but everything happened within the framework of this centralized model. Until 1937, the mechanics of repression were worked out, and in 1937-1938 it was applied in its most complete and expanded form.

Prerequisites and basis of repression

Nikita Petrov:

All the necessary laws on the judicial system were adopted in the country back in the 1920s. The most important can be considered the law of December 1, 1934, which deprived the accused of the right to defense and cassation appeal of the verdict. It provided for the consideration of cases in the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court in a simplified manner: behind closed doors, in the absence of the prosecutor and defense attorneys, with the execution of the death sentence within 24 hours after its passing.

According to this law, all cases received by the Military Collegium in 1937-1938 were considered. Then about 37 thousand people were convicted, of which 25 thousand were sentenced to death.

Khlevnyuk:

The Stalinist system was designed to suppress and instill fear. Soviet society at that time needed forced labor. Various types of campaigns also played a role - for example, elections. However, there was a certain single impulse that gave special acceleration to all these factors precisely in 1937-38: the threat of war, already completely obvious at that time.

Stalin considered it very important not only to build up military power, but also to ensure the unity of the rear, which implied the destruction of the internal enemy. That's why the idea of ​​getting rid of all those who could stab you in the back arose. The documents leading to this conclusion are numerous statements by Stalin himself, as well as the orders on the basis of which the terror was carried out.

Enemies of the regime were fought out of court

Petrov:

The decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated July 2, 1937, signed by Stalin, marked the beginning of the “kulak operation.” In the preamble to the document, the regions were asked to set quotas for future extrajudicial sentences of execution and imprisonment of those arrested in camps, as well as to propose compositions of “troikas” for passing sentences.

Khlevnyuk:

The mechanics of the 1937-1938 operations were similar to those used in 1930, but it is important to note here that by 1937, NKVD records already existed on various enemies of the people and suspicious elements. The center decided to liquidate or isolate these registration contingents from society.

The limits on arrests established in the plans were in fact not limits at all, but minimum requirements, so NKVD officials set a course for exceeding these plans. This was even necessary for them, since internal instructions directed them to identify not individuals, but groups of unreliable people. The authorities believed that a lone enemy was not an enemy.

This resulted in the original limits being continually exceeded. Requests for the need for additional arrests were sent to Moscow, which promptly satisfied them. A significant part of the norms was approved personally by Stalin, the other - personally by Yezhov. Some were changed by decision of the Politburo.

Petrov:

It was decided to put an end to any hostile activity once and for all. It is this phrase that is inserted into the preamble of NKVD order No. 00447 of July 30, 1937 on the “kulak operation”: he ordered it to begin in most regions of the country on August 5, and on August 10 and 15 in Central Asia and the Far East.

There were meetings in the center, the heads of the NKVD came to see Yezhov. He told them that if an extra thousand people suffered during this operation, then there would be no big problem. Most likely, Yezhov did not say this himself - we recognize here the signs of Stalin's great style. The leader regularly had new ideas. There is his letter to Yezhov, in which he writes about the need to extend the operation and gives instructions (in particular, regarding the Socialist Revolutionaries).

Then the attention of the system turned to the so-called counter-revolutionary national elements. About 15 operations were carried out against counter-revolutionaries Poles, Germans, Balts, Bulgarians, Iranians, Afghans, former employees of the Chinese Eastern Railway - all these people were suspected of spying for those states to which they were ethnically close.

Each operation is characterized by a special mechanism of action. The repression of the kulaks did not reinvent the wheel: “troikas” as an instrument of extrajudicial reprisals were tested back during the Civil War. According to the correspondence of the top leadership of the OGPU, it is clear that in 1924, when the Moscow student unrest occurred, the mechanics of terror had already been perfected. “We need to assemble a troika, as has always been the case in troubled times,” writes one functionary to another. The Troika is an ideology and partly a symbol of the Soviet repressive authorities.

The mechanism of national operations was different - they used the so-called two. No limits were set on them.

Similar things happened when Stalin’s execution lists were approved: their fate was decided by a narrow group of people - Stalin and his inner circle. These lists contain personal notes from the leader. For example, opposite the name of Mikhail Baranov, head of the Sanitary Department of the Red Army, he writes “beat-beat.” In another case, Molotov wrote “VMN” (capital punishment) next to one of the women’s names.

There are documents according to which Mikoyan, who went to Armenia as an emissary of terror, asked to shoot an additional 700 people, and Yezhov believed that this figure needed to be increased to 1500. Stalin agreed with the latter on this issue, because Yezhov knew better. When Stalin was asked to give an additional limit on the execution of 300 people, he easily wrote “500”.

There is a debatable question about why limits were set for the “kulak operation”, but not for, for example, national ones. I think that if the “kulak operation” had no boundaries, then the terror could have become absolute, because too many people fit the category of “anti-Soviet element.” In national operations, more clear criteria were established: people with connections in other countries who arrived from abroad were repressed. Stalin believed that the circle of people here was more or less clear and delineated.

Mass operations were centralized

A corresponding propaganda campaign was carried out. Enemies of the people who infiltrated the NKVD and slanderers were blamed for unleashing the terror. Interestingly, the idea of ​​denunciations as a reason for repression is not documented. During mass operations, the NKVD functioned according to completely different algorithms, and if they responded to denunciations, it was quite selective and random. We mostly worked according to pre-prepared lists.

The history of Russia, like other former post-Soviet republics in the period from 1928 to 1953, is called the “era of Stalin.” He is positioned as a wise ruler, a brilliant statesman, acting on the basis of “expediency.” In reality, he was driven by completely different motives.

When talking about the beginning of the political career of a leader who became a tyrant, such authors bashfully hush up one indisputable fact: Stalin was a repeat offender with seven prison sentences. Robbery and violence were the main form of his social activity in his youth. Repression became an integral part of the government course he pursued.

Lenin received a worthy successor in his person. “Having creatively developed his teaching,” Joseph Vissarionovich came to the conclusion that the country should be ruled by methods of terror, constantly instilling fear in his fellow citizens.

A generation of people whose lips can speak the truth about Stalin’s repressions is leaving... Are not newfangled articles whitening the dictator a spit on their suffering, on their broken lives...

The leader who sanctioned torture

As you know, Joseph Vissarionovich personally signed execution lists for 400,000 people. In addition, Stalin tightened the repression as much as possible, authorizing the use of torture during interrogations. It was they who were given the green light to complete chaos in the dungeons. He was directly related to the notorious telegram of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated January 10, 1939, which literally gave the punitive authorities a free hand.

Creativity in introducing torture

Let us recall excerpts from a letter from Corps Commander Lisovsky, a leader bullied by the satraps...

"...A ten-day assembly-line interrogation with a brutal, vicious beating and no opportunity to sleep. Then - a twenty-day punishment cell. Next - forced to sit with your hands raised up, and also stand bent over with your head hidden under the table, for 7-8 hours..."

The detainees' desire to prove their innocence and their failure to sign fabricated charges led to increased torture and beatings. The social status of the detainees did not play a role. Let us remember that Robert Eiche, a candidate member of the Central Committee, had his spine broken during interrogation, and Marshal Blucher in Lefortovo prison died from beatings during interrogation.

Leader's motivation

The number of victims of Stalin's repressions was calculated not in tens or hundreds of thousands, but in seven million who died of starvation and four million who were arrested (general statistics will be presented below). The number of those executed alone was about 800 thousand people...

How did Stalin motivate his actions, immensely striving for the Olympus of power?

What does Anatoly Rybakov write about this in “Children of Arbat”? Analyzing Stalin's personality, he shares his judgments with us. “The ruler whom the people love is weak because his power is based on the emotions of other people. It's another matter when people are afraid of him! Then the power of the ruler depends on himself. This is a strong ruler! Hence the leader’s credo - to inspire love through fear!

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin took steps adequate to this idea. Repression became his main competitive tool in his political career.

The beginning of revolutionary activity

Joseph Vissarionovich became interested in revolutionary ideas at the age of 26 after meeting V.I. Lenin. He was engaged in robbery of funds for the party treasury. Fate sent him 7 exiles to Siberia. Stalin was distinguished by pragmatism, prudence, unscrupulousness in means, harshness towards people, and egocentrism from a young age. Repressions against financial institutions - robberies and violence - were his. Then the future leader of the party participated in the Civil War.

Stalin in the Central Committee

In 1922, Joseph Vissarionovich received a long-awaited opportunity for career growth. The ill and weakening Vladimir Ilyich introduces him, along with Kamenev and Zinoviev, to the Central Committee of the party. In this way, Lenin creates a political counterbalance to Leon Trotsky, who really aspires to leadership.

Stalin simultaneously heads two party structures: the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee and the Secretariat. In this post, he brilliantly studied the art of party behind-the-scenes intrigue, which later came in handy in his fight against competitors.

Positioning of Stalin in the system of red terror

The machine of red terror was launched even before Stalin came to the Central Committee.

09/05/1918 The Council of People's Commissars issues the Resolution “On Red Terror”. The body for its implementation, called the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK), operated under the Council of People's Commissars from December 7, 1917.

The reason for this radicalization of domestic politics was the murder of M. Uritsky, chairman of the St. Petersburg Cheka, and the assassination attempt on V. Lenin by Fanny Kaplan, acting from the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Both events occurred on August 30, 1918. Already this year, the Cheka launched a wave of repression.

According to statistical information, 21,988 people were arrested and imprisoned; 3061 hostages taken; 5544 were shot, 1791 were imprisoned in concentration camps.

By the time Stalin came to the Central Committee, gendarmes, police officers, tsarist officials, entrepreneurs, and landowners had already been repressed. First of all, the blow was dealt to the classes that are the support of the monarchical structure of society. However, having “creatively developed the teachings of Lenin,” Joseph Vissarionovich outlined new main directions of terror. In particular, a course was taken to destroy the social base of the village - agricultural entrepreneurs.

Stalin since 1928 - ideologist of violence

It was Stalin who turned repression into the main instrument of domestic policy, which he justified theoretically.

His concept of intensifying class struggle formally becomes the theoretical basis for the constant escalation of violence by state authorities. The country shuddered when it was first voiced by Joseph Vissarionovich at the July Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1928. From that time on, he actually became the leader of the Party, the inspirer and ideologist of violence. The tyrant declared war on his own people.

Hidden by slogans, the real meaning of Stalinism manifests itself in the unrestrained pursuit of power. Its essence is shown by the classic - George Orwell. The Englishman made it very clear that power for this ruler was not a means, but a goal. Dictatorship was no longer perceived by him as a defense of the revolution. The revolution became a means to establish a personal, unlimited dictatorship.

Joseph Vissarionovich in 1928-1930. began by initiating the fabrication by the OGPU of a number of public trials that plunged the country into an atmosphere of shock and fear. Thus, the cult of Stalin’s personality began its formation with trials and the instillation of terror throughout society... Mass repressions were accompanied by public recognition of those who committed non-existent crimes as “enemies of the people.” People were brutally tortured to sign charges fabricated by the investigation. The brutal dictatorship imitated class struggle, cynically violating the Constitution and all norms of universal morality...

Three global trials were falsified: the “Union Bureau Case” (putting managers at risk); “The Case of the Industrial Party” (the sabotage of the Western powers regarding the economy of the USSR was imitated); “The Case of the Labor Peasant Party” (obvious falsification of damage to the seed fund and delays in mechanization). Moreover, they were all united into a single cause in order to create the appearance of a single conspiracy against Soviet power and provide scope for further falsifications of the OGPU - NKVD organs.

As a result, the entire economic management of the national economy was replaced from old “specialists” to “new personnel”, ready to work according to the instructions of the “leader”.

Through the lips of Stalin, who ensured that the state apparatus was loyal to repression through the trials, the Party’s unshakable determination was further expressed: to displace and ruin thousands of entrepreneurs - industrialists, traders, small and medium-sized ones; to ruin the basis of agricultural production - the wealthy peasantry (indiscriminately calling them “kulaks”). At the same time, the new voluntarist party position was masked by “the will of the poorest strata of workers and peasants.”

Behind the scenes, parallel to this “general line,” the “father of peoples” consistently, with the help of provocations and false testimony, began to implement the line of eliminating his party competitors for supreme state power (Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev).

Forced collectivization

The truth about Stalin's repressions of the period 1928-1932. indicates that the main object of repression was the main social base of the village - an effective agricultural producer. The goal is clear: the entire peasant country (and in fact at that time these were Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic and Transcaucasian republics) was, under the pressure of repression, to transform from a self-sufficient economic complex into an obedient donor for the implementation of Stalin’s plans for industrialization and maintaining hypertrophied power structures.

In order to clearly identify the object of his repressions, Stalin resorted to an obvious ideological forgery. Economically and socially unjustifiably, he achieved that party ideologists obedient to him singled out a normal self-supporting (profit-making) producer into a separate “class of kulaks” - the target of a new blow. Under the ideological leadership of Joseph Vissarionovich, a plan was developed for the destruction of the social foundations of the village that had developed over centuries, the destruction of the rural community - the Resolution “On the liquidation of ... kulak farms” dated January 30, 1930.

The Red Terror has come to the village. Peasants who fundamentally disagreed with collectivization were subjected to Stalin's “troika” trials, which in most cases ended with executions. Less active “kulaks”, as well as “kulak families” (the category of which could include any persons subjectively defined as a “rural asset”) were subjected to forcible confiscation of property and eviction. A body for permanent operational management of the eviction was created - a secret operational department under the leadership of Efim Evdokimov.

Migrants to the extreme regions of the North, victims of Stalin's repressions, were previously identified on a list in the Volga region, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Siberia, and the Urals.

In 1930-1931 1.8 million were evicted, and in 1932-1940. - 0.49 million people.

Organization of hunger

However, executions, ruin and eviction in the 30s of the last century are not all of Stalin’s repressions. A brief listing of them should be supplemented by the organization of famine. Its real reason was the inadequate approach of Joseph Vissarionovich personally to insufficient grain procurements in 1932. Why was the plan fulfilled by only 15-20%? The main reason was crop failure.

His subjectively developed plan for industrialization was under threat. It would be reasonable to reduce the plans by 30%, postpone them, and first stimulate the agricultural producer and wait for a harvest year... Stalin did not want to wait, he demanded immediate provision of food to the bloated security forces and new gigantic construction projects - Donbass, Kuzbass. The leader made a decision to confiscate grain intended for sowing and consumption from the peasants.

On October 22, 1932, two emergency commissions under the leadership of the odious personalities Lazar Kaganovich and Vyacheslav Molotov launched a misanthropic campaign of “fight against the fists” to confiscate grain, which was accompanied by violence, quick-to-death troika courts and the eviction of wealthy agricultural producers to the Far North. It was genocide...

It is noteworthy that the cruelty of the satraps was actually initiated and not stopped by Joseph Vissarionovich himself.

Well-known fact: correspondence between Sholokhov and Stalin

Mass repressions of Stalin in 1932 -1933. have documentary evidence. M.A. Sholokhov, the author of “The Quiet Don,” addressed the leader, defending his fellow countrymen, with letters exposing lawlessness during the confiscation of grain. The famous resident of the village of Veshenskaya presented the facts in detail, indicating the villages, the names of the victims and their tormentors. The abuse and violence against the peasants is horrifying: brutal beatings, breaking out joints, partial strangulation, mock executions, eviction from houses... In his response Letter, Joseph Vissarionovich only partially agreed with Sholokhov. The real position of the leader is visible in the lines where he calls the peasants saboteurs, “secretly” trying to disrupt the food supply...

This voluntaristic approach caused famine in the Volga region, Ukraine, the North Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Siberia, and the Urals. A special Statement of the Russian State Duma published in April 2008 revealed previously classified statistics to the public (previously, propaganda did its best to hide these repressions of Stalin.)

How many people died from hunger in the above regions? The figure established by the State Duma commission is terrifying: more than 7 million.

Other areas of pre-war Stalinist terror

Let's also consider three more areas of Stalin's terror, and in the table below we present each of them in more detail.

With the sanctions of Joseph Vissarionovich, a policy was also pursued to suppress freedom of conscience. A citizen of the Land of Soviets had to read the newspaper Pravda, and not go to church...

Hundreds of thousands of families of previously productive peasants, fearing dispossession and exile to the North, became an army supporting the country's gigantic construction projects. In order to limit their rights and make them manipulable, it was at that time that passporting of the population in cities was carried out. Only 27 million people received passports. Peasants (still the majority of the population) remained without passports, did not enjoy the full scope of civil rights (freedom to choose a place of residence, freedom to choose a job) and were “tied” to the collective farm at their place of residence with the obligatory condition of fulfilling workday norms.

Antisocial policies were accompanied by the destruction of families and an increase in the number of street children. This phenomenon has become so widespread that the state was forced to respond to it. With Stalin's sanction, the Politburo of the Country of Soviets issued one of the most inhumane regulations - punitive towards children.

The anti-religious offensive as of April 1, 1936 led to a reduction in Orthodox churches to 28%, mosques to 32% of their pre-revolutionary number. The number of clergy decreased from 112.6 thousand to 17.8 thousand.

For repressive purposes, passportization of the urban population was carried out. More than 385 thousand people did not receive passports and were forced to leave the cities. 22.7 thousand people were arrested.

One of Stalin’s most cynical crimes is his authorization of the secret Politburo resolution of 04/07/1935, which allows teenagers from 12 years of age to be brought to trial and determines their punishment up to capital punishment. In 1936 alone, 125 thousand children were placed in NKVD colonies. As of April 1, 1939, 10 thousand children were exiled to the Gulag system.

Great Terror

The state flywheel of terror was gaining momentum... The power of Joseph Vissarionovich, starting in 1937, as a result of repressions over the entire society, became comprehensive. However, their biggest leap was just ahead. In addition to the final and physical reprisals against former party colleagues - Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev - massive “cleansings of the state apparatus” were carried out.

Terror has reached unprecedented proportions. The OGPU (from 1938 - the NKVD) responded to all complaints and anonymous letters. A person's life was ruined for one carelessly dropped word... Even the Stalinist elite - statesmen: Kosior, Eikhe, Postyshev, Goloshchekin, Vareikis - were repressed; military leaders Blucher, Tukhachevsky; security officers Yagoda, Yezhov.

On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, leading military personnel were shot on trumped-up cases “under an anti-Soviet conspiracy”: 19 qualified corps-level commanders - divisions with combat experience. The cadres who replaced them did not adequately master operational and tactical art.

It was not only the shopfront facades of Soviet cities that were characterized by the personality cult of Stalin. The repressions of the “leader of the peoples” gave rise to a monstrous system of Gulag camps, providing the Land of Soviets with free labor, mercilessly exploited labor resources to extract the wealth of the underdeveloped regions of the Far North and Central Asia.

The dynamics of the increase in those kept in camps and labor colonies is impressive: in 1932 there were 140 thousand prisoners, and in 1941 - about 1.9 million.

In particular, ironically, the prisoners of Kolyma mined 35% of the Union's gold, while living in terrible conditions. Let us list the main camps included in the Gulag system: Solovetsky (45 thousand prisoners), logging camps - Svirlag and Temnikovo (43 and 35 thousand, respectively); oil and coal production - Ukhtapechlag (51 thousand); chemical industry - Bereznyakov and Solikamsk (63 thousand); development of the steppes - Karaganda camp (30 thousand); construction of the Volga-Moscow canal (196 thousand); construction of the BAM (260 thousand); gold mining in Kolyma (138 thousand); Nickel mining in Norilsk (70 thousand).

Basically, people arrived in the Gulag system in a typical way: after a night arrest and an unfair, biased trial. And although this system was created under Lenin, it was under Stalin that political prisoners began to enter it en masse after mass trials: “enemies of the people” - kulaks (essentially effective agricultural producers), and even entire evicted nationalities. The majority served sentences from 10 to 25 years under Article 58. The investigation process involved torture and the breaking of the will of the convicted person.

In the case of the resettlement of kulaks and small peoples, the train with prisoners stopped right in the taiga or in the steppe and the convicts built a camp and a special purpose prison (TON) for themselves. Since 1930, the labor of prisoners was mercilessly exploited to fulfill five-year plans - 12-14 hours a day. Tens of thousands of people died from overwork, poor nutrition, and poor medical care.

Instead of a conclusion

The years of Stalin's repressions - from 1928 to 1953. - changed the atmosphere in a society that has ceased to believe in justice and is under the pressure of constant fear. Since 1918, people were accused and shot by revolutionary military tribunals. The inhumane system developed... The Tribunal became the Cheka, then the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, then the OGPU, then the NKVD. Executions under Article 58 were in effect until 1947, and then Stalin replaced them with 25 years in camps.

In total, about 800 thousand people were shot.

Moral and physical torture of the entire population of the country, essentially lawlessness and arbitrariness, was carried out in the name of the workers' and peasants' power, the revolution.

The powerless people were terrorized by the Stalinist system constantly and methodically. The process of restoring justice began with the 20th Congress of the CPSU.

In the modern history of the Fatherland under Stalin's repressions understand the mass persecution for political and other reasons of citizens of the USSR from 1927 to 1953 (the period of the leadership of the Soviet Union by J.V. Stalin). Then repressive policies were considered in the context of the necessary measures for the implementation of socialist construction in the USSR, in the interests of the broad working masses.

In the general sense of the concept repression(from Latin repressio - constraint, suppression) is a system of punitive sanctions applied by the authorities to reduce or eliminate the threat to the existing state system and public order. The threat can be expressed both in open actions and speeches, and in hidden opposition of opponents of the regime.

Repression in the fundamental theory of Marxism-Leninism was not envisaged as an element of the construction of a new society. Therefore, the goals of Stalin’s repressions are visible only after the fact:

Isolation and liquidation of opponents of Soviet power and their henchmen.

The desire to shift responsibility to political opponents for failed projects and other obvious failures of industrialization, collectivization and the cultural revolution.

The need to replace the old party-Soviet elite, which has shown its inability to solve the problems of industrialization and socialist construction.

Concentrate all power in the hands of one party leader.

Use forced labor of prisoners in the construction of industrial facilities in places with an acute shortage of labor resources.

Prerequisites for repression

With the establishment of Soviet power in November 1917, the political struggle in Russia did not end, but moved into the plane of the Bolsheviks’ struggle with any opposition. Clear prerequisites for future mass repressions have emerged:

At the beginning of January 1918, the Constituent Assembly was dispersed, and active supporters of the All-Russian Forum were repressed.

In July 1918, the bloc with the Left Social Revolutionaries collapsed, and a one-party dictatorship of the CPSU(b) was established.

Since September 1918, the policy of “war communism” began to tighten the regime of Soviet power, accompanied by the “Red Terror”.

In 1921 they were created revolutionary tribunals both directly to the Cheka (then NKVD), and the Supreme (general jurisdiction).

In 1922, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission was reorganized into the State Political Administration (GPU, since 1923 - OGPU), chaired by Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky.

The XII Party Conference of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, held in August 1922, recognized all parties and political organizations that opposed the Bolsheviks anti-Soviet(anti-state). On this basis they were subject to defeat.

In 1922, by decree of the GPU they were expelled to " philosophical ship» from the RSFSR to the West a number of prominent scientists, specialists and artists.

The struggle for power in the 20-30s, in conditions of accelerated industrialization and collectivization, was carried out with the use of political repression.

Political repression- These are measures of state coercion, including various types of restrictions and punishments. In the Soviet Union, political repression was used against individuals and even social groups.

Reasons for repression

In modern historiography, political repression is associated with the period when the supreme power was associated with the name of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (1926 - 1953). The event line predetermined the causal series of repressions, conventionally designated as Stalinist:

Firstly, to create conditions for the concentration of power in one hand, eliminating everyone who claimed the first role in party and state governance.

Secondly, it was necessary to remove the obstacles to colossal transformations posed by the opposition and outright enemies.

Thirdly, to identify and eliminate the “fifth column” on the eve of terrible military upheavals and aggravation of hostility with the Western world.

Fourth, demonstrate to the people the will and determination to solve grandiose tasks.

Thus, repression objectively becomes the most important policy instrument of the Soviet state, regardless of the desires and personal aspirations of specific figures.

Political competitors of I.V. Stalin

After the death of V.I. Lenin, a situation of competition arose in the Soviet establishment for the first role in government. At the very top of power, a stable group of political competitors, members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, has formed:

1. General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks I.V. Stalin.
2. Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council and People's Commissar for Military Affairs L. D. Trotsky.
3. Chairman of the Comintern and head of the Leningrad party organization G. E. Zinoviev.
4. L. B. Kamenev, who headed the Moscow party organization.
5. Chief ideologist and editor of the party newspaper “Pravda” N.I. Bukharin.

All of them took an active part in the intrigues of the second half of the 20s and early 30s of the XX century, which ultimately led Stalin to absolute power in the USSR. This struggle was “for life and death,” so all sentimentality was excluded.

The course of the main events of Stalin's repressions

First stage

The 1920s are the path to the sole power of I.V. Stalin.

At this stage, J.V. Stalin skillfully used the differences and political ambitions of his competitors, and his post as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks to seize absolute power.

Second phase

Strengthening the unlimited regime of Stalin's personal power.

As a result, by 1940, a regime of unlimited power and the cult of personality of J.V. Stalin had been established.

Third stage

Repressions in the post-war years.

The above list of processes during the period of Stalinist repressions does not fully reflect the picture of the tragic time; only key cases are recorded. On the other hand, there is a tendency to excessively exaggerate the number of victims, and this makes the attitude towards the times of Stalinism far from ambiguous.

Results of Stalin's repressions

1. The establishment of the sole power of I.V. Stalin took place.
2. A harsh totalitarian regime took hold.
3. More than 2 million people, opponents of Soviet power, open, hidden, and often innocent, were subjected to mass repression.
4. A state system of forced labor camps, the Gulag, was created.
5. Labor relations have become tougher. The forced and low-paid labor of Gulag prisoners was widely used.
6. There was a radical replacement of the old party-Soviet elite with young technocrats.
7. The fear of openly expressing one's opinion was entrenched in Soviet society.
8. The declared rights and freedoms of USSR citizens were not fulfilled in practice.

The period of Stalinist repressions remains one of the darkest and most controversial pages in Russian history.

"Thaw". Rethinking the Stalinist period. Rehabilitation

The situation that developed in the USSR after the death of Stalin with the “light hand” of I. Ehrenburg was called “ thaw" In addition to the intensification of public life, the thaw led to rethinking achievements and shortcomings Stalin period Soviet history:

1. Achievements were questioned.
2. The shortcomings stuck out and multiplied.

A large-scale process of rehabilitation of victims of political repression has been launched.

Rehabilitation- this is the removal of false accusations, release from punishment and the return of an honest name.

Partial rehabilitation was carried out on the initiative of L.P. Beria in the late 30s. He carried out the infamous amnesty again in 1953. A year later, N.S. Khrushchev granted amnesty to collaborators and war criminals. Rehabilitation campaigns for victims of Stalinist repression took place from 1954 to 1961. and in 1962-1982. At the end of the 80s, the rehabilitation process resumed.

The Law has been in effect since 1991 On the rehabilitation of victims of political repression».

Since 1990, the Russian Federation has celebrated Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression.

In 2009, the inclusion of A. Solzhenitsyn’s novel in the school literature curriculum Gulag Archipelago"is still perceived ambiguously.

Stalin's repressions- massive political repressions carried out in the USSR during the period of Stalinism (late 1920s - early 1950s). The number of direct victims of repression (persons sentenced to death or imprisonment for political (counter-revolutionary) crimes, expelled from the country, evicted, exiled, deported) is estimated in the millions. In addition, researchers point to the serious negative consequences that these repressions had for Soviet society as a whole and its demographic structure.

The period of the most massive repressions, so-called " Great Terror", occurred in 1937-1938. A. Medushevsky, professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, chief researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, calls the “Great Terror” “a key tool of Stalin’s social engineering.” According to him, there are several different approaches to interpreting the essence of the “Great Terror”, the origins of the plan for mass repression, the influence of various factors and the institutional basis of terror. “The only thing,” he writes, “that apparently does not raise doubts is the decisive role of Stalin himself and the main punitive agency of the country - the GUGB NKVD in organizing mass repressions.”

As modern Russian historians note, one of the features of Stalin’s repressions was that a significant part of them violated existing legislation and the basic law of the country - the Soviet Constitution. In particular, the creation of numerous extrajudicial bodies was contrary to the Constitution. It is also characteristic that as a result of the opening of Soviet archives, a significant number of documents signed by Stalin were discovered, indicating that it was he who sanctioned almost all mass political repressions.

When analyzing the formation of the mechanism of mass repression in the 1930s, the following factors should be taken into account:

The transition to a policy of collectivization of agriculture, industrialization and cultural revolution, which required significant material investments or the attraction of free labor (it is indicated, for example, that grandiose plans for the development and creation of an industrial base in the northern regions of the European part of Russia, Siberia and the Far East required the movement of huge masses of people.

Preparations for war with Germany, where the Nazis who came to power declared their goal to be the destruction of communist ideology.

To solve these problems, it was necessary to mobilize the efforts of the entire population of the country and ensure absolute support for state policy, and for this - neutralize potential political opposition, on which the enemy could rely.

At the same time, at the legislative level, the supremacy of the interests of society and the proletarian state in relation to the interests of the individual and a more severe punishment for any damage caused to the state was proclaimed, compared to similar crimes against the individual.

The policy of collectivization and accelerated industrialization led to a sharp drop in the standard of living of the population and mass famine. Stalin and his circle understood that this was increasing the number of people dissatisfied with the regime and tried to portray " pests"and saboteurs-" enemies of the people", responsible for all economic difficulties, as well as accidents in industry and transport, mismanagement, etc. According to Russian researchers, demonstrative repressions made it possible to explain the hardships of life by the presence of an internal enemy.

As researchers point out, the period of mass repression was also predetermined " restoration and active use of the political investigation system"and the strengthening of the authoritarian power of I. Stalin, who moved from discussions with political opponents on the choice of the country's development path to declaring them "enemies of the people, a gang of professional saboteurs, spies, saboteurs, murderers," which was perceived by state security agencies, the prosecutor's office and the court as a prerequisite to action.

Ideological basis of repression

The ideological basis of Stalin's repressions was formed during the civil war. Stalin himself formulated a new approach at the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in July 1928.

It is impossible to imagine that socialist forms will develop, displacing the enemies of the working class, and the enemies will retreat silently, making way for our advancement, that then we will again move forward, and they will retreat back again, and then “unexpectedly” everyone without exception social groups, both kulaks and the poor, both workers and capitalists, will find themselves “suddenly,” “imperceptibly,” without struggle or unrest, in a socialist society.

It has not happened and will not happen that moribund classes voluntarily surrendered their positions without trying to organize resistance. It has not happened and will not happen that the advancement of the working class towards socialism in a class society could do without struggle and unrest. On the contrary, progress towards socialism cannot but lead to resistance from the exploiting elements to this advancement, and the resistance of the exploiters cannot but lead to an inevitable intensification of the class struggle.

Dispossession

During the violent collectivization agriculture carried out in the USSR in 1928-1932, one of the directions of state policy was the suppression of anti-Soviet protests by peasants and the associated “liquidation of the kulaks as a class” - “dekulakization”, which involved the forced and extrajudicial deprivation of wealthy peasants using hired labor, of all means of production, land and civil rights, and eviction to remote areas of the country. Thus, the state destroyed the main social group of the rural population, capable of organizing and materially supporting resistance to the measures taken.

The fight against sabotage

Solving the problem of accelerated industrialization required not only the investment of huge funds, but also the creation of numerous technical personnel. The bulk of the workers, however, were yesterday's illiterate peasants who did not have sufficient qualifications to work with complex equipment. The Soviet state also depended heavily on the technical intelligentsia inherited from tsarist times. These specialists were often quite skeptical of communist slogans.

The Communist Party, which grew up in conditions of civil war, perceived all the disruptions that arose during industrialization as deliberate sabotage, which resulted in a campaign against so-called “sabotage.”

Repression of foreigners and ethnic minorities

On March 9, 1936, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks issued a resolution “On measures to protect the USSR from the penetration of espionage, terrorist and sabotage elements.” In accordance with it, the entry of political emigrants into the country was complicated and a commission was created to “cleanse” international organizations on the territory of the USSR.

Mass terror

On July 30, 1937, NKVD Order No. 00447 “On the operation to repress former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements” was adopted.

Estimates of the number of victims of Stalin's repressions vary dramatically. Some cite numbers in the tens of millions of people, others limit themselves to hundreds of thousands. Which of them is closer to the truth?

Who is to blame?

Today our society is almost equally divided into Stalinists and anti-Stalinists. The former draw attention to the positive transformations that took place in the country during the Stalin era, the latter call not to forget about the huge number of victims of the repressions of the Stalinist regime.
However, almost all Stalinists recognize the fact of repression, but note its limited nature and even justify it as political necessity. Moreover, they often do not associate repressions with the name of Stalin.
Historian Nikolai Kopesov writes that in most investigative cases against those repressed in 1937-1938 there were no resolutions of Stalin - everywhere there were verdicts of Yagoda, Yezhov and Beria. According to the Stalinists, this is proof that the heads of the punitive bodies were engaged in arbitrariness and in support of this they cite Yezhov’s quote: “Whoever we want, we execute, whoever we want, we have mercy.”
For that part of the Russian public that sees Stalin as the ideologist of repression, these are just details that confirm the rule. Yagoda, Yezhov and many other arbiters of human destinies themselves turned out to be victims of terror. Who else but Stalin was behind all this? - they ask a rhetorical question.
Doctor of Historical Sciences, chief specialist of the State Archive of the Russian Federation Oleg Khlevnyuk notes that despite the fact that Stalin’s signature was not on many execution lists, it was he who sanctioned almost all mass political repressions.

Who was hurt?

The issue of victims acquired even greater significance in the debate surrounding Stalin's repressions. Who suffered and in what capacity during the period of Stalinism? Many researchers note that the very concept of “victims of repression” is quite vague. Historiography has not yet developed clear definitions on this matter.
Of course, those convicted, imprisoned in prisons and camps, shot, deported, deprived of property should be counted among those affected by the actions of the authorities. But what about, for example, those who were subjected to “biased interrogation” and then released? Should criminal and political prisoners be separated? In what category should we classify the “nonsense”, convicted of minor isolated thefts and equated to state criminals?
Deportees deserve special attention. What category should they be classified into – repressed or administratively expelled? It is even more difficult to determine those who fled without waiting for dispossession or deportation. They were sometimes caught, but some were lucky enough to start a new life.

Such different numbers

Uncertainties in the issue of who is responsible for the repression, in identifying the categories of victims and the period for which the victims of repression should be counted lead to completely different figures. The most impressive figures were cited by the economist Ivan Kurganov (Solzhenitsyn referred to these data in his novel The Gulag Archipelago), who calculated that from 1917 to 1959, 110 million people became victims of the internal war of the Soviet regime against its people.
In this number, Kurganov includes victims of famine, collectivization, peasant exile, camps, executions, civil war, as well as “the neglectful and sloppy conduct of the Second World War.”
Even if such calculations are correct, can these figures be considered a reflection of Stalin's repressions? The economist, in fact, answers this question himself, using the expression “victims of the internal war of the Soviet regime.” It is worth noting that Kurganov counted only the dead. It is difficult to imagine what figure could have appeared if the economist had taken into account all those affected by the Soviet regime during the specified period.
The figures given by the head of the human rights society “Memorial” Arseny Roginsky are more realistic. He writes: “Across the entire Soviet Union, 12.5 million people are considered victims of political repression,” but adds that in a broad sense, up to 30 million people can be considered repressed.
Leaders of the Yabloko movement Elena Kriven and Oleg Naumov counted all categories of victims of the Stalinist regime, including those who died in the camps from disease and harsh working conditions, those dispossessed, victims of hunger, those who suffered from unjustifiably cruel decrees and those who received excessively harsh punishment for minor offenses in the force of the repressive nature of legislation. The final figure is 39 million.
Researcher Ivan Gladilin notes in this regard that if the count of victims of repression has been carried out since 1921, this means that it is not Stalin who is responsible for a significant part of the crimes, but the “Leninist Guard”, which immediately after the October Revolution launched terror against the White Guards , clergy and kulaks.

How to count?

Estimates of the number of victims of repression vary greatly depending on the method of counting. If we take into account those convicted only on political charges, then according to the data of the regional departments of the KGB of the USSR, given in 1988, the Soviet bodies (VChK, GPU, OGPU, NKVD, NKGB, MGB) arrested 4,308,487 people, of which 835,194 were shot.
Employees of the Memorial Society, when counting the victims of political trials, are close to these figures, although their data is still noticeably higher - 4.5-4.8 million were convicted, of which 1.1 million were executed. If we consider everyone who went through the Gulag system as victims of the Stalinist regime, then this figure, according to various estimates, will range from 15 to 18 million people.
Very often, Stalin’s repressions are associated exclusively with the concept of the “Great Terror,” which peaked in 1937-1938. According to the commission led by academician Pyotr Pospelov to establish the causes of mass repressions, the following figures were announced: 1,548,366 people were arrested on charges of anti-Soviet activity, of which 681,692 thousand were sentenced to capital punishment.
One of the most authoritative experts on the demographic aspects of political repression in the USSR, historian Viktor Zemskov, names a smaller number of those convicted during the years of the “Great Terror” - 1,344,923 people, although his data coincides with the number of those executed.
If dispossessed people are included in the number of those subjected to repression during Stalin’s time, the figure will increase by at least 4 million people. The same Zemskov cites this number of dispossessed people. The Yabloko party agrees with this, noting that about 600 thousand of them died in exile.
Representatives of some peoples who were subjected to forced deportation also became victims of Stalin's repressions - Germans, Poles, Finns, Karachais, Kalmyks, Armenians, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Crimean Tatars. Many historians agree that the total number of deportees is about 6 million people, while about 1.2 million people did not live to see the end of the journey.

To trust or not?

The above figures are mostly based on reports from the OGPU, NKVD, and MGB. However, not all documents of the punitive departments have been preserved; many of them were purposefully destroyed, and many are still in restricted access.
It should be recognized that historians are very dependent on statistics collected by various special agencies. But the difficulty is that even the available information reflects only those officially repressed, and therefore, by definition, cannot be complete. Moreover, it is possible to verify it from primary sources only in the rarest cases.
An acute shortage of reliable and complete information often provoked both the Stalinists and their opponents to name radically different figures in favor of their position. “If the “right” exaggerated the scale of the repressions, then the “left”, partly out of dubious youth, having found much more modest figures in the archives, hastened to make them public and did not always ask themselves the question of whether everything was reflected - and could be reflected - in the archives, – notes historian Nikolai Koposov.
It can be stated that estimates of the scale of Stalin’s repressions based on the sources available to us can be very approximate. Documents stored in federal archives would be a good help for modern researchers, but many of them were re-classified. A country with such a history will jealously guard the secrets of its past.