"De-Stalinization"
"Stalin's power had evolved from his position as General Secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, which gave him control over personnel and administrative matters. By the end of his rule, Stalin's offices and titles mattered little- he had amassed virtually unlimited personal power." Source: The History of Russia, 1999
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Unfortunately, all of the power Stalin accumulated was not used benevolently. |
But, finally, on November 23, 1938, the Great Terror unofficially ended when Yezhov, the head of the NKVD, was removed from his post.
"The Great Terror turned out to weaken the U.S.S.R. rather then strengthen it. Not only were millions of ordinary people killed, but Stalin also killed many of his best Communist Party officials and militiary officers. This meant that the U.S.S.R. was in a very weak state when Hitler invaded, resulting in many more Russians dying in WWII. After Stalin died, his successors moved quickly to 'de-Stalinize' the country; the one thing they could agree on was that this mass, seemingly random, killing had to stop since it threatened everyone." -Henry Hale, author and professor
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During "de-Stalinization," citizens advocated the dismissal of Stalinist leaders, and camp uprisings and worker strikes occurred across the nation. |
"The new Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, despite his own personal involvement in carrying out Stalin's terror, moved to ease Soviet repression..., denounc[ing] Stalin in a 1956 declaration... In 1962, this 'thaw' went even further as Khrushchev authorized open discussion of the Gulag... Krushchev was deposed in 1964, and the subject of the Gulag once again became a forbidden topic until the 1980's." Source: Death of Stalin, 2014
Malevolent or Benevolent?
"For decades, Russians have found it very difficult to hold the State responsible for its crimes... The victims numbered in the millions, giving the crimes an impersonal quality. They were carried out by the bureaucracy of the state, which made them seem official." - David Satter, author and journalist
"Whether Stalin... was seen as a threat or a defender depended on the believer."- William Chase, author, so "dissidents like Alexander Solzhenitsyn would argue that both the international community and Soviet citizens were negligent in a duty to resist the terror, but those who cooperated would argue that they had a responsibility to obey the law of the country." -Ryan Kennedy, professor, Email Interview
"Stalin was larger than life, and he used his immense power to destroy... There can be no doubt of Stalin's direct role and political and moral culpability for the mass repression..., but he did not act alone."
-William Chase, author |
The NKVD, Stalin's advocates, and the ones who remained silent were also in part responsible for the Great Terror. |
The Debate
"Since the early 1990's, however, the public debate over the legacy of the Soviet Union has become more complicated. Should Soviet monuments be replaced or preserved? More broadly, how should the Soviet past be remembered?"
Source: Emerging from the Gulag, 2014
Source: Emerging from the Gulag, 2014
Click pictures to enlarge
Today
"The population transfers that Stalin conducted are still affecting contemporary politics. For example, many Tatars in Crimea were deported elsewhere, which is part of the tension that currently exists in Crimea today (and why Tatars are a minority in the region)." -Ryan Kennedy, professor, Email Interview
"One could also argue that actions like the Great Terror and the Holocaust are a large part of the reason why we have certain human rights enshrined in international law today, and why there is more discussion today of an obligation to intervene in situations like Syria and Darfur to prevent incidents like the Great Terror from happening again." -Ryan Kennedy, professor, Email Interview
The political mistakes that were caused by the irresponsibility of the Soviet government, specifically Stalin, were detrimental, especially to the rights of Soviet citizens, but the devastation that occurred during the Great Terror provided a learning experience to the world and especially the Soviet Union, but....
"There have been no trials, no truth and reconciliation commissions, no government inquiries into what happened in the past, and no public debate [in Russia]." -Anne Applebaum, Pultizer Prize Winner, author, and columnist
"The failure to acknowledge or repent affects politics and society across the region."-Anne Applebaum, Pultizer Prize Winner, author, and columnist |
"If we do not study the history...some of what we know about mankind will be distorted... Our ability to debase and destroy and dehumanize our fellow men has been- and will be- repeated again and again. [And] we need to know why." -Anne Applebaum, Pultizer Prize Winner, author, and columnist
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"Some try not to remember it....They would like cross out that period from their lives, to forget it. But others, including myself....always remember. Always. Every day. Every hour. Every minute."- Soviet citizen