Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia, 1934-1941Yale University Press, 1998 M11 10 - 296 pages Terror, in the sense of mass, unjust arrests, characterized the USSR during the late 1930s. But, argues Robert Thurston in this controversial book, Stalin did not intend to terrorize the country and did not need to rule by fear. Memoirs and interviews with Soviet people indicate that many more believed in Stalin's quest to eliminate internal enemies than were frightened by it. Drawing on recently opened Soviet archives and other sources, Thurston shows that between 1934 and 1936 police and court practice relaxed significantly. Then a series of events, together with the tense international situation and memories of real enemy activity during the savage Russian Civil War, combined to push leaders and people into a hysterical hunt for perceived "wreckers." After late 1938, however, the police and courts became dramatically milder. Coercion was not the key factor keeping the regime in power. More important was voluntary support, fostered at least in the cities by broad opportunities to criticize conditions and participate in decision making on the local level. The German invasion of 1941 found the populace deeply divided in its judgment of Stalinism, but the country's soldiers generally fought hard in its defense. Using German and Russian sources, the author probes Soviet morale and performance in the early fighting. Thurston's portrait of the era sheds new light on Stalin and the nature of his regime. It presents an unconventional and less condescending view of the Soviet people, depicted not simply as victims but also as actors in the violence, criticisms, and local decisions of the 1930s. Ironically, Stalinism helped prepare the way for the much more active society and for the reforms of fifty years later. |
Contents
Politics and Tension | 16 |
The Political Police | 59 |
The Terror Ends | 107 |
Fear and Belief | 137 |
Life in the Factories | 164 |
Conclusion | 227 |
Abbreviations | 235 |
Glossary of Names | 287 |
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Common terms and phrases
accused arrested August Beck and Godin began believed Beria Bolshevik born Bukharin camps Central Committee charges collective farm Commissariat Communist Party counterrevolutionary court crimes criticism death December émigré enemies evidence example executed Ezhov factory fear February GARF Gensec German Getty gulag Iagoda Ibid industry investigation January July June Kirov kolkhoz Komsomol kulaks labor leaders leadership Leningrad major managers March Medvedev military million Molotov Moscow Moscow show trial Nicolaevsky Collection NKVD NKVDists norms obkom oblast officers Ordzhonikidze organization party cell party committee party members peasants percent police Politburo political population prisoners problems Procuracy production purges raion Red Army regime reported repression responsible Russian male show trials Smolensk Smolensk oblast social Solzhenitsyn Soviet Union Soviet Workers Sovnarkom Stakhanovism Stalin Stalinist story Svobodnyi Terror tion told took torture troops Trotskyites TsPA RTsKhIDNI Tukhachevskii Ukrainian University Press USSR Vyshinskii wreckers York Zinovievites