THE EFFECT OF STALINS PURGES IN THE 1930S ON THE SOVIET UNIONS FOREIGN POLICY JUST PRIOR TO AND AT THE BREAK OUT OF WORLD WAR II
Less than a month before Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 and started World War II, he signed a non-aggression pact with Stalin. Less than two years later, he broke the pact and invaded the Soviet Union in the early morning hours of June 22, 1941. There were plenty of evidence for German aggression before the war broke out, yet Stalin nevertheless signed the pact which contained the secret protocol that divided Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union. The reason for signing the pact were complex, yet one of the most important ones were the domestic factors. Among them, the terrible effect of the purges during the 1930s on the population, economy and especially the army. The purges were set off on December 1, 1934 with the murder of Sergei Kirov. He was a member of the Politburo, leader of the Leningrad party apparatus and had considerable influence in the ruling elite. His concern for the workers in Leningrad and his skill as an orator earned him considerable popularity. Stalin used his murder as a pretext for launching a broad purge that would claim hundreds of thousands of victims and have lasting repercussion felt to this day. Stalin never visited Leningrad again and directed one of his most vicious post-War
Martin McCauley, The Soviet Union Since 1917, Longman Group Limited, New York, 1981 purges against the city -- Russia's historic window to the West. No segment of the society was left untouched by the purges. Anyone who caused the slightest suspicion was removed and numerous legislature was enacted to help enforce them. In 1935 a law was passed which lowered the age of criminal responsibility. That meant the death penalty could be applied to twelve-year-old children (McCauley, p.93). There was also a panic response in the primary party organizations to expel and "expose" people in order to protect oneself and to show "vigilance" (Getty, p.213) There's hope that with the continued declassification more documents will appear from the archives that will be able to shed more light on this very dark subject. The dispute as to the exact toll of the purges will probably never be settled. The final count may never be known. However, it will always remain undisputed that the purges during the 1930s initiated by Joseph Stalin brought massive repercussion in all sectors of the society and greatly endangered Soviet Union's sovereignty and viability. Although there is no dispute as to the horror and losses brought on by Stalin's paranoid decisions in the 1930s, the actual number of casualties remains uncertain. Only recently have some of the most significant archives been declassified and allowed a new wave of research to start up. In addition, many of the records were destroyed at the time, presumably those with the most sensitive information. Some researchers claim that "in its worst year approximately only 7.7% of the Red army's leadership was discharged" (Getty, p.213). Another factor complicating ascertaining the actual casualties is political. Subject of Stalin is inextricably linked to ideology, communism, and socialism, topics that hardly leave anyone without strong emotions on one or the other s
Some common words found in the essay are:
Kirov Politburo, Moscow Leningrad, Soviet Union, Subject Stalin, Britain United, Red Army, Western Front, Non-Aggression Pact, Nazis West, Eastern Europe, soviet union, german aggression, june 22 1941, non-aggression pact, red army, june 22, actual casualties, purges 1930s, university press, secret protocol, getty p213,
Approximate Word count = 1290
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
