Question

How important is it to include an account of the great terror in a chapter on Soviet history? Explain.

Answer 1

It was named after the death of Lenin, Joseph Stalin took power and ruled with an iron hand, subjecting his country to purges that sowed terror among "friends" and "enemies." It began in December 1934 when Stalin ordered the assassination of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Leningrad, Sergéi Kirov. A year later, Kamenev and Zinoviev were arrested for traitors and complicity in Kirov's murder, for which they were executed in August 1936. Then, an unprecedented terror campaign was unleashed and reached its climax in the 1937s and 1938. That sinister stage was marked by the repression of Bolsheviks, workers, peasants, military men and intellectuals.

The communist dictatorship in Russia was replete with political reprisals and marked a very particular era. But the year 1937 is the one that shines especially and is synonymous of massacres, organized and perpetrated by the authorities. This fact perpetuated the history of Russia. The reprisals, where extended to all regions and all social strata, without exception. More than 1.7 million people were arrested for political accusations. The dreaded "special operations" of a terrorist nature were developed, planned and under permanent control of their leaders; unexplainable to the common sense of the people.