• Home
• Section 1 (Pre-1905)
  • Imperial Russia - the Failure of Reform
  • Was Nicholas II Fit to Rule?
  • The Weakness of Society
  • Unstable Pillars
  • The Populist Opposition
  • The Making of Lenin as a Revolutionary
  • What Sort of Marxist Was Lenin?
  • The Conditions of the Working Class
  • When Does a 'Revolutionary Situation' Start?
  • Photos
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 2 (1905)
  • Why was there a Revolution in 1905?
  • Bloody Sunday
  • 'There is no Tsar'
  • Mass Protests
  • The Tsar Reacts
  • The Petrograd Soviet
  • The October Manifesto
  • How Should We Explain the Violence of 1905?
  • The Moscow Uprising
  • What were the Lessons of the 1905 Revolution?
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 3 (1906-14)
  • Was Tsarism Reformable?
  • Who Was Stolypin and What Did He Stand For?
  • The Stolypin Land Reform
  • Why Peasants Were Against the 'Wager on the Strong'?
  • Authoritarian Reform
  • Conservative Opposition to Stolypin
  • Stolypin's Fall
  • How Stable Was Russia Before 1914?
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 4 (1914-17)
  • Patriotic Hopes
  • Russia's Military Weaknesses
  • War as a Revolutionary Force
  • The Great Retreat
  • The Patriotic Revolution
  • 'The Mad Chauffeur' and the Liberal Dilemma
  • Rasputin and the Revolutionary Power of Rumours
  • From War to Social Revolution
  • The Murder of Rasputin
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 5 (February 1917)
  • The February Days
  • The Power of the Streets
  • Dual Power
  • The Downfall of the Monarchy
  • The Symbolic Revolution
  • The Provisional Government
  • Local Revolutions
  • Lenin and The April Theses
  • The Summer Collapse
  • The July Uprising
  • Photos
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 6 (October 1917)
  • Kerensky and Kornilov
  • Lenin and the October Coup
  • The Storming of the Winter Palace
  • The Mensheviks' Mistake
  • How Many People Took Part in the October Insurrection?
  • Establishing the Bolshevik Dictatorship
  • The Constituent Assembly
  • Revolution and Revenge
  • Enemies of the People
  • Revolutionary War or Peace?
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 7 (1917-21)
  • Origins of the Civil War
  • The Red Army
  • War Communism
  • A Shortcut to Communism?
  • A Dictatorship of the Bureaucracy
  • Revolution and Terror
  • The Decisive Battles
  • The Moscow Directive
  • Why did the Reds win the Civil War?
  • Bolshevism in Retreat
  • The Tenth Party Congress
  • Legacies of the Civil War
  • Photos
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 8 (1921-24)
  • Stalin versus Trotsky
  • The Triumvirate
  • Lenin's Testament
  • The Defeat of Trotsky
  • The Left Opposition
  • When Did Stalin Come to Power?
  • The Cult of Lenin
  • Leninism and Stalinism
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 9 (1924-28)
  • Socialism with a Mixed Economy
  • Opposition to the NEP
  • The Scissors Crisis
  • What Did the NEP Do for the Peasants?
  • The Communist Vanguard
  • Towards a Socialist Society
  • Making the New Soviet Man
  • What Did Being a 'Soviet Person' Mean?
  • The End of the NEP
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading>
• Section 10 (1928-32)
  • The Five Year Plan
  • Collectivization
  • The War against the 'Kulaks'
  • The Human Impact of Collectivization
  • The Perpetrators
  • Collectivization and the Famine
  • Was the Ukrainian Famine a Genocide?
  • Stalin's Industrial Revolution
  • Economic Growth and Living Standards During the 1930s
  • Living Standards in the First Five Year Plan
  • Living Standards in the Second Five Year Plan
  • The Gulag and Economic Growth
  • Photos
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 11 (1932-36)
  • The Crisis of 1932
  • The Riutin Platform
  • Party Purges
  • Origins of the Purges
  • The New Stalinist Elites
  • The Cult of Stalin
  • The Congress of Victors
  • Towards the Great Terror
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 12 (1937-38)
  • Origins of the Great Terror
  • The Show Trials
  • How the Terror Spread
  • Informers and Denunciations
  • Mass Operations
  • Explaining the Great Terror
  • Impact on Human Relations
  • Doubts and Disbelief
  • Suspending the Terror
  • Legacies of 1937
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 13 (1917-41)
  • Hopes of Revolution in Europe
  • The Comintern
  • The Long Game
  • Stalin and Hitler
  • United Front
  • The Stalin-Hitler Pact
  • Photos
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 14 (1941-45)
  • Operation Barbarossa
  • Stalin's response to the German Invasion
  • Leningrad and Moscow
  • Explaining the Soviet Fighting Spirit?
  • Sacrifice
  • The Spirit of Stalingrad
  • Reasons for the Soviet Victory
  • 'Spontaneous De-Stalinization'
  • Popular Hopes of Reform
  • The Clampdown of 1945
  • War and the Change in Revolutionary Values
  • Photos
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 15 (1945-53)
  • From World War to Cold War
  • The Hardening of Positions
  • Containment
  • Cominformity
  • The Post-war Soviet Clampdown
  • The Zhdanovshchina
  • A Soviet Holocaust?
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 16 (1953-64)
  • Stalin's Death
  • Why Did People Grieve on Stalin's Death?
  • The Struggle for Power
  • Khrushchev
  • Leninist Renewal
  • Virgin Lands Campaign
  • The Secret Speech
  • The Impact of Khrushchev's Speech
  • Hungary 1956
  • The Thaw
  • Economic Promises
  • The Soviet Union and the Third World
  • Photos
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 17 (1964-85)
  • The Removal of Khrushchev
  • Who Was Brezhnev and What Did He Stand For?
  • Economic Stagnation
  • The Real Causes of the Soviet Crisis
  • Foreign Adventures
  • Disenchantment and Dissent
  • What Lay Behind the Stability of the Soviet System Before 1985?
  • Photos
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Section 18 (1985-91)
  • Causes of the Soviet Collapse
  • Gorbachev and the Origins of His Reforms
  • Perestroika and Glasnost
  • The Party Splits
  • The Soviet Empire Collapses
  • Nationalism in the Soviet Union
  • The August Coup and the Collapse of the Soviet regime
  • Gorbachev's Achievement
  • Q & A
  • Podcast
  • Further Reading
• Teachers Resource

Section 12: The Great Terror

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