Stalin organized a series of show trials between 1936-1938 known as the Moscow Trials. He used these highly publicized trials to purge his political opponents by accusing them of crimes against the state such as treason, sabotage, and assassination plots. The defendants, which included senior Communist Party members, military leaders, and former allies of Stalin, were tortured until they confessed to the fabricated charges. All were found guilty and executed, allowing Stalin to consolidate his dictatorial rule over the Soviet Union while spreading fear and paranoia among its citizens.

1. New Title: Stalin’s Show Trials

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOK1TMSyKcM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22nzopiyWx0

5. Clinging to Lenin:
Stalin cared for Lenin in his
last illness, probably in the
hope of being seen as Stalin’s
favourite. But Lenin had this to
say of Stalin:
‘I am not sure that Comrade
Stalin will always use his
power properly.
Comrade Trotsky, on the other
hand, is distinguished by
his outstanding ability.’

6. Timeline of Russian History

9. Title: The Purges
Keywords:
Terror
Kirov
Show trial
Totalitarianism
NKVD

10. 1. What
country
was this
photo
taken in?
2. What
event is
happening
here?
3. Name 2
people in
this photo

12. What does it mean to ‘purge’
something?
To remove an undesirable group of people (from an organisation or
place) in an abrupt or violent way

13. Why did Stalin feel he needed to purge the Party?
In the 1930’s discontent with the way in which the policies of
collectivisation and industrialisation was increasing
Many of the older Bolsheviks were horrified at the treatment
of the peasants
Many felt Stalin was not an effective leader
There were rumours of replacing Stalin with another member of
the party
Sergey Kirov was a popular alternative
Some Party members were calling for Trotsky to be reinstated
(Trotsky was living abroad but many wanted him in charge)
Stalin was becoming ever more paranoid and believed that a
conspiracy to murder him was developing

14. Sergey Kirov’s murder
At the Seventeenth Party Congress (1934),
Kirov received more applause than Stalin
A few days after the Congress, Kirov was
murdered outside of his office in Leningrad
Stalin used Kirov’s murder to launch a
campaign against, what he believed to be, a
conspiracy to murder him and bring down the
party

15. Who did Stalin Purge?
• Members of the Party, who were actively
involved in the 1917 Revolution
• Bukharin, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Trotsky
(assassinated in 1940, whilst he was living in
Mexico)
• Anyone else who opposed his rule was killed
off
• The NKVD (Secret Police) were his main
assassins

18. The Terror:
Stalin had a huge secret police
force (NKVD) which had spies
and informers everywhere.
Children were even encouraged
to inform on their parents.
Anyone who opposed or
criticised Stalin was arrested,
tortured and either executed or
sent to labour camps.
Stalin used the prisoners from the
labour camps to dig canals and
cut timber in the frozen north
where no one else could work.

19. Video for start of Show Trials
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC1lyk0mPic

20. Stalin’s Show Trials

21. Why did Stalin organise
trials?
Remove potential political opponents
Create a culture of fear and
paranoia in the USSR
Change public opinion
Remove anyone
remaining from the time
of Lenin. Stalin was to be
the only survivor Provide
scapegoats for
failing to meet
industrial targets
Stalin was paranoid

22. 1934 Party congress 1. What pictures are hanging in the background?
2. What kind of response did Kirov receive?
3. How did Stalin feel about this?

23. Timeline of the Show Trials
1924:
Lenin
Dies
1929: Stalin becomes
undisputed leader
1930:
Collectivisation
1928: First
Five-Year Plan
1934: Murder of
Kirov
1934: Beginning of
the Purges
1936: First Show
Trial
1937: Second
Show Trial
1938: Third
Show Trial
1937: Purge
of the Army
1938: End of
the Purges
1941: Entry
into WWII
1917:
Revolution,
communists
come to
power

24. Stalin Purges Videos
Brichonov execution
https://youtu.be/WcCJ2kcLpSk?t=1007

25. Why would Zinoviev have said this?
“I would like to repeat that I am fully and utterly guilty. I
am guilty of having been the organiser, second only to
Trotsky, of that block whose chosen task was the killing
of Stalin. I was the principal organiser of Kirov’s
assassination. The party saw where we were going, and
warned us. Stalin warned us scores of times but we did
not heed his warnings. We entered into an alliance with
Trotsky.”

26. Format of Show Trials
The defendants were accused of incredible crimes such as plotting
to assassinate Stalin or working as spies for foreign countries
The defendants then confessed their guilt and were found guilty.
The verdicts had been decided before the trial
The trial were well publicised at home and abroad
Defendants were usually shot for their crimes
The defendants were tortured until they accepted the
accusations. Most were threatened with having their families killed
if they did not admit charges

27. Key personality: Andrey Vyshinsky
He was the judge in trials
Was a Menshevik socialist (different from
Stalin who was a Bolshevik) and feared
that he too could be arrested at any
moment
He tried (under Stalin’s influence) to
humiliate defendants and to ensure the
general public viewed them as traitors
His speeches were full of hatred, disgust
and anger
He humiliated the defendants
"RIAN archive 7781 Vyshinsky" by RIA Novosti archive, image #7781 / G. Vail / CC-BY-SA 3.0. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia
Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RIAN_archive_7781_Vyshinsky.jpg#/media/File:RIAN_archive_7781_Vyshinsky.jpg

28. Zinoviev

29. The First Show Trial: The trial of the Sixteen
Kamenev, Zinoviev and 14 others are put on trial for killing Kirov and
attempting to put Trotsky in charge of the party
They were accused of organising a terrorist group called the “United
Trotskyite-Zinovievite centre” that was plotting against Stalin
The trial lasts between 19-24 August 1936 and is stage managed
with spectators being members of the NKVD and the media
reporting that the accused were traitors/terrorists
Defendants were dressed in old clothes and there was 3 judges
overseeing the case

30. Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?

31. Video: Stalin Canal and First Trial
https://youtu.be/WcCJ2kcLpSk?t=1521

32. Defendants freely admitted to the charges against them
One even admitted killing Kirov even though he was already in
prison!
Kamenev even admitted “For 10 years I waged a struggle
against the party and Stalin personally”
Vyshinsky demanded the death penalty for defendants and got
his wish as all were executed for treason
The newspapers applauded the executions and public opinion
largely supported the trial.
Some demanded further trials of counter-revolutionaries.
The First Show Trial: The trial of the Sixteen

33. The Second Show Trial 1937
The Trial of the 17
Principal defendants Pyatakov and Radek
Most of the remainder had backed Trotsky against Stalin
They were accused of working with Trotsky to wreck the
Soviet Union and restore capitalism in Russia
Thirteen executed the day of their conviction
The other four given lengthy prison sentences after
‘implicating’ others in the ‘conspiracy’
Radek died two years later in a Gulag

34. S.P. Kosolov: "I am
afraid to open my
mouth. Whatever you
say, if you say the wrong
thing, you're an enemy of
the people. Cowardice
has become the norm."
Questions:
1. Which source best explains the terror in Stalin’s Russia? Why?
2. Which source is more reliable?
3. What was Stalin’s secret police called?
4. What was a Gulag?
5. What does he mean by ‘Cowardice is the norm’? Could people have
done anything?
1. 2.

35. The NKVD
Mind map on torture tactics used by them
For inspection

36. The Third Show Trial 1938
The Trial of the 21
Principal defendants Bukharin, Rykov and Kretinsky.
Yagoda, who helped organise the earlier show trials was
also accused.
Charged with spying and sabotage and attempting to
murder Stalin.
As with the other trials – the defendants were tortured and
forced to make ‘prepared’ confessions.

37. Bukharin initially pleaded innocence and then guilty to no
particular charge. He was repeatedly tortured and
eventually caved in when the lives of his wife and infant
son were threatened.
All the accused were executed immediately.
Bukharin’s wife spent 20 years in a Gulag.
His son grew up in orphanages. Yuri Larin only found out
who his father was in 1956.
The Third Show Trial 1938

38. Purge of the Red Army
Stalin also purged the army (this happened between the second and
third show trial)
Many army generals had been appointed by Trotsky and Stalin was
afraid they were loyal to him
Stalin was paranoid and thought they were planning a revolution to
overthrow him
These trials were conducted in secret so little is known about them
About 35,000 men are thought to have been shot as part of the
purge

39. Reaction in the west
Most were amazed that defendants would so openly admit crimes
and not attempt to defend themselves
Many newspapers and reports failed to smell a rat
Many communist and socialists around the world defended the
legitimacy of the trials.
A British socialist called it ‘a new triumph in the history of progress’

40. Results of the Show Trials
Everyone from ordinary people to political leaders were killed as part of
Stalin’s purges
Families were torn apart as they were encouraged to denounce each other
One boy, aged 14, turned his father over to the NKVD. The rest of his family
stabbed him to death later.
Ordinary people lived in constant fear
Some had bags packed just in case the NKVD came to pick them up at night
None of the original Bolsheviks who participated in the Revolution were
alive by 1938
Stalin had completely eliminated all potential opposition to him within the
USSR. Those remaining in positions of power had been put there by Stalin
himself and were faithfully loyal.

41. The Russian Army was devastated
Stalin now had complete control of the Party and the State
Soviet historians estimate that 20 million Russians were transported
to labour camps by 1939

42. Come Visit the USSR Pyramids
French Cartoon 1950s1. What is the cartoon
suggesting?
2. How did the west view
the purges?

43. Which is a more reliable source of information? Are either reliable?
Edited excerpt from Irish Times report
of 23rd November, 1936
The German engineer, Herr Stickling,
and his eight Russian fellow-prisoners in
the trial at Novosbirsk on charges of
organized sabotage, have been
sentenced to death. The sentence has
aroused indignation in Germany. Der
Montag calls the sentence “a true
example of international scandal” and
comments:- “This groundless injustice
shows how justified is Germany’s
attitudes to the terrorists of the Soviet
Union and how necessary are the
warnings to the civilized world to join,
for the sake of peace, in anti-Bolshevik
bloc”.

44. Was Stalin in One Direction?