Stalins Purges Essay Example For Students

Stalins Purges Essay Less than a month before Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 andstarted World War II, he signed a non-aggression pact with Stalin. Less than twoyears later, he broke the pact and invaded the Soviet Union in the early morninghours of June 22, 1941. There were plenty of evidence for German aggressionbefore the war broke out, yet Stalin nevertheless signed the pact whichcontained the secret protocol that divided Poland between Germany and the SovietUnion. The reason for signing the pact were complex, yet one of the mostimportant ones were the domestic factors. Among them, the terrible effect of thepurges during the 1930s on the population, economy and especially the army. Thepurges were set off on December 1, 1934 with the murder of Sergei Kirov. He wasa member of the Politburo, leader of the Leningrad party apparatus and hadconsiderable influence in the ruling elite. His concern for the workers inLeningrad and his skill as an orator earned him considerable popularity. Stalinused his murder as a pretext for launching a broad purge that would claimhundreds of thousands of victims and have lasting repercussion felt to this day. We will write a custom essay on Stalins Purges specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Stalin never visited Leningrad again and directed one of his most viciouspost-War purges against the city Russias historic window to the West. Nosegment of the society was left untouched by the purges. Anyone who caused theslightest suspicion was removed and numerous legislature was enacted to helpenforce them. In 1935 a law was passed which lowered the age of criminalresponsibility. That meant the death penalty could be applied to twelve-year-oldchildren (McCauley, p.93). There was also a panic response in the primary partyorganizations to expel and expose people in order to protect oneselfand to show vigilance (Getty, p.213) The slaughter of armed forcesbegan on 12 June 1937 when Tukhachevsky and some top army men were executed,then spread to lower ranks and then to political comissars. The nave wascompletely decapitated, all eight admirals perishing. Heres a grave list of thetop dead: 3 out of 5 marshals, 14 out of 16 Army commanders Class I andII, 8 out of 8 Admirals, 60 out of 67 Corps Commanders, 136 out of 199Divisional Commanders, 221 out of 397 Brigade Commanders (McCauley, p.95)In November 1939, Stalin ordered an attack on Finland to move the frontierfurther away from Leningrad after the Finns did not agree to the concessionsSoviets offered. This expedition was a complete fiasco. It cost the alreadydecimated Red Army around 200,000 dead and more were wounded, while only 23,000Finns died (McCauley, p.101). A peace treaty was signed on 12 March, 1940, butthe incompetence and weakness of the Red Army was revealed to the rest of theworld. This is something Hitler filed it away for future use. After that, andfaced with increasing German aggression, Stalin could not risk being embroiledin a war. Hitler was in a great hurry. An attack on Poland was scheduled forlate August. By the end of July the Nazis realized that they must reachagreement with the Soviets very soon if these plans were to be safelyimplemented. Hitler agreed to pay the Soviet price for a p act. The public textof the Nazi-Soviet Pact was simply an agreement of nonaggression and neutrality,referring as a precedent to the German-Soviet neutrality pact of 1926 (BerlinTreaty). The real agreement was in a secret protocol which in effect partitionednot only Poland (along the line of the Vistula), but much of Eastern Europe. Tothe Soviets were allotted Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Bessarabia; to theNazis, everything to the West of these regions, including Lithuania. Each of thetwo signatories was to ask the other no questions about the disposition of itsown sphere of interest. This nonaggression pact, coupled with the tradetreaty and arrangements for large-scale exchange of raw materials and armaments,amounted to an alliance. Appeasement in Eastern Europe would deflect Germanaggression to the west. Taking into account the disastrous condition of Russianforces brought about from within and the severe problems of the economy, thiswas necessary for Stalin. In a way, by signing the Nazi-Soviet Non-AggressionPact, he was buying as much time as possible to try prepare for the inevitable. .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d , .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d .postImageUrl , .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d , .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d:hover , .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d:visited , .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d:active { border:0!important; } .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d:active , .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uaf64eae021a0cbe67c46e9c849516d8d:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Dead Poets Society Essay IntroductionThe inevitable happened on June 22, 1941. Molotov broke to the Russian peoplethe grim news about the German attack. Stalin, as if embarrassed by thedisastrous collapse of his hopes, shunned the limelight. He did not utter asingle word in public for almost two weeks. He apparently waited to see what theresults of the first battles would be, what the attitude of Great Britain andthe United States would be, and what the feeling in his own country would be. Locked up with his military leaders, he discussed measures of mobilization andstrategic plans. In the first years of the war, Soviet losses were much higherthan necessary. The true cost of the purges had now to be paid. Morale was notvery high in the army. About two million prisoners were taken in the first yearof the war. The total reached five million in November 943, and there waswidespread defeatism among the public (McCauley, p.113). However, not all Sovietcasualties were due to the Germans. Many senior officers were court-martialedduring this period. Colonel-General D.G.Pavlov, commander of the WesternFront, his chief of staff and some other officers were called to Moscow,court-martialed and shot on 30 June, 1941 for incompetence. They were unfairlytreated, as was later admitted. Stalin loosed the NKVD on the military,reminiscent of 1937, and the political police exacted savage retribution onanyone who did not fulfil orders or who had carried out his ordersunsuccessfully(McCaul ey, p.129). Only at Stalingrad, in 1943, did the tideof war turn in favor of the Soviet Union. There are all indication that Hitlercould have easily taken Moscow and Leningrad had he continued north and notturned his attention south towards Ukraine. Although there is no dispute as tothe horror and losses brought on by Stalins paranoid decisions in the 1930s,the actual number of casualties remains uncertain. Only recently have some ofthe most significant archives been declassified and allowed a new wave ofresearch to start up. In addition, many of the records were destroyed at thetime, presumably those with the most sensitive information. Some researchersclaim that in its worst year approximately only 7.7% of the Red armysleadership was discharged (Getty, p.213). Another factor complicatingascertaining the actual casualties is political. Subject of Stalin isinextricably linked to ideology, communism, and socialism, topics that hardlyleave anyone without strong emotions on one or the other side. Thus, many workseven with the best intentions of unbiased research can be subconsciously marredby political bias. Theres hope that with the continued declassification moredocuments will appear from the archives that will be able to shed more light onthis very dark subject. The dispute as to the exact toll of the purges willprobably never be settled. The final count may never be known. However, it willalways remain undisputed that the purges during the 1930s initiated by JosephStalin brought massive repercussion in all sectors of the society and greatlyendangered Soviet Unions sovereignty and viability. BibliographyStalinist Terror: New Perspectives, edited by J. Arch Getty and Roberta T. Manning, Cambridge University Press, 1993 William R. Keylor, The TwentiethCentury World: An International History, Oxford University Press, New York, 1996Martin McCauley, The Soviet Union Since 1917, Longman Group Limited, New York,1981 Revelations from the Russian Archives, Library of Congress, 1996 http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/intro.html

The Dominican Republic Essays - Greater Antilles, Free Essays

The Dominican Republic Essays - Greater Antilles, Free Essays The Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is one of the many Spanish speaking countries in the world. The Dominican Republic, republic of the West Indies, compromising the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola. The word Dominican Republic in Spanish means Republica Dominicana. The capitol of the Dominican Republic is Santo Domingo. The population of the Dominican Republic is of mixed Spanish and black-African descent. The society is about sixty five percent urban. The population of the Dominican Republic in 1995 was about seven million, nine hundred and fifteen thousand (7,915,000) people. This gives the country a population density of about one hundred sixty two person per square kilometer. The Dominican Republic is divided into twenty nine provinces plus the Distrito Nacional . It also includes the capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo. Each province is subdivided into municipalities and townships. Some important cities are Santo Domingo, Santiago de los Caballlereos, San Pedro de Macrois. Santo Domingo is the leading port and has an estimated population of two million and four hundred thousand (2,400,000) persons. Santiago de los Caballeros is a trade and transportation center with a population of half a million people. San Pedro de Macoris, a seaport has a population of seventy eight thousand and five hundred sixty two(78,562) persons. The Dominican Republic consists of mainly Spanish speakers. Spanish is the official language of the Dominica Republic. English is also spoken and a French dialect is spoken. The religion of the Dominican Republic mostly Roman Catholicism. There is small Protestant community and some are Spiritists. The Dominican Republic has a length of in an east to west direction of about three hundred eighty kilometers and a maximum width, in the west, of about two hundred sixty five kilometers. The frontier with Haiti is about three hundred fifteen kilometers long. The Dominican also have possession to many islands. Such islands as Beata and Saona. The Dominican Republic is a very fertile land, well watered and very mountainous. About eighty percent of the country is covered with a series of mountain ranges, extending in a northwestern to southeastern direction. The most fertile region is in the Valley of Cibao and the coastal plains are also very fertile. The Dominican Republic has many rivers and streams. The Dominican Republic has a semitropical climate. Temperatures of more than seventy four degrees Fahrenheit are registered in the lowlands throughout the year. During the summer months temperatures range from eighty to ninety degrees Fahrenheit in the lowlands. The highland are much cooler and receive about sixty inches of precipitation each year. The wet season is from June to November. Tropical Hurricanes occur occasionally. The main resources of the Dominican Republic is mainly agriculture. The fertile soil is instrumental to farming and many of the mountains are covered with forests. The country also has valuable deposits of nickel, gold and silver. The Dominican Republic?s vegetation is much like that of the other islands of the West Indies. The vegetation varies and luxuriant. Among the many species of indigenous trees are mahogany, rosewood and pine. Many species of useful plants and fruits are common, including rice, tobacco, cotton, sugarcane, yams, banana, pineapple and grapes. The history of the Dominian Republic starts at the aboriginal inhabitants of Hispaniola were Arawak people, engaged principally in farming and fishing. They eventually became extinct as a result of exploitation by Spanish colonists. Black slaves were later imported to take the place of the Arawak. In time the Spanish migrated from Hispaniola to South America, and for about a century the island was sparsely populated. In 1697, by the Peace of Ryswick, the portion of Hispaniola that had been occupied by French adventurers was formally ceded to France and became known as Saint-Domingue; it is now Haiti. The remaining Spanish section, what is now the Dominican Republic, was called Santo Domingo. In 1795, Spain finally ceded Santo Domingo to France. During the years that followed, the country was caught up in the convulsions of neighboring Haiti, as well as indigenous mixed-race and black people. When Haiti removed the French in 1804, Santo Domingo remained under French occupation for another five years. Then the French were expelled and Spanish rule restored. After 1814, however, the Spanish administration became increasingly tyrannical, and