Stalinist Russia Grad Class Papers #4

The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939

J. Arch Getty and Oleg V. Naumov

In The Road to Terror Arch J. Getty looks at the “apex of the pyramid” of the Communist leadership in 1932-1939 by examining recently declassified archival materials and other sources pertaining to policy making and implementation as well as the  general political environment during the purges and the Great Terror in the Soviet Union. The author’s goal is to understand the larger picture of the terror and, perhaps, most importantly to answer the big question: “How was all this possible?” He contends that even though Stalin was the main architect of the terror, he must be considered in conjunction with other factors: the siege mentality of the Bolsheviks as well as the elite’s fears for their position. Most importantly the documentary evidence suggests that the dichotomy between legalism and repression in the 1930s points to the ad hoc nature of the Stalinist policies - there is no direct evidence for the existence of a “moderate” or “radical” faction in the Central Committee. 

Arch J. Getty draws his arguments about the terror based on a large variety of documents - speeches, memos, laws, degrees and executive orders, resolutions, resumes, and even suicide notes. Unfortunately, even this breadth of information does not provide us with specific answers about the horrors unleashed by the party in the 1930s. 

In the aftermath of the brutality of collectivization and with the creation of the USSR Procuracy and the formulation of the NKVD in 1933-1934, it seemed like the country was finally moving in the direction of reduced repressions. Moreover, in the Central Committee decree of 8 May 1933 halting mass arrests Stalin declared that “we are no longer in need of mass repression” and criticized arbitrary arrests while at the same time stating that the class struggle was still ongoing.  Because of the dangerous “new situation” in 1932 that threatened the survival of the regime, the purge of 1933 was seen by the leadership not as a prelude to the Great Terror but rather as a survival mechanism for the nomenklatura.  The Kirov murder in 1934 played a role in unleashing the subsequent wave of terror which resulted in a witch-hunt atmosphere and the show trial of Zinoviev and Kamenev. Most historians today think that Stalin was not behind the assassination or in any way connected to it and thus the terror that resulted was largely unplanned.

The Red Terror of 1937, like its predecessors, reflected a deep-seated insecurity and fear of the regime as well as an inability to identify its precise enemies.  The NKVD archival documents show wholesale unabashed brutality of the Stalinist rule with hysteria, spy-mania, and xenophobia reaching new heights.  The Terror of 1938, however, hit some groups much harder than others,  and the government used the power of the NKVD to destroy the regional secretaries both politically and physically.  But because this threatened the very survival of the party, once gain, the regime did a volte-face and exonerated cadres; “large numbers of expelled members were readmitted and recruitment of new members began for the first time sine 1933.”  With Yezhov’s fall in 1938, Vyshinsky’s legalism gained an upper hand - although never criticizing the terror he made “suggestions aimed at controlling, regularizing, and even limiting it.”  Curiously, despite the relaxation, the numbers in camps continued to increase until Stalin’s death in 1953. 

There is no evidence pointing to a rift or an opposition to the Stalinist policies. However a form of discourse might have occurred within the Central Committee, but given the “Stalinist penchant for party discipline and unity”  it is not surprising that it never found its way into the documentary record.  Aside from Stalin’s role, Getty explains the politics of the 1930s as an evolving political history in which self-interested persons and groups jockeyed for position. 

Though looking at the big picture through the documents by and large produced in the highest echelons of power, the author nonetheless presents a zoomed in view of individual fates from heavyweights such as Nikolai Bukharin and Nikolai Yezhov to Alexander Tivel and political prisoners in the GULAG.  This book is an excellent source for the students of the Stalinist period as it presents a breadth of archival documents that shine light on the degree of human cost and suffering as well as on the complexity of the politics and policy behind the purges of the 1930s.

Dr. W: An excellent critique. A