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Date Posted: 08:13:54 05/24/03 Sat
Author: Mr John D Clare
Subject: Terrorist demands
In reply to: iloveben 's message, "Was the terror necessary?" on 19:49:20 05/23/03 Fri

This is an interesting philosophical point but it is not a question type you will meet at GCSE.

Conceivably, you might be asked WHAT the Terror involved, WHY it happened, or what were its results - check out <a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://www.johndclare.net/Russ12.htm">http://www.johndclare.net/Russ12.htm</a> to remind yourself of the key facts and concepts. If you do get asked about it, don't forget, either, that the Terror started by Lenin and run by Trotsky - so EVERYONE was implicated; it was not just that Stalin was a homicidal maniac (in fact terror was a Russian way of government - almost every ruler of Russia since Ivan the Terrible had systematically slaughtered droves of their own subjects).

But the Terror is most likely to come in as part of broader question on Stalin or life in Russia.

Was it necessary?
FOR the Terror:
When Lenin set up the CHEKA (=the ‘Extraordinary Commission for the Suppression of the Counter Revolution', 20 Dec 1917):
- the Bolsheviks were a minority government opposed by the vast majority of the population
- many of the opposition parties were trying to overthrow the Bolsheviks by the Civil War
- foreign powers were getting involved in trying to destroy the revolution
- Central Russia was being terrorised by the Czech legion
ie, it is arguable that SOMETHING had to be done or the government would have collapsed.
Even Stalin's terror CAN be defended:
- Trotsky and many other elements of the Russian people were against him, and would have overturned the government if they been able.
- Russia was still facing international hostility, most especially Hitler (Stalin was ABSOLUTELY right when he told the Russian people in 1931 that they had ten years to get ready for a war to destroy Russia).
- Would Russia have been able to implement the 5-Year-Plans and Collectvisation without the Terror to MAKE people do as Stalin wanted? Probably not. Certainly it was Stalin's judgement that only a people united by Terror could make the necessary progress in the time available.

AGAINST the Terror:
- the human cost was immense (see the Results section on the Terror page above). You have to ask the question, was the survival of the Bolshevik state worth it for the Russian people (remember though that the altenative after 1941 was to become part of the Nazi empire).
- the excesses of the Terror were certainly unnecessary, and fuelled by Stalin's paranoia. Millions of harmless, peace-loving, loyal Russians were caught up in it and killed


Just one last thing.
Please remember that this is not a corporate website. I am a schoolteacher, and this is my school History department's website. I provide the site at my own expense and write it in my own time as my (sad!) hobby. I cannot promise (or be expected) to provide answers at 10 minutes notice. Moan over.

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