The Horror of Stalin Terror
Political repression 20-50 years of the 20th century put a big imprint on Russian history. These years were full of tyranny, lawless violence led by Stalin . Stalin is one of the bloodthirsty and toughest dictators in history. This period of Stalin's rule was estimated differently by historians. Some have called it the "black mark in history", others - a necessity to strengthen and increase the power of the Soviet Union. Statistic says that up to 10 million people were victims of Stalinist repression. This fact tells us about the terror and tragedy of the time. Stalin dictatorship included Red Terror, peasant’s repressions and repressions during The World War II.
The tough politic of Stalin began with Red Terror. Red Terror is a set of punitive measures carried out in the course in the Russian Civil War against social groups called “class enemies” and against political activists accused of counter-revolutionary activities. Red Terror was a part of a repressive state policy of Bolshevik government, it was applied in practice through the implementation of legislation, and outside of any law. High rates of the Red Terror were in the Volga region, where up to August 30, 1918, execution was used more frequently than in the whole of Russia. The largest scale of Red Terror acquired in Petrograd. The total number of victims of the red terror in Petrograd in October 1918 reached nearly 800 people, they were shot, and 6229 people were arrested. Mass shootings in the city were intended to intimidate people and to prevent further terrorist attacks. The policy of Red Terror also spread to other groups of the population, including intellectuals (professors, students, and teachers) and the priests. The exact percentage identifying these categories is unknown, because of the fact that this kind of information often was omitted in the Soviet press. However, later, according the revolution sources, 44 priests were shot in September (83 during the year), 7 students, 4 teachers and 8 doctors.
Stalin’s repressions also spread to peasants. During the forced collectivization of agriculture, which was carried out in the USSR in the period from 1928 up to 1932 , one of the directions of the state policy was the suppression of the anti-Soviet peasants and the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class" , in other words - the " dekulakization" (the richer peasants were named kulaks and considered class enemies). It involved arrests, deportations, and executions of millions of the better-off peasants and their families. Actually, any farmer could get to a list of the kulaks, who opposed collectivization. Thus, the state destroyed one more social group of the rural population.
Terrible political system was continued during The World War II and after