Stalin’s Reign Of Terror Worksheet

Lesson Snapshot:

Stalin’s Terror

The most famous aspect of Stalin’s reign was the Terror.   This grew from his paranoia and his desire to be absolute autocrat, and was enforced via the NKVD (secret police) and public ‘show trials’.   It developed into a centrally-enforced ‘cult of Stalin-worship’ and a terrifying system of labour camps called ‘gulags’ where he sent people that he purged from the USSR.

Reasons for the Terror

• Unify the whole Country – Stalin believed that Russia had to be united – with him as leader – if it was to be strong. There were some people who still doubted that he was doing what was best for the country.
• Urgency – Stalin believed Russia only had about 10 years to catch up with the western world before Germany invaded.
• Paranoia – Stalin was paranoid (seeing plots everywhere) and power-mad (he demanded continuous praise and applause whenever he walked into a room).   In 1935, his wife even killed herself because she could not take his paranoid mood swings anymore.

The Apparatus of Terror

There were three main key features to the Terror in the Soviet Union.

1. Secret Police – The CHEKA became the OGPU (1922), then the NKVD (1934).
2. The First Purges, 1930–33 – Including anybody who opposed industrialisation, & the kulaks who opposed collectivisation.
3. The Great Purges, 1934–39

Key Aspects of the Terror

Political opponents.
• 1934 – Kirov, a rival to Stalin was murdered. Stalin probably ordered the assassination but he used the murder as a chance to arrest his opponents and purge them from the Soviet Union because he claimed to feel threatened himself.
• 1934-1939 – Stalin’s political opponents were put on ‘Show Trials’ where they pleaded guilty to impossible and illegal charges of treason. He arrested Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, Tomsky & Rykov – key members of the old Politburo.

The Army
• 1937 – Stalin ordered the Commander in Chief of the Red Army and his 7 leading generals shot in case they staged a coup against him with the Soviet army.
• 1938-1939 – Stalin ordered the execution of all the Navy admirals and half the Soviet army’s officers were executed or imprisoned in Siberia.

The Church
• Stalin ordered the imprisonment of all religious leaders and had all Soviet churches closed down.

Ethnic groups
• Stalin enforced Russification all over the Soviet Union as he felt that non Soviets posed a threat to him.

Worksheet Lesson Plan:

• Aimed at Students studying across UK Year 7,8 & 9 or equivalent
• Premium resource
• Use as you wish in the classroom or home environment
• Entire Lesson worksheet on Stalin’s reign of terror.
• Contains questions throughout the study worksheet.