Stalin: Fear & Forced Labour

1. Stalin: Fear & Forced Labour Jane Yip & Daphne Poon

2. Introduction • Urgent need for modernisation • Wanted to catch up with the Western powers • Wanted to show how Communism could work • Became paranoid: wanted to create a unified Russia under his control • “The easiest way to gain control of the population is to carry out acts of terror.” - Stalin

3. Gulags • “Work or face consequences” • Gulag: government agency that administered Soviet labour camp systems, started on April 25 1930 • Remote parts of Russia: harsh climatic conditions • Initially only for prisoners, later for anyone who opposed Stalin and peasants who refused to work • High mortality at the camps and extremely poor living conditions • March 1940: 53 camps, 423 labour colonies – today’s major Russian industrial cities were originally camps

4. First Purges, 1930-33 • Purged anyone who opposed industrialisation and collectivisation • Workers were afraid of being purged/of having family members purged: protests were swallowed and people worked.

5. Secret Police • NKVD: People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs • Main duties: running of the labour camp system, suppressing underground resistance, mass deportations and executions, espionage, guarding state borders and general reinforcement of policies • 1934 Communist Party Congress: 1108 arrested out of 1966 in next five years • 1935-41: 19.8 million people arrested by NKVD (7 million executed) • Interrogated prisoners to the point of mental exhaustion – threats to execute family • Interrogations lasted several days until confessions were signed • Many did not know the reason for their arrests – arrests happened anytime • Stalin even purged members of the secret police – first three heads were executed at his command

6. Conclusion • Fear and forced labour was arguably Stalin’s most successful method • Fear of death worked immensely well in motivating peasants to accept collectivisation and work hard • Present of Secret Police helped to keep fear afresh