Post-war repressions. Repressions in the USSR: socio-political meaning State of internal affairs in the USSR

The victory over Nazi Germany gave the Soviet Union hope for a better life, weakening the pressure of the totalitarian state that influenced the individual, as well as the liberalization of the economic, political and cultural life of the country. This was facilitated by a revision of the value system associated with the horrors of war and familiarity with the Western way of life.

However, the Stalinist system only strengthened during the hard years, because the people connected two concepts - “Stalin” and “victory” - together.

Period 1945-1953 entered history under the name of late Stalinism, when in political life there was an increase in the repressive role of the state with the formal democratization of the political system.

The main task for Stalin and the state as a whole was to transfer the country to a peaceful path.

Demobilization, relocation

Already on June 23, 1945, in accordance with the law on demobilization, soldiers of the older age group began to return to the country. At the end of the war, 11.3 million people served in the USSR Armed Forces. But they also found themselves abroad:

• 4.5 million military personnel in the armies of other countries;
• 5.6 million citizens deported for forced labor in Germany and other European countries.

At the same time, there were 4 million prisoners of war on the territory of the USSR who needed repatriation. 2.5 million military personnel and 1.9 million civilians ended up in concentration camps, where they could not stand the severity of their stay and died. The exchange of citizens continued until 1953. As a result, 5.4 million people returned to the country, but 451 thousand turned out to be defectors due to fear of persecution by the authorities.

Restoration of the national economy

During the discussions of 1945 -1946. two ways of the recovery period were discussed, presented in the table:

Stalin's point of view won. The country, which had lost a third of its national wealth, restored its economy during the 4th Five-Year Plan (1945–1950), although Western experts believed that this would take at least 20 years. By 1950, the following tasks were completed:

The demilitarization of the economy was carried out, including the abolition of some military people's commissariats (1946-1947).

Enterprises in the occupied territory have been restored, primarily the coal and metallurgical industries and power plants. The Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station produced its first electricity in 1947.

New enterprises in the defense sector have been built. In 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant appeared (Obninsk, 1954). The invention of atomic weapons in 1949 brought the Soviet Union to the position of the 2nd superpower.

Restoration of the pre-war level was achieved already in 1947.

Agricultural restoration

While heavy industry developed rapidly and by 1950 exceeded the 1940 level by 20%, light industry and agriculture failed to cope with the assigned tasks. This imbalance in development was aggravated by the famine of 1946-1947, which claimed the lives of 1 million people in Ukraine, Moldova and parts of the RSFSR. Over the years of the five-year plan:

• Non-economic coercion of peasants increased, whose numbers decreased by 9.2 million people.
• Purchase prices for agricultural products have been reduced, which has put the village in unequal conditions.
• Collective farms were consolidated.
• The process of dispossession has been completed in Belarus, the Baltic states, Western Ukraine, and Moldova.

Currency reform

Among the measures to normalize life - the abolition of strict labor discipline, the card system, etc. - the monetary reform of 1947 occupies a special place. The population had accumulated financial resources that were not provided with goods. In December 1947, they were exchanged in a ratio of 10:1, which essentially led to the confiscation of savings. The winners were those who kept deposits in savings banks. Amounts up to 3 thousand were exchanged at the rate: 1:1. The money supply was reduced by 3.5 times.

Strengthening the regime and reforming the political system

Goal: strengthening the Stalinist regime with the formal democratization of society.

Democratic trends	Strengthening totalitarianism
	A new wave of repression: a blow to repatriates, cultural figures, and the party elite (“purges” of the command staff of the army, navy, and the Ministry of State Security, the “Leningrad affair,” the “doctors’ affair”)
Resumption of congresses of public and political organizations (1949-1952)	The rise of the Gulag system
	Mass deportations and arrests. 12 million people were resettled from the Baltic states, Ukraine and Belarus.
Elections to Soviets at all levels, as well as people's judges (1946)	Resettlement of “small” peoples, pressure on their traditions and culture, return to the idea of ​​autonomy
Work on the draft Constitution of the USSR and the program of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
Convening of the 19th Congress of the CPSU (b), renaming the party into the CPSU (1952)	Creation of special regime camps (1948).

Increased repression

In 46-48 there was a “tightening of the screws” in relation to the creative intelligentsia. The real persecution of M. Zoshchenko and A. Akhmatova began. The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a number of resolutions in the field of theater, music and cinema, which provided for administrative intervention in culture. The most sensational events in the last years of Stalin's reign were the repressions against the party elite of Leningrad and doctors.

"Leningrad affair"

It began in January 1949 after an anonymous report of vote fraud during the elections of the Leningrad regional committee and city party committee. Several trials were fabricated. Not only local party leaders were persecuted, but also those promoted from Leningrad to Moscow and other territories. As a result:

• More than 2 thousand people were removed from their positions.
• Convicted – 214.
• 23 were sentenced to death.

Among those subjected to repression were: N. Voznesensky, who headed the State Planning Committee, A. Kuznetsov, secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, M. Rodionov, who headed the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR and others. Subsequently, they will all be rehabilitated.

"The Doctors' Case"

The campaign against prominent figures in medicine began in 1948, after the death of A. Zhdanov, who allegedly died due to an erroneous diagnosis. The repressions took on a massive scale in 1953 and were clearly anti-Semitic in nature. In the 50s Arrests of doctors who were responsible for providing assistance to the top leaders of the USSR began to be carried out. The case was fabricated due to the intensification of the struggle for power in a single campaign against “cosmopolitanism” - contempt for Russian culture on the part of Jews. On January 13, 1953, Pravda reported about the “poisoners,” but after the death of the leader, all those arrested were acquitted and released.

Problems in the country

Ideology

From mid-1946, an attack began on the influence of the “West” on Russian culture. The country returned to party political control and the restoration of the Iron Curtain, finding itself isolated from the rest of the world. This was especially facilitated by the ongoing struggle against “cosmopolitanism” starting in 1948.

At the center of communist ideology is Stalin, whose cult reached its apogee in 1949, during the celebration of the leader’s 70th anniversary. The term “partisanship” appeared, which was also applied to science. The works of Stalin were cited in research papers, he and the party leadership took part in scientific discussions, which led to the emergence of “pseudoscience” and pseudoscientists - T. Lysenko, O. Lepeshinskaya, N. Marr and others.

Intra-party struggle

In the post-war years, the balance of power in the Politburo changed: the positions of the “Leningrad group” - A. Zhdanov, A. Kuznetsov, N. Voznesensky, M. Rodionov - strengthened. At the same time, G. Malenkov, V. Molotov, K. Voroshilov, L. Kaganovich and A. Mikoyan became less authoritative. However, the position of the “Leningraders” was not stable due to their proposals to strengthen the position of the RSFSR, transfer its government to Leningrad, etc. After the appointment of G. Malenkov as Secretary of the Central Committee and the death of A. Zhdanov, the loss of the Leningraders became a foregone conclusion, which ended in the “Leningrad Affair” . On a number of issues they were supported by A. Mikoyan and V. Molotov, which practically led to the leveling of their influence on political life.

But the positions of G. Malenkov, N. Bulganin, and L. Beria again became convincing. In December 1949, N. Khrushchev was elected secretary of the Central Committee, and L. Beria found himself associated with a group accused of creating a Mingrelian organization whose goal was the separation of Georgia from the USSR. On the night of March 1, 1953, Stalin suffered a stroke. Shortly before his death, he was elected head of government, K Voroshilov - Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council. In the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee - L. Beria, V. Molotov, N. Bulganin, L. Kaganovich and others.

Stalin's foreign policy in 1945-1953.

After the victory of the allies, the USSR became one of the leaders of world civilization, which was reflected in receiving a seat in the UN as a permanent member of the Security Council. However, the country's new position strengthened its territorial claims and revived the idea of ​​world revolution. This has led to a bipolar world. The diagram shows that by 1947, Europe was divided into allies of the USSR and allies of the United States, between which the Cold War began. Its culmination was 1949–1950. And the most serious conflict was the military conflict in Korea.

Results of Stalin's reign

The second most powerful world power was created on the blood and enthusiasm of tens of millions of people. But the Soviet faced two problems posed by the capitalist West, which it could not cope with:

• In the field of economics, a technological gap has emerged with leading European countries, where the next stage of the scientific and technological revolution has begun.
• There has been a lag in socio-political life. The USSR could not keep up with the rising standard of living in the West, accompanied by the expansion of democratic rights and freedoms.

If the system is not able to respond to the challenges of the times, it will certainly enter a period of crisis and decomposition.

Consequences for the country of late Stalinism

• The absence of legislatively established mechanisms for the transfer of supreme power caused its protracted crisis.
• The end of repression did not mean the destruction of the political-economic system based on the leadership of the country by the party nomenklatura and over-centralization of power. It will last until the 80s. XX century
• The term “Stalinism” will appear in 1989 in one of the legislative acts and will remain in the historical literature to characterize the period of government. I. Stalin.

Used Books:

1. Ostrovsky V.P., Utkin A.I. History of Russia. XX century. 11th grade. M, "Bustard", 1995
2. We are going to communism - on Sat. Children's Encyclopedia vol. 9. M, “Enlightenment”, 1969, p. 163-166.

In the social and political life of the USSR in 1945-47. the influence was very noticeable democratic impulse of war(some tendency towards weakening of the Soviet totalitarian system). The main reason for the democratic impulse was the relatively close acquaintance of the Soviet people with the Western way of life (during the liberation of Europe, in the process of communicating with the allies). The horrors of war suffered by our people, which led to a revision of the value system, also played an important role.

The response to the democratic impulse was twofold:

1. Minimal steps were taken towards the “democratization” of society. In September 1945, the state of emergency was ended and the unconstitutional government body, the State Defense Committee, was abolished. Congresses of public and political organizations of the USSR resumed. In 1946, the Council of People's Commissars was transformed into the Council of Ministers, and the People's Commissariats into ministries. In 1947, a monetary reform was carried out and the card system was abolished.
2. There was a significant tightening of the totalitarian regime. A new wave of repression began. The main blow, this time, was dealt to repatriates - prisoners of war and forcibly displaced persons returning to their homeland. Cultural figures who felt the influence of new trends more acutely than others also suffered (see section “Cultural Life of the USSR 1945-1953”), and the party and economic elite - the “Leningrad Affair” (1948), in which over 200 people were shot , Chairman of the State Planning Committee N.A. was shot. Voznesensky. The last act of repression was the “case of doctors” (January 1953), accused of attempting to poison the country’s top leadership.

A characteristic feature of the first post-war years was the deportation of entire peoples of the USSR, which began in 1943, on charges of collaboration with the fascists (Chechens, Ingush and Crimean Tatars). All these repressive measures allow historians to call the years 1945-1953. " the apogee of Stalinism" The main economic tasks of the post-war period were demilitarization and restoration of the destroyed economy.

Sources of resources for restoration were:

1. High mobilization abilities of the directive economy (due to new construction, additional sources of raw materials, fuel, etc.).
2. Reparations from Germany and its allies.
3. Free labor of Gulag prisoners and prisoners of war.
4. Redistribution of funds from light industry and the social sphere in favor of industrial sectors.
5. Transfer of funds from the agricultural sector of the economy to the industrial sector.

In March 1946, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a reconstruction plan, which outlined the main directions and indicators. The demilitarization of the economy ended mainly by 1947, accompanied by the simultaneous modernization of the military-industrial complex, which played an increasingly prominent role in the context of the beginning of the Cold War. Another priority sector was heavy industry, mainly mechanical engineering, metallurgy, and the fuel and energy complex. In general, during the years of the 4th Five-Year Plan (1946-1950), industrial production in the country increased and in 1950 exceeded pre-war indicators - the restoration of the country was generally completed.

Agriculture emerged from the war very weakened. However, despite the drought of 1946, the state began to reduce household plots and introduced a number of decrees punishing encroachment on state or collective farm property. Taxes were increased significantly. All this led to the fact that agriculture, which, in the early 50s. barely reached the pre-war level of production and entered a period of stagnation (stagnation).

Thus, post-war economic development continued along the path of industrialization. Alternative options, which provided for the primary development of light industry and agriculture (project by G.M. Malenkov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR), were rejected due to the difficult international situation.

Foreign policy of the USSR in 1945-1953. Beginning of the Cold War

Signs of the Cold War:

1. Existence is relatively sustainable bipolar world– the presence in the world of two superpowers balancing each other’s influence, to which other states gravitated to one degree or another.
2. “Block politics” is the creation of opposing military-political blocs by superpowers. 1949 g. – creation of NATO, 1955 g. - OVD (Warsaw Pact Organization).
3. « Arms race“- the USSR and the USA increasing the number of weapons in order to achieve qualitative superiority. The “arms race” ended by the beginning of the 1970s. in connection with the achievement of parity (balance, equality) in the number of weapons. From this moment begins " détente policy"- a policy aimed at eliminating the threat of nuclear war and reducing the level of international tension. “Détente” ended after the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan ( 1979 G.)
4. Formation of an “enemy image” among one’s own population in relation to the ideological enemy. In the USSR, this policy was manifested in the creation of “ iron curtain» - systems of international self-isolation. In the USA, “McCarthyism” is being carried out - the persecution of supporters of “left” ideas.
5. Periodically emerging armed conflicts that threaten to escalate the Cold War into a full-scale war.

Causes of the Cold War:

1. Victory in World War II led to a sharp strengthening of the USSR and the USA.
2. The imperial ambitions of Stalin, who sought to expand the zone of influence of the USSR into the territories of Turkey, Tripolitania (Libya) and Iran.
3. The US nuclear monopoly, attempts at dictatorship in relations with other countries.
4. Ineradicable ideological contradictions between the two superpowers.
5. Formation of a socialist camp controlled by the USSR in Eastern Europe.

The date of the beginning of the Cold War is considered to be March 1946, when W. Churchill made a speech in Fulton (USA) in the presence of President G. Truman, in which he accused the USSR of “the limitless spread of its power and its doctrines” in the world. Soon, President Truman announced a program of measures to “save” Europe from Soviet expansion (“ Truman Doctrine"). He proposed providing large-scale economic assistance to European countries (“Marshall Plan”); create a military-political alliance of Western countries under the auspices of the United States (NATO); place a network of US military bases along the borders of the USSR; support internal opposition in Eastern European countries. All this was supposed not only to prevent further expansion of the sphere of influence of the USSR ( socialism containment doctrine), but also to force the Soviet Union to return to its former borders ( doctrine of rejecting socialism).

By this time, communist governments existed only in Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria. However, from 1947 to 1949. socialist systems are also developing in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, North Korea, and China. The USSR provides them with enormous financial assistance.

IN 1949 The economic foundations of the Soviet bloc were formed. For this purpose it was created Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. For military-political cooperation, the Warsaw Treaty Organization was formed in 1955. Within the framework of the commonwealth, no “independence” was allowed. Relations between the USSR and Yugoslavia (Joseph Broz Tito), which was seeking its path to socialism, were severed. At the end of the 1940s. Relations with China (Mao Zedong) deteriorated sharply.

The first serious clash between the USSR and the USA was the Korean War ( 1950-53 gg.). The Soviet state supports the communist regime of North Korea (DPRK, Kim Il Sung), the USA supports the bourgeois government of South Korea. The Soviet Union supplied the DPRK with modern types of military equipment (including MiG-15 jet aircraft) and military specialists. As a result of the conflict, the Korean Peninsula was officially divided into two parts.

Thus, the international position of the USSR in the first post-war years was determined by the status of one of the two world superpowers won during the war. The confrontation between the USSR and the USA and the outbreak of the Cold War marked the beginning of the division of the world into two warring military-political camps.

Cultural life of the USSR 1945-1953.

Despite the extremely tense economic situation, the Soviet government is seeking funds for the development of science, public education, and cultural institutions. Universal primary education was restored, and since 1952 education up to 7 grades has become compulsory; Evening schools are opened for working youth. Television begins regular broadcasting. At the same time, control over the intelligentsia, weakened during the war, is being restored. In the summer of 1946, a campaign against “petty-bourgeois individualism” and cosmopolitanism began. It was led by A.A. Zhdanov. August 14 1946 the resolutions of the Party Central Committee on magazines were adopted Leningrad" And " Star”, who were persecuted for publishing the works of A. Akhmatova and M. Zoshchenko. A.A. was appointed first secretary of the board of the Writers' Union. Fadeev, who was tasked with bringing order to this organization.

On September 4, 1946, the resolution of the Central Committee of the Party “On unprincipled films” was issued - a ban was imposed on the distribution of the films “Big Life” (Part 2), “Admiral Nakhimov” and the second series of “Ivan the Terrible” by Eisenstein.

Composers are the next targets of persecution. In February 1948, the Central Committee adopted a resolution “On decadent tendencies in Soviet music”, condemning V.I. Muradeli, later a campaign begins against “formalist” composers - S.S. Prokofieva, A.I. Khachaturyan, D.D. Shostakovich, N.Ya. Myaskovsky.

Ideological control covers all spheres of spiritual life. The Party actively interferes in the research of not only historians and philosophers, but also philologists, mathematicians, and biologists, condemning some sciences as “bourgeois.” Wave mechanics, cybernetics, psychoanalysis and genetics were subjected to severe defeat.

Mass repressions in the USSR were carried out in the period 1927 - 1953. These repressions are directly associated with the name of Joseph Stalin, who led the country during these years. Social and political persecution in the USSR began after the end of the last stage of the civil war. These phenomena began to gain momentum in the second half of the 30s and did not slow down during the Second World War, as well as after its end. Today we will talk about what the social and political repressions of the Soviet Union were, consider what phenomena underlie those events, and what consequences this led to.

They say: an entire people cannot be suppressed endlessly. Lie! Can! We see how our people have become devastated, gone wild, and indifference has descended on them not only to the fate of the country, not only to the fate of their neighbor, but even to their own fate and the fate of their children. Indifference, the last saving reaction of the body, has become our defining feature . That is why the popularity of vodka is unprecedented even on a Russian scale. This is terrible indifference when a person sees his life not chipped, not with a corner broken off, but so hopelessly fragmented, so corrupted along and across that only for the sake of alcoholic oblivion is it still worth living. Now, if vodka were banned, a revolution would immediately break out in our country.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Reasons for repression:

• Forcing the population to work on a non-economic basis. There was a lot of work to be done in the country, but there was not enough money for everything. The ideology shaped new thinking and perceptions, and was also supposed to motivate people to work for virtually nothing.
• Strengthening personal power. The new ideology needed an idol, a person who was unquestioningly trusted. After Lenin's assassination this post was vacant. Stalin had to take this place.
• Strengthening the exhaustion of a totalitarian society.

If you try to find the beginning of repression in the union, then the starting point, of course, should be 1927. This year was marked by the fact that massacres of so-called pests, as well as saboteurs, began to take place in the country. The motive for these events should be sought in the relations between the USSR and Great Britain. Thus, at the beginning of 1927, the Soviet Union became involved in a major international scandal, when the country was openly accused of trying to transfer the seat of the Soviet revolution to London. In response to these events, Great Britain broke off all relations with the USSR, both political and economic. Domestically, this step was presented as preparation by London for a new wave of intervention. At one of the party meetings, Stalin declared that the country “needs to destroy all remnants of imperialism and all supporters of the White Guard movement.” Stalin had an excellent reason for this on June 7, 1927. On this day, the political representative of the USSR, Voikov, was killed in Poland.

As a result, terror began. For example, on the night of June 10, 20 people who were in contact with the empire were shot. These were representatives of ancient noble families. In total, in June 27, more than 9 thousand people were arrested, accused of high treason, complicity with imperialism and other things that sound menacing, but are very difficult to prove. Most of those arrested were sent to prison.

Pest Control

After this, a number of major cases began in the USSR, which were aimed at combating sabotage and sabotage. The wave of these repressions was based on the fact that in most large companies that operated within the Soviet Union, leadership positions were occupied by immigrants from imperial Russia. Of course, these people for the most part did not feel sympathy for the new government. Therefore, the Soviet regime was looking for pretexts on which this intelligentsia could be removed from leadership positions and, if possible, destroyed. The problem was that this required compelling and legal reasons. Such grounds were found in a number of trials that swept across the Soviet Union in the 1920s.

Among the most striking examples of such cases are the following:

• Shakhty case. In 1928, repressions in the USSR affected miners from Donbass. This case was turned into a show trial. The entire leadership of Donbass, as well as 53 engineers, were accused of espionage activities with an attempt to sabotage the new state. As a result of the trial, 3 people were shot, 4 were acquitted, the rest received prison sentences from 1 to 10 years. This was a precedent - society enthusiastically accepted the repressions against the enemies of the people... In 2000, the Russian prosecutor's office rehabilitated all participants in the Shakhty case, due to the absence of corpus delicti.
• Pulkovo case. In June 1936, a major solar eclipse was supposed to be visible on the territory of the USSR. The Pulkovo Observatory appealed to the world community to attract personnel to study this phenomenon, as well as to obtain the necessary foreign equipment. As a result, the organization was accused of espionage ties. The number of victims is classified.
• The case of the industrial party. Those accused in this case were those whom the Soviet authorities called bourgeois. This process took place in 1930. The defendants were accused of trying to disrupt industrialization in the country.
• The case of the peasant party. The Socialist Revolutionary organization is widely known under the name of the Chayanov and Kondratiev group. In 1930, representatives of this organization were accused of attempting to disrupt industrialization and interfering in agricultural affairs.
• Union Bureau. The case of the union bureau was opened in 1931. The defendants were representatives of the Mensheviks. They were accused of undermining the creation and implementation of economic activities within the country, as well as connections with foreign intelligence.

At this moment, a massive ideological struggle was taking place in the USSR. The new regime tried its best to explain its position to the population, as well as justify its actions. But Stalin understood that ideology alone could not restore order in the country and could not allow him to retain power. Therefore, along with ideology, repression began in the USSR. Above we have already given some examples of cases from which repression began. These cases have always raised big questions, and today, when documents on many of them have been declassified, it becomes absolutely clear that most of the accusations were unfounded. It is no coincidence that the Russian prosecutor's office, having examined the documents of the Shakhty case, rehabilitated all participants in the process. And this despite the fact that in 1928, no one from the country’s party leadership had any idea about the innocence of these people. Why did this happen? This was due to the fact that, under the guise of repression, as a rule, everyone who did not agree with the new regime was destroyed.

The events of the 20s were just the beginning; the main events were ahead.

Socio-political meaning of mass repressions

A new massive wave of repressions within the country unfolded at the beginning of 1930. At this moment, a struggle began not only with political competitors, but also with the so-called kulaks. In fact, a new blow by the Soviet regime against the rich began, and this blow affected not only wealthy people, but also the middle peasants and even the poor. One of the stages of delivering this blow was dispossession. Within the framework of this material, we will not dwell in detail on the issues of dispossession, since this issue has already been studied in detail in the corresponding article on the site.

Party composition and governing bodies in repression

A new wave of political repressions in the USSR began at the end of 1934. At that time, there was a significant change in the structure of the administrative apparatus within the country. In particular, on July 10, 1934, a reorganization of the special services took place. On this day, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR was created. This department is known by the abbreviation NKVD. This unit included the following services:

• Main Directorate of State Security. It was one of the main bodies that dealt with almost all matters.
• Main Directorate of Workers' and Peasants' Militia. This is an analogue of the modern police, with all the functions and responsibilities.
• Main Directorate of Border Guard Service. The department dealt with border and customs affairs.
• Main Directorate of Camps. This administration is now widely known by the abbreviation GULAG.
• Main Fire Department.

In addition, in November 1934, a special department was created, which was called the “Special Meeting”. This department received broad powers to combat enemies of the people. In fact, this department could, without the presence of the accused, prosecutor and lawyer, send people into exile or to the Gulag for up to 5 years. Of course, this applied only to enemies of the people, but the problem is that no one reliably knew how to identify this enemy. That is why the Special Meeting had unique functions, since virtually any person could be declared an enemy of the people. Any person could be sent into exile for 5 years on simple suspicion.

Mass repressions in the USSR

The events of December 1, 1934 became the reason for mass repressions. Then Sergei Mironovich Kirov was killed in Leningrad. As a result of these events, a special procedure for judicial proceedings was established in the country. In fact, we are talking about expedited trials. All cases where people were accused of terrorism and aiding terrorism were transferred under the simplified trial system. Again, the problem was that almost all the people who came under repression fell into this category. Above, we have already talked about a number of high-profile cases that characterize repression in the USSR, where it is clearly visible that all people, one way or another, were accused of aiding terrorism. The specificity of the simplified trial system was that the verdict had to be rendered within 10 days. The accused received a summons a day before the trial. The trial itself took place without the participation of prosecutors and lawyers. At the conclusion of the proceedings, any requests for clemency were prohibited. If during the proceedings a person was sentenced to death, this penalty was carried out immediately.

Political repression, party purge

Stalin carried out active repressions within the Bolshevik Party itself. One of the illustrative examples of the repressions that affected the Bolsheviks happened on January 14, 1936. On this day, the replacement of party documents was announced. This move had been discussed for a long time and was not unexpected. But when replacing documents, new certificates were not awarded to all party members, but only to those who “earned trust.” Thus began the purge of the party. If you believe the official data, then when new party documents were issued, 18% of the Bolsheviks were expelled from the party. These were the people to whom repression was applied primarily. And we are talking about only one of the waves of these purges. In total, the cleaning of the batch was carried out in several stages:

• In 1933. 250 people were expelled from the party's senior leadership.
• In 1934 - 1935, 20 thousand people were expelled from the Bolshevik Party.

Stalin actively destroyed people who could lay claim to power, who had power. To demonstrate this fact, it is only necessary to say that of all the members of the Politburo of 1917, after the purge, only Stalin survived (4 members were shot, and Trotsky was expelled from the party and expelled from the country). In total, there were 6 members of the Politburo at that time. In the period between the revolution and the death of Lenin, a new Politburo of 7 people was assembled. By the end of the purge, only Molotov and Kalinin remained alive. In 1934, the next congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) party took place. 1934 people took part in the congress. 1108 of them were arrested. Most were shot.

The murder of Kirov exacerbated the wave of repression, and Stalin himself made a statement to party members about the need for the final extermination of all enemies of the people. As a result, changes were made to the criminal code of the USSR. These changes stipulated that all cases of political prisoners were considered in an expedited manner without prosecutors' lawyers within 10 days. The executions were carried out immediately. In 1936, a political trial of the opposition took place. In fact, Lenin's closest associates, Zinoviev and Kamenev, were in the dock. They were accused of the murder of Kirov, as well as the attempt on Stalin's life. A new stage of political repression against the Leninist Guard began. This time Bukharin was subjected to repression, as was the head of government, Rykov. The socio-political meaning of repression in this sense was associated with the strengthening of the cult of personality.

Repression in the army

Beginning in June 1937, repressions in the USSR affected the army. In June, the first trial of the high command of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), including the commander-in-chief Marshal Tukhachevsky, took place. The army leadership was accused of attempting a coup. According to prosecutors, the coup was supposed to take place on May 15, 1937. The accused were found guilty and most of them were shot. Tukhachevsky was also shot.

An interesting fact is that of the 8 members of the trial who sentenced Tukhachevsky to death, five were subsequently repressed and shot. However, from then on, repressions began in the army, which affected the entire leadership. As a result of such events, 3 marshals of the Soviet Union, 3 army commanders of the 1st rank, 10 army commanders of the 2nd rank, 50 corps commanders, 154 division commanders, 16 army commissars, 25 corps commissars, 58 divisional commissars, 401 regiment commanders were repressed. In total, 40 thousand people were subjected to repression in the Red Army. These were 40 thousand army leaders. As a result, more than 90% of the command staff was destroyed.

Increased repression

Beginning in 1937, the wave of repressions in the USSR began to intensify. The reason was order No. 00447 of the NKVD of the USSR dated July 30, 1937. This document stated the immediate repression of all anti-Soviet elements, namely:

• Former kulaks. All those whom the Soviet authorities called kulaks, but who escaped punishment, or were in labor camps or in exile, were subject to repression.
• All representatives of religion. Anyone who had anything to do with religion was subject to repression.
• Participants in anti-Soviet actions. These participants included everyone who had ever actively or passively opposed Soviet power. In fact, this category included those who did not support the new government.
• Anti-Soviet politicians. Domestically, anti-Soviet politicians defined everyone who was not a member of the Bolshevik Party.
• White Guards.
• People with a criminal record. People who had a criminal record were automatically considered enemies of the Soviet regime.

• Hostile elements. Any person who was called a hostile element was sentenced to death.
• Inactive elements. The rest, who were not sentenced to death, were sent to camps or prisons for a term of 8 to 10 years.

All cases were now considered in an even more accelerated manner, where most cases were considered en masse. According to the same NKVD orders, repressions applied not only to convicts, but also to their families. In particular, the following penalties were applied to the families of those repressed:

• Families of those repressed for active anti-Soviet actions. All members of such families were sent to camps and labor camps.
• The families of the repressed who lived in the border strip were subject to resettlement inland. Often special settlements were formed for them.
• A family of repressed people who lived in major cities of the USSR. Such people were also resettled inland.

In 1940, a secret department of the NKVD was created. This department was engaged in the destruction of political opponents of Soviet power located abroad. The first victim of this department was Trotsky, who was killed in Mexico in August 1940. Subsequently, this secret department was engaged in the destruction of participants in the White Guard movement, as well as representatives of the imperialist emigration of Russia.

Subsequently, the repressions continued, although their main events had already passed. In fact, repressions in the USSR continued until 1953.

Results of repression

In total, from 1930 to 1953, 3 million 800 thousand people were repressed on charges of counter-revolution. Of these, 749,421 people were shot... And this is only according to official information... And how many more people died without trial or investigation, whose names and surnames are not included in the list?

Bulletin of Chelyabinsk State University. 2012. No. 7 (261). Story. Vol. 49. pp. 80-83.

A. B. Tsfasman

POST-WAR REPRESSIONS OF STALINISM IN THE USSR AND THE “PURGE.” In the GDR (1949-1953)

The article examines the influence of the repressive campaigns of Stalinism in the USSR in the first post-war years on repressive policies and personnel “purges” in the GDR in the period before 1953: persecution of leaders of the so-called “bourgeois” parties, adherents of social democratic politics, as well as real and imaginary oppositionists in the SED under the banner of the struggle against “Titoism”, “agents of imperialism” and “international Zionism”. Similar and special features of this policy are noted in both countries.

Key words: Stalinism, repressions, “purges”, the fight against “cosmopolitanism” and “Zionism”, Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SVAG), SED, USSR, GDR.

Immediately after the end of the Second World War

After the war, the repressive policies of Stalinism in the USSR entered a new stage. The mechanism of repression, which knew no respite even during the years of the anti-fascist war, continued to gain momentum. The unfolding aggressive ideological campaigns and new waves of “work-outs,” repressions and “cleansings” took on a total character. Let us limit ourselves to recalling only the most important of them.

Persecution of prisoners of war who returned to their homeland, cruel treatment of resettled peoples (Germans, Chechens, Crimean Tatars, Kalmyks, etc.), mass deportations of “class alien elements” from territories annexed to the USSR before and after the war.

A sharp tightening of control over the country’s intellectual life, including fiction, music, theater, cinema, social and exact sciences, biology, etc.

New “purges” of the party and state apparatus, accompanied by the physical elimination of functionaries at various levels, including the highest (N. Voznesensky, A. Kuznetsov, M. Rodionov, etc.).

Measures to destroy Jewish culture, accompanied by the murder of the outstanding actor S. Mikhoels (1948), the arrest and then execution in 1952 of the leadership of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, the liquidation of Jewish theaters, publishing houses, persecution and execution of Jewish cultural figures in the center and locally, persecution on Judaism, etc.

The campaign of struggle against “rootless cosmopolitans”, which began in January 1949 and had the goal of displacing Jewish people

origin from various spheres of culture and science. An echo of this campaign was the almost universal removal of people of Jewish origin from the management of large industrial enterprises.

“The Doctors’ Plot” (January - March 1953), which became the apogee of the anti-Jewish policy of Stalinism, threatening unpredictable and dangerous consequences. Their approach was stopped by the death of Stalin on March 5, 19531

The repressive policies of Stalinism also spread in the countries of Eastern Europe dependent on the USSR, where a system of state power similar to the Soviet one was established. This also applied to East Germany, and then to the GDR.

During the period when East Germany was under the direct control of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SVAG) (in 1945-1949), representatives of the Soviet highest political bodies in the person of the political departments of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and punitive authorities in the form of units acted on its territory State Security - NKVD. Control of Soviet political and punitive bodies was also carried out in the first years of the “sovereign” existence of the GDR (from October 1949)2.

Already in the first post-war years, the Soviet occupation authorities managed to infiltrate the emerging justice and law enforcement agencies with dedicated communists and transfer the Soviet judicial and legal system to German soil. This deprived the judicial branch of independence from political power and made it an obedient instrument of the latter3.

East Germany in the immediate post-war years (1945-1949) and in the early years of the GDR (1949-1953) also went through a series of campaigns and “purges”. Already as part of the denazification measures that took place until August

1948, and under its cover a “cleansing” of German society was carried out not only from active Nazis, but also from those who were or could become critical of the USSR, SVAG or the new authorities imposed by them (locally and in the lands )4. These included many leaders and ordinary supporters of the so-called “petty-bourgeois” parties - the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD), the National Democratic Party of Germany (NDPD), as well as some public and religious organizations5.

The next “purge” campaign was associated with the struggle of the communists for dominance in the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), created in April 1946 on a parity basis with the Social Democrats. The instruments of internal party “purges” were not only ideological and political “revelations”, but also the Central Party Control Commission, created on the Bolshevik model in September 1948 - the Central Party Control Commission, headed by the loyal Stalinist Herman Matern. This campaign included: ousting the so-called “Ti-Toists” from the party, that is, actual adherents of Germany’s previously declared special path to socialism; “Trotskyists,” that is, former members of left-wing communist groups (Communist Party of Germany - Opposition, Socialist Workers' Party of Germany), who were critical of Stalinism from the pre-war years6. But the main thrust of the “purges” at this stage was directed against those former Social Democrats who opposed the Stalinization of the SED. They were designated as Schumacherleute (people committed to the leader of West German social democracy, Kurt Schumacher), as “agents of the capitalist West,” etc. 2,600 functionaries and active members of the SED were expelled from their posts, forced to flee to the West, arrested or deported to the USSR , not counting the many thousands of ordinary members who left the “party of the working class”7. The result of these “cleansings” was the transformation

The SED into a “party of a new type,” that is, into a party of the Bolshevik, Stalinist model8.

The process of Stalinization of the SED continued when, after the creation of the GDR (October 1949), it became the state-forming party. The III Congress of the SED (July 1950) brought its organizational structure closer to the CPSU(b): instead of the Board (Vorstand), the Central Committee and the Politburo were formed, a permanent Secretariat was introduced, headed by the General Secretary. The previous principle of parity was consigned to oblivion: In all leadership structures, former communists absolutely predominated, and the most important post of General Secretary was occupied by the “faithful Stalinist” Walter Ulbricht9.

The new stage of “purges” was accompanied by the ousting from the leadership structures of the SED of those communists who had been in exile in the West during the Nazi years. It was determined by two circumstances. Firstly, the desire of the “Moscow” group led by Ulbricht to push their “Western” competitors out of power. Secondly, by the initiatives of the Soviet “competent authorities”, which sought to extend to the European countries of “people’s democracy” the struggle launched in the USSR against “cosmopolitans” and “agents of Zionism”.

In September 1949, Colonel General I.A. Serov, who was at that time the First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and in 1945-1947. - Commissioner of the NKVD - MGB in Germany and Deputy Chief of the SVAG, sent two directives to Ulbricht. In one of them, he proposed creating a special committee within the framework of the CPKK, which was supposed to investigate the connections of German communists who were in the West during the Nazi years with Noel Field, a Jew by birth, who during the war was the head of one of the charitable organizations to provide material assistance to German refugees in southern France and Switzerland. Arrested in May 1949 in Prague, Field was destined for the role of head of a large espionage conspiracy. Another Serov directive proposed removing from all important party and government posts persons who were in the West or Yugoslavia during the Nazi dictatorship and therefore could be recruited as agents

"imperialists", "Zionists" and "Titoists". Serov gave Ulbricht a list of former “Western emigrants” suspected of espionage10.

1949, the head of the CPKK Matern sent instructions to the party control commissions of the states to check all responsible employees, paying special attention to former Western emigrants of Jewish origin for their connections with the “Zionist movement”, with the American secret services and with the “Trotskyist-Jewish movement”11 .

The “search for enemies” campaign has begun.

A wave of total checks that covered thousands of SED functionaries led to numerous dismissals from work, expulsions from the party and arrests. People of Jewish origin suffered especially, despite the fact that they had long ago lost ties to Judaism. Among them were high-ranking functionaries: Leopold Bauer and Bruno Goldhamer, sentenced to death by a Soviet military court, commuted to 25 years in camps in Siberia (released in 1955-1956); Lex Ende and Rudolf Feistman, who did not survive the “purge,” and many other functionaries at lower levels12. Persons of non-Jewish origin also became victims of persecution. Paul Merker, listed on Serov's list, was expelled from the Politburo and from the party, whom some senior functionaries considered as an alternative to Ulbricht13.

The repressive machine was gaining momentum. Moscow “directors” were preparing a show trial in Budapest, known as the “Raik trial.” It was planned to involve Prague and Warsaw. East Berlin was also preparing to participate. Alexander Abusch, a prominent figure of the KKE and SED (member of the secretariat of the Central Committee), a Jew by origin, who was in France and Mexico during the Nazi years, was to appear as the main accused. He was the author of the well-known book “The False Path of One Nation” (1945).

However, the SED leadership soon realized the inappropriateness of inciting anti-Semitic passions in a country that had only recently experienced Hitler's anti-Semitism. The Reich process, which ended in December 1951, dispensed with the East Berlin component.

yaya. And Abush was soon returned to social and political activities.

In the next trial in Prague - the “Slansky case” (1951-1952) - East Berlin participation was also envisaged. As part of the cleansing of “Zionists,” new dismissals took place: for example, Gerhard Eisler (brother of the famous early 1920s communist Ruth Fischer and composer Hans Eisler) was relieved of his duties as head of the information department under the GDR government - as a “Western emigrant”; The famous writer Arnold Zweig, who was in Palestine during the Nazi years, lost his post as president of the German Academy of Arts14.

But the main participation was envisaged in something else - in presenting a major political figure as the leader of the “Zionist conspiracy,” but this time this figure would be of non-Jewish origin. And the choice fell on the already defeated Merker.

Paul Merker (b. 1894) is a veteran of the communist movement (member of the KPD since 1920), who was part of the Thälmann leadership core (member of the Central Committee and Politburo). During the years of the Nazi dictatorship, he was first underground in Germany (until 1937), then in exile in France and (from 1942) in Mexico. Here he headed the Latin American committee of the Free Germany movement and edited a magazine of the same name, and published the book “Germany - To Be or Not to Be” (1944/45). Upon his return to Germany in 1946, he joined the SED Board, and then the Central Committee and the Politburo. Removed from all posts and expelled from the party in 1950, he was arrested at the end of November 1952. During the investigation (it is noteworthy that the interrogation was conducted by Soviet and German investigators) he was accused of adherence to Zionism on the grounds that during his emigration years he communicated with “Zionists” (meaning Jews), that in emigration and upon returning to Germany he spoke about guilt of the German people before the Jews, demanded the return of property taken from them by the Nazis and viewed Zionism as a “national Jewish movement”15.

However, the “Slansky case” ended (December 3, 1952) without Merker. The “Doctors' Plot,” which flared up in the USSR in early 1953, died out with the death of Stalin. The charge of Zionism against Merker was dropped. But Ulbricht's position

whose positions were shaken as a result of the events of June 17, 1953, but after the fall of Beria in the USSR and the “purge” of the Politburo carried out by him, Ulbricht, stabilized16, there were calculations. Merker was liberated only in 1956.

But this was already a different era.

And in conclusion - short comparative conclusions.

The most important impulses for the wave of post-war repressions in the USSR were the new forced ideologization of the regime in the spirit of great-power chauvinism and anti-Westernism, strengthened by the outbreak of the Cold War. Under the slogans of the struggle against “cosmopolitanism” and “Zionism” as “an agent of imperialism,” aggressive ideological campaigns and new repressive actions and “cleansings” were launched. They were determined by the nature of the Stalinist totalitarian regime, which needed, in the name of maintaining the dictator’s autocracy, periodic “invigoration” of society and “weeding out” of the nomenklatura bureaucracy. The nature and scale of the post-war ideological and repressive campaigns reflected the stagnation of the regime and the very personality of the leader.

In East Germany, repressive campaigns and personnel “purges” were determined primarily by the needs of the formation of a totalitarian-communist

th regime, which at the same time was in a certain dependence on Stalin’s. The “cleansings,” carried out under the guise of denazification, were aimed at weakening class and political opponents. The first “purges” within the Bolshevik SED were aimed at getting rid of social democratic and other ideological and political baggage. The subsequent party “purge” was determined by the struggle of the “Moscow” group of communists, supported by the Kremlin, for dominance in the SED. During this struggle, accusations of connections with Zionism were widely used against communists who were in exile in the West. However, anti-Zionism in the SED was, firstly, a consequence of Soviet imposition; secondly, it did not acquire an openly anti-Semitic character; Unlike the USSR and some other Eastern European countries, state anti-Semitism in the GDR did not merge with “popular” anti-Semitism.

Thus, the “purge” campaigns in East Germany, for all its dependence on Moscow, were not always a mirror image of what was happening in the USSR.

Notes

1 See: Kostyrchenko, G.V. Stalin’s secret policy. M., 2001. pp. 276-281.

2 See: Semiryaga, M.I. How we ruled Germany. M., 1995; Deutschland unter allier-ter Besatzung 1945-1949 / 1955. Berlin, 1999; Naimark, N. Die Russen in Deutschland: Die so-wjetische Besatzungszone 1945 bis 1949. Berlin, 1999.

3 Wentker, H. Justitz in der SBZ / DDR 19451953. Munchen, 2001.

4 See: History of Germany. T. 2. Kemerovo, 2005. P. 315-316; Sowjetische Speziallager in Deutschland 1945 to 1950 / hg. von Sergej Mi-ronenko u. a. Berlin, 1998.

5 Burgerliche Parteien in der SBZ / DDR. 1945 to 1953/hg. von Jurgen Frohlich. Koln, 1995.

6 Bergmann, Theodor. “Gegen den Strom.” Die Geschichte der Kommunistischen Partei - Opposition. Hamburg, 1987. S. 337.

7 Ausgeschaltet! Sozialdemokraten in der Sowje-tischen Besatzungszone und in der DDR. Bonn, 1996.

8 Der Stalinismus in der KPD und SEP. Berlin, 1991. S. 116; Malyicha, Andreas. Partei von Stalins Gnaden? Die Entwicklung der SED zur Partei neues Typs in der Jaren 1946 bis 1950. Berlin, 1996.

9 Podewin, Norbert. Walter Ulbricht. Eine neue Biographie. Berlin, 1995. S. 201-202.

10 KeBler, Mario. Die SED und die Juden - zwi-schen Repression und Toleranz. Berlin, 1995. S. 67-68.

11 Ebenda. S. 68.

12 The anti-Semitic component of party “purges” is described in the book: KeB-ler, Mario (Hg). Arbeiterbewegung und Antise-mitismus. Bonn, 1993. S. 111, 126 u. a.

13 Podewin, Norbert. Walter Ulbricht. S. 241.

14 KeBler, Mario. Die SED und die Juden... S. 92-93; 180, 196.

15 For more details see: Paul Merker in den Fangen der Sicherheitsorgane Stalins und Ulbrichts. Berlin, 1995.

16 Podewin, Norbert. Walter Ulbricht. S. 263266.

Immediately after the end of the Second World War, in September 1945, the state of emergency was lifted and the State Defense Committee was abolished. In March 1946, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was transformed into the Council of Ministers. At the same time, there was an increasing increase in the number of ministries and departments, and the number of their staff grew.

At the same time, elections were held to local councils, Supreme Councils of republics and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, as a result of which the deputy corps, which had not changed during the war years, was renewed. By the beginning of the 50s. collegiality in the activities of the Councils increased as a result of more frequent convening of their sessions and an increase in the number of standing commissions. In accordance with the Constitution, direct and secret elections of people's judges and assessors were held for the first time. However, all power still remained in the hands of the party leadership.

After a thirteen-year break, the 19th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks took place in October 1952, and decided to rename the party the CPSU. In 1949, congresses of trade unions and the Komsomol were held (also not convened for 17 and 13 years). They were preceded by reporting and election party, trade union and Komsomol meetings, at which the leadership of these organizations was renewed. However, despite the outwardly positive, democratic changes, during these very years the political regime in the country became tougher and a new wave of repression grew.

The Gulag system reached its apogee precisely in the post-war years, since those who had been imprisoned there since the mid-30s. Millions of new “enemies of the people” have been added. One of the first blows fell on prisoners of war, most of whom (about 2 million), after being released from fascist captivity, were sent to Siberian and Ukhta camps. Tula also exiled “alien elements” from the Baltic republics, Western Ukraine and Belarus. According to various sources, during these years the “population” of the Gulag ranged from 4.5 to 12 million people.

In 1948, “special regime” camps were created for those convicted of “anti-Soviet activities” and “counter-revolutionary acts”, in which particularly sophisticated methods of influencing prisoners were used. Not wanting to come to terms with their situation, political prisoners in a number of camps started uprisings, sometimes taking place under political slogans. The most famous of them were performances in Pechora (1948), Salekhard (1950), Kingir (1952), Ekibastuz (1952), Vorkuta (1953) and Norilsk (1953).

Along with political prisoners, there were also many workers in the camps after the war who did not meet the existing production standards. Thus, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 2, 1948, local authorities were given the right to evict to remote areas persons who maliciously evade work in agriculture.

Fearing the growing popularity of the military during the war, Stalin authorized the arrest of Air Marshal A.A. Novikov, generals P.N. Ponedelina, N.K. Kirillov, a number of colleagues of Marshal G.K. Zhukova. The commander himself was charged with putting together a group of disgruntled generals and officers, ingratitude and disrespect for Stalin. The repression also affected some party functionaries, especially those who sought independence and greater independence from the central government. At the beginning of 1948, almost all the leaders of the Leningrad party organization were arrested. The total number of those arrested in the “Leningrad case” was about 2,000 people. After some time, 200 of them were put on trial and shot, including Chairman of the Russian Council of Ministers M. Rodionov, member of the Politburo and Chairman of the State Planning Committee of the USSR N. Voznesensky, Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks A. Kuznetsov. The “Leningrad Affair” should have become a stern warning to those who thought differently from the “leader of the peoples” in any way.

The last of the trials being prepared was the “case of doctors” (1953), accused of improper treatment of senior management, which resulted in the death of a number of prominent figures. Total victims of repressions in 1948-1953. became almost 6.5 million people. The flywheel of repression was stopped only after Stalin's death.