Stalin the dictator

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The NKVD.

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One method was the use of informers and denunciations. The NKVD had a huge network of informers in factories, offices, blocks of flats and collective farms, and ordinary people were encouraged to denounce 'enemies of the people'. Some did so out of fear of being denounced themselves, others to settle grudges or to take a rival's job or flat. Because anyone might be an informer, people were afraid to say anything critical, even to friends.

A second method was mass arrest and interrogation. Arrests were usually made at night, and anyone could be charged under Article 58 with 'counter-revolutionary' crimes. Prisoners were interrogated for long periods, deprived of sleep, beaten and threatened with harm to their families until they confessed and named 'accomplices', who were then arrested in turn. In 1937 the NKVD was even given quotas of arrests and executions for each region, and three-man 'troikas' passed sentences without proper trials, sending people to be shot or to the labour camps of the Gulag.

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The Terror first affected ordinary people through its sheer scale. Figure 1 shows that death sentences for political crimes rose from only about 1,000 to 2,000 a year in 1934-36 to about 353,000 in 1937 and about 329,000 in 1938, before falling back to about 3,000 in 1939. In total about 1.5 million people were arrested in 1937-38, and those who were not shot were sent to the labour camps of the Gulag. Most victims were not famous leaders but ordinary people: NKVD Order No. 00447 of July 1937 set quotas of arrests and executions for each region, targeting former kulaks, priests, former members of other parties and 'criminals', and other operations targeted Poles, Germans and other national minorities.

Secondly, the Terror filled everyday life with fear. Arrests usually came at night, and anyone could be accused of 'counter-revolutionary' crimes under Article 58. The NKVD relied on informers in factories and blocks of flats, and some people denounced others out of fear, or to take their job or room. People stopped speaking freely, even to friends, and avoided contact with foreigners.

Thirdly, the families of victims suffered. The relatives of an 'enemy of the people' could lose their jobs and homes; wives could be sent to camps and children to orphanages. Many people felt forced to disown arrested relatives in public.

Finally, the Terror changed workplaces. Engineers, managers and specialists were blamed as 'wreckers' when targets were missed, and their arrest disrupted industry. At the same time, younger workers were promoted rapidly into their jobs, so some people benefited. These effects were linked: the fear of denunciation, the punishment of families and the chance of promotion all encouraged people to conform and support Stalin, which is what the Terror was meant to achieve, until Beria replaced Yezhov at the end of 1938 and the mass arrests were scaled down.

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Orders and quotas sent from Stalin and the NKVD were a major reason for the huge number of arrests. In July 1937 NKVD Order No. 00447, approved by the Politburo, set quotas of arrests and executions for every region, targeting former kulaks, priests, 'criminals' and other 'anti-Soviet elements'. Regional leaders often asked to have their quotas raised, and Moscow usually agreed. Further 'national operations' targeted Poles, Germans and other minorities. Three-man troikas sentenced people without proper trials, and Stalin and his close colleagues personally signed lists containing thousands of names for execution. In 1937 the leadership approved the use of 'physical pressure' in interrogations, so prisoners were forced to name more 'accomplices', who were arrested in turn. Under Yezhov, the NKVD's aim was to meet targets, not to find the guilty.

Denunciations by ordinary people also played a part. Newspapers and meetings urged people to be 'vigilant' and to unmask 'enemies of the people', and the NKVD had informers in factories and blocks of flats. Some people denounced others out of fear, to prove their own loyalty before someone denounced them; others did it for gain, to take a rival's job or promotion or a room in a crowded shared flat. Workers sometimes denounced unpopular managers, and party members accused each other at meetings. These denunciations supplied names that helped the NKVD to fill its quotas.

The orders and quotas from above were the more important reason. Denunciations explain how particular people were chosen, but they cannot explain why the arrests suddenly rose so high in 1937 and then fell so sharply: death sentences dropped from about 329,000 in 1938 to about 3,000 in 1939 after Stalin replaced Yezhov with Beria. Ordinary people had not suddenly stopped denouncing each other; the leadership had changed its orders. Historians disagree about how much local officials and ordinary people drove the Terror, but the quotas, signed lists and approval of torture show that it was started, shaped and stopped from the top.