Table Of ContentStalin’s Terror Revisited
Studies in Russian and East European History and Society
Series Editors: R. W. Davies, E. A. Rees, M. J. Ilicˇ and J. R. Smith at the
Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham
Recent titles include:
Lynne Attwood
CREATING THE NEW SOVIET WOMAN
Edwin Bacon and Mark Sandle (editors)
BREZHNEV RECONSIDERED
John Barber and Andrei Dzeniskevich (editors)
LIFE AND DEATH IN BESIEGED LENINGRAD, 1941–44
John Barber and Mark Harrison (editors)
THE SOVIET DEFENCE-INDUSTRY COMPLEX FROM STALIN TO KHRUSHCHEV
Vincent Barnett
KONDRATIEV AND THE DYNAMICS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
R. W. Davies
SOVIET HISTORY IN THE YELTSIN ERA
Linda Edmondson (editor)
GENDER IN RUSSIAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
James Hughes
STALINISM IN A RUSSIAN PROVINCE
Melanie Ilic
STALIN’S TERROR REVISITED (editor)
WOMEN WORKERS IN THE SOVIET INTERWAR ECONOMY
WOMEN IN THE STALIN ERA (editor)
Melanie Ilic, Susan E. Reid and Lynne Attwood (editors)
WOMEN IN THE KHRUSHCHEV ERA
Peter Kirkow
RUSSIA’S PROVINCES
Maureen Perrie
THE CULT OF IVAN THE TERRIBLE IN STALIN’S RUSSIA
E. A. Rees (editor)
DECISION-MAKING IN THE STALINIST COMMAND ECONOMY
CENTRE-LOCAL RELATIONS IN THE STALINIST STATE, 1928–1941
THE NATURE OF STALIN’S DICTATORSHIP
The Politburo, 1924–1953
Lennart Samuelson
PLANS FOR STALIN’S WAR MACHINE
Tukhachevskii and Military-Economic Planning, 1925–1941
Vera Tolz
RUSSIAN ACADEMICIANS AND THE REVOLUTION
Derek Watson
MOLOTOV
A Biography
J. N. Westwood
SOVIET RAILWAYS TO RUSSIAN RAILWAYS
Stephen G. Wheatcroft (editor)
CHALLENGING TRADITIONAL VIEWS OF RUSSIAN HISTORY
Galina M. Yemelianova
RUSSIA AND ISLAM
A Historical Survey
Studies in Russian and East European History and Society
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Stalin’s Terror Revisited
Edited by
Melanie Ilic
© Editorial matter selection, introduction, chapter 5 Melanie Ilic 2006;
all remaining chapters © respective authors 2006
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-4705-5
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ilic, Melanie, 1962–
Stalin’s terror revisited / edited by Melanie Ilic.
p. cm. ––(Studies in Russian and East European history and society)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Stalin, Joseph, 1879–1953. 2. Kommunisticheskaia partiia Sovetskogo
Soiuza––Purges. 3. State-sponsored terrorism––Soviet Union . 4. Soviet
Union––Politics and government––1936–1953. I. Title. II. Studies in
Russian and East European history and society (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm))
DK267.I42 2006
947.084'2––dc22
2005058646
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06
Contents
List of Tables and Figures vi
Acknowledgements viii
Notes on Contributors x
Glossary of Russian Terms and Abbreviations xii
Introduction 1
Melanie Ilic
1 The Soviet Economy and the Launching of the Great Terror 11
R. W. Davies
2 Economic Officials in the Great Terror, 1936–38 38
Oleg Khlevnyuk
3 Soviet Trade Unions and the Great Terror 68
Junbae Jo
4 The Soviet Penal System and the Great Terror 90
Christopher Joyce
5 The Forgotten Five per cent: Women, Political Repression
and the Purges 116
Melanie Ilic
6 The Great Terror in the Ukraine, 1936–38 140
Valerii Vasiliev
7 Remembering the Victims of Political Repression:
The Purges in Mordoviya 163
Melanie Ilic and Christopher Joyce
8 Recycled Victims: The Great Terror in the Komi ASSR 191
Christopher Joyce
Select Bibliography 221
Index 230
List of Tables and Figures
Tables
1.1 Quarterly increase in industrial production 13
1.2 Rate of growth of industrial production by major products
and product groups: first six months of 1936 as compared
with first six months of 1935 14
1.3 Index numbers for food products sold on the urban
kolkhoz markets, June 1936 17
1.4 Quarterly increase in industrial production, 1936
(in 1926/27 prices as percentage of same period in 1935) 18
2.1 Number of employees of Soviet and economic agencies
included in the Central Committee nomenklatura at the
beginning of 1939 by date of appointment 57
2.2 Experts with higher education employed in soviet and
economic bodies included in the nomenklatura at the
beginning of 1939 59
4.1 Number of inmates in Soviet prisons 93
4.2 Prison population in Turkmen SSR, January–July 1938 94
4.3 Purge of the penal administration (selected cases) 99
4.4 Number of prisoners sent from prisons to ITL and ITK 101
4.5 Soviet penal population (July 1937–January 1940) 102
4.6 Utilisation of labour reserves in ITL (%) 104
4.7 Planned expenditure to fulfil Order No. 00447 in the
first half of 1938 110
4.8 Number of deaths in ITL, ITK and prisons 111
6.1 ‘Limits’ in the Ukraine 148
7.1 1929–33: summary of dates of sentencing 169
7.2 1929–33: summary of social status of purge victims 171
7.3 1929–33: summary of sentences 173
7.4 Ethnic variations in rates of collectivisation in MASSR
(percentage of households collectivised) 174
7.5 Summary of ‘limits’ in Mordoviya ASSR 175
7.6 1937–38: summary of age distribution 176
7.7 1937–38: summary of social status of purge victims 179
7.8 1937–38: summary of dates of sentencing 179
vi
Tables and Figures vii
7.9 1937–38: summary of sentences 180
7.10 1937–38: summary of selected cases by prosecuting body
and sentence 181
7.11 Summary of executions in Mordoviya ASSR, 1918–51 182
7.12 Summary social profile of those executed in Mordoviya 183
7.13 Women: summary of social status, including execution
victims 185
8.1 Gulag prisoners and special settlers in Komi 194
8.2 ‘Limits’ in Komi ASSR and selected regions 197
8.3 Proportion of men and women amongst the local
population and purge victims 204
8.4 Social status of Great Terror victims in Komi ASSR 205
8.5 Age distribution of Komi population and purge victims 206
8.6 Nationality breakdown of Komi population and purge
victims 207
8.7 Number of days between arrest and sentence 211
8.8 Age distribution of those executed or imprisoned 213
8.9 Social status of those executed or imprisoned 214
8.10 Length of time between arrest and sentence:
proportion of cases 214
8.11 Length of imprisonments 215
Figures
8.1 Arrests and sentences in Komi ASSR, 1930–53 203
8.2 Breakdown of sentences during 1937–38, Komi ASSR 209
8.3 Purge victims, 1937–38, Komi ASSR 210
Acknowledgements
This book is the outcome of a project undertaken at the Centre for Russian
and East European Studies (CREES), the University of Birmingham,
funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC):
grant no. R 000239543, ‘Terror, War Preparations and Soviet Economic
Development’; award holders Prof. R. W. Davies and Dr M. Ilič. As part
of this project, a workshop was held at CREES in August 2004 to discuss
preliminary drafts of the chapters presented in this book. In addition
to the contributors to this volume, the editor would like to thank the
following scholars for their participation at the workshop: John Barber,
Simon Ertz, Yoram Gorlizki, Mark Harrison, Kevin McDermott, Chris
Read, Arfon Rees, Lennart Samuelson, Derek Watson, Steve Wheatcroft
and Elizabeth White. Melanie Ilič and Bob Davis would also like to thank
Marea Arries and Tricia Carr (CREES) for their administrative support and
assistance during the project.
Preliminary drafts of chapters were presented at a variety of other fora,
and the contributors would like to thank the people who participated
at these events, which include: the British Association for Slavonic and
East European Studies (BASEES) annual conference (Cambridge, 2004),
the CREES annual conference (Windsor, 2003), and the regular meetings
of the SIPS seminar (CREES). Melanie Ilič and Christopher Joyce made a
poster presentation on the use of electronic media for the study of Soviet
political repression to the Digital Resources in the Humanities conference
(Cheltenham, 2003). Melanie Ilič presented her findings at a roundtable
on ‘Recent Research on the Great Terror: New Perspectives’ at the VII
ICCEES World Congress in Berlin, 2005. Thanks are also due to Steve
Wheatcroft, Marc Junge and Kevin McDermott for their participation
at this panel. Melanie Ilič’s participation at the ICCEES World Congress
was funded by the British Academy Overseas Conference Awards and the
University of Gloucestershire.
The editor would like to thank Christopher Joyce for his translation and
Bob Davies for his editorial guidance on the chapter by Valerii Vasiliev,
and Steve Wheatcroft for his translation of and John Westwood for his
editorial guidance on the chapter by Oleg Khlevnyuk. The editor would
also like to thank Joshua Andy for providing administrative support and
John Westwood for compiling the index. Thanks are also due to Tracey
viii
Acknowledgements ix
Day for her copy-editing of the final script and Ray Addicott of Chase
Publishing Services.
Junbae Jo thanks Dr Kayoung Ko for support and assistance during
his research trips to Moscow. Christopher Joyce acknowledges the
assistance provided by Dina Nikolaevna in his research conducted at
the GARF Spetsfond.
