16.2.4

The USSR Police State

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The NKVD (Secret Police)

In 1934 AD, the OGPU was reorganized to create a new secret police force known as the NKVD. The job of the NKVD was to continue to stamp out any opposition to communist rule.

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Enemies of the people

  • A common crime pursued by the NKVD was being an ‘enemy of the people’.
  • Such crimes were tried by 3-person troikas of NKVD officers, often on the basis of minimal evidence.
    • People were tried for contact with foreigners, not cutting pictures of Trotsky from textbooks.
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Techniques

  • The NKVD used extreme techniques, including mass arrests, forced confessions, and informants. Many political prisoners were executed.
  • From 1935 AD, the NKVD had quotas for how many arrests it needed to make.
    • This meant that citizens were often arrested for no crime at all.
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The GULAGS

  • A system of camps, known as ‘GULAGS’ were set up. They housed 8 million prisoners by 1941 AD.
  • Many were political prisoners, but there were also peasants, workers convicted of wrecking (disrupting factory work) and those who had been arrested just to meet quotas.
  • The USSR was an atheist country. This meant that everything was centred around political expediency and the State, and lacked Christian values.
  • The GULAGS provided huge amounts of slave labour for industry and the railroads. They were particularly prevalent in the east, particularly in Siberia.

Jump to other topics

1The Medieval World: 450-1450 AD

1.1Anglo-Saxon England

1.2The Contest for the English Throne

1.3Conquering the Holy Land, 10-96-1396 AD

1.4King John

1.5The Magna Carta & Parliament

1.6The Black Death

2Worldviews

3The Empire of Mali

4The Renaissance & Reformations, 1500-1598 AD

5The British Empire, 1583-1960 AD

6The Peasants' Revolt

7Religion in the Middle Ages

8Slavery, 1619-1833 AD

9The English Civil War, 1642-1660

10The Industrial Revolution, 1750-1840

11US Independence, 1775-1783

12The French Revolution, 1789-1815

13The British Empire, 1857–1930

14Suffrage

15World War 1, 1914-1918

16The Inter-War Years, 1919-1939

17World War 2, 1939-1945

18The Cold War, 1947-1962

19Civil Rights in the USA, 1954-1975

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