there WAS someone used as a scapegoat.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 @ 4:54 PM
Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov was the head of the NKVD under Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge.
The Great Purge reached its height during 1937-1938 under Yezhov, when 50%-75% of the Supreme Soviet and officers of the Soviet military were 'removed' in many different ways.
However, in March, 1939, Yezhov was suddenly dismissed from all his posts in in the Central Community of Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and was arrested and imprisoned in April of the same year.
After a while in prison, Yezhov broke under the torture and confessed to many state crimes that he was charged of, including official incompetence, theft of government and etc., but none of which was supported with evidence.
Finally, Yezhov was executed on 4th of February, 1940.
His post as Stalin's primary inquisitor during the Great Purge made him too much of a risk to be kept alive, even execution at a public show trial was too dangerous, for Stalin feared that he would expose Stalin's orchestration of the Great Purge.
By using Yezhov as the scapegoat of the Great Purge, Stalin was able to end the purge, but yet still able to deny his control over it.
there WAS support from the government.
Joseph Stalin, the leader then of the Soviet Union, was the one who was responsible for the Great Purge, so the Great Purge was more or less a government caused genocide.
Then of course, Stalin had the power to make the officials and military follow his orders.
Also, with Stalin as the leader, the government then did not and could not resist Stalin's actions.
there WAS a charismatic leader.
Stalin was one of the most crazy leaders in to world, he may be not as famous as hitler, but he sure was a great deal worse.
Stalin was born on 18th December 1878. At 7 he got small pox and his face was permenantely scarred. At 10 Stalin went to a gori theological school, at 12, his father became an alcoholic and became excessively violent to his wife and child. Stalin moved at least 10 times in in the 10 years of his starting life.
Stalin used to have to brothers, but they died at infancy, his religous mother prayed that he would grow to be a priest, but that didn't really happen.
He lead and orchestrated the Great Purge, but mostly only ordered other people around so in the end, he could get out of it, innocent.
there WAS a hatred towards a group of people.
Joseph Stalin was the infamous leader of Soviet Union then.
As he was a communist, he hates democracy and fascism by default, and lead a lot of the Russian officers to hate them as well.
Stalin called fascism and democracy twins, because they supported each other.
So, he started the purge to cleanse the population of anyone who was unworthy or not loyal.
there WAS an economic hard time.
Monday, January 24, 2011 @ 10:41 PM
Stalin wanted to modernise the country at such a fast rate that it could make-up the 50 year gap in around 10 years.
Stalin executed his first '5-year plan' in 1928 for intensive economic growth.
It was aimed at modernising and expanding existing industries, establishing new ones, and relocating those industries in the west further to the east for protection against possible attacks from the west.
Most investments were put into heavy industries, such as constructing large buildings, production for war machineries, and agricultural advances.
The results were undeniably a big success, and the results were achieved one year ahead of the original plan.
However, the enormous demands put on the workers meant that millions of them lived under harsh conditions, working on the vast projects that were assigned to them, and they were poorly paid.
The lack of consumer goods is one example of the fall in the standard of living.
Huge amounts of people are moving into the cities from the country side, so there was not enough medical facilities, houses, and schools.
Also, inflation grew.
there WAS advanced technology used.
Gas vans and guns were used to kill the victims.
These might not sound very advanced to you right now, but back then, they were considered as advanced technology.
It is basically a van with an airtight compartment in the back.
The victims were forced into the compartments, and eventually died of carbon monoxide poisoning or suffocation.
The exhaust gas was released from the pipes when the engine was still running.
However, the gas vans had disadvantages as well.
First, it did not work as fast as the NKVD wanted it to, it took more than 2 minutes for the victims to die.
Also, the vans could not block out the voice, so the screaming of the victims before they died could be heard, and most soldiers found it disturbing.
Most of the executions were carried out using the Mosin–Nagant rifle, which was considered advanced back then.
It is a bolt-action, internal magazine-fed, military rifle used by the armed forces of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and various other nations.