Abstract
The terror of 1936–38 was substantially different from previous repressive measures, and requires a special explanation. In this chapter only one aspect of this topic is discussed: the economic situation in 1936, and its role — if any — in the launching of the repressions. The shift from the nomenklatura purge to the mass purges in the summer of 1937 requires further investigation.
Human beings, in their generous endeavour to construct a hypothesis that shall not degrade a First Cause, have always hesitated to conceive a dominant power of lower moral quality than their own; and, even while they sit down and weep by the waters of Babylon, invent excuses for the oppression which prompts their tears.
Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native (1878)
I am extremely grateful to Oleg Khlevnyuk for his assistance in providing material, and for his comments. I have greatly benefited from discussing this topic and wider aspects of the repressions with Oleg. Valuable comments and suggestions have also been provided by Michael Ellman, Mark Harrison, David Hoffmann, David Shearer and Stephen Wheatcroft. Roberta Manning kindly sent me useful and constructive comments. It is obvious that she and the others acknowledged here are not responsible for my views.
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Notes
S. Davies, Popular Opinion in Stalin’s Russia: Terror, Propaganda and Dissent, 1934–1941 (Cambridge, 1997) p. 35.
D. Shearer, ‘Crime and Social Disorder in Stalin’s Russia: A Reassessment of the Great Retreat and the Origins of Mass Repression’, Cahiers du Monde russe, nos 1–2, vol. 39, 1998, pp. 119–48;
D. Shearer, ‘Social Disorder, Mass Repression and the NKVD during the 1930s’, Cahiers du Monde russe, nos 2–4, vol. 42, 2001, p. 506.
D. Filtzer, Soviet Workers and Stalinist Industrialization (London, 1986) pp. 128–9.
E. Zaleski, Stalinist Planning for Economic Growth (London, 1971) pp. 248–9.
R. Manning, ‘The Soviet Economic Crisis of 1936–1940 and the Great Purges’, in J. A. Getty and R. T. Manning (eds), Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (Cambridge, 1993) pp. 116–17.
R. W. Davies and O. Khlevnyuk, ‘Stakhanovism and the Soviet Economy’, Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 54, no. 6, 2002, pp. 872–4.
A. I. Shirokov, Dal’stroi: predistoriya i pervoe desyatiletie (Magadan, 2000) p. 103.
M. Harrison and R. W. Davies, The Soviet Military-economic Effort during the Second Five-Year Plan (1933–1937)’, Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 49, no. 3, 1997, pp. 380, 390.
E. A. Rees, Stalinism and Soviet Rail Transport, 1928–41 (Basingstoke, 1995) p. 156.
O. Khlevnyuk, Stalin i Ordzhonikidze: konflikty v Politbyuro v 30-e gody (Moscow, 1993) pp. 60–3;
F. Benvenuti, ‘Stakhanovism and Stalinism, 1934–8’, unpublished Discussion Papers SIPS No. 30, Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham UK (1989) pp. 42–9;
L. H. Siegelbaum, Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity in the USSR, 1935–1941 (Cambridge, 1988) pp. 127–35.
R. W. Davies, O. Khlevniuk, E. A. Rees, L. Kosheleva and L. Rogovaya (eds), The Stalin Kaganovich Correspondence, 1931–1936 (New Haven and London, 2003).
D. Hoffman, ‘The Great Terror on the Local Level: Purges in Moscow Factories, 1936–1938’, in Getty and Manning, Stalinist Terror, p. 166.
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Davies, R.W. (2006). The Soviet Economy and the Launching of the Great Terror. In: Ilič, M. (eds) Stalin’s Terror Revisited. Studies in Russian and East European History and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230597334_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230597334_2
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