The number of people repressed under Stalin. The final numbers of victims of Stalin's repressions

Stalin was the greatest tyrant of all times. Stalin destroyed his people on an unimaginable scale - from 10 to 110 million people were thrown into camps, where they were shot or died in inhumane conditions.

Examples of using

“Professor Kurganov indirectly calculated that from 1917 to 1959 only from the internal war of the Soviet regime against its people, that is, from their destruction by famine, collectivization, exile of peasants for extermination, prisons, camps, simple executions. - This is the only reason why we died. Along with our civil war, 66 million people... According to his calculations, we lost in World War II from neglect. 44 million people are harmed by its sloppy conduct! So, in total we lost from the socialist system - 110 million people!”

Reality

Igor Pykhalov

What was the scale of the “Stalinist repressions”?

Almost all publications addressing the issue of the number of repressed people can be classified into two groups. The first of them includes works by denouncers of the “totalitarian regime”, citing astronomical multi-million dollar figures of those executed and imprisoned. At the same time, “truth seekers” persistently try not to notice archival data, including published ones, pretending that they do not exist. To justify their figures, they either refer to each other, or simply limit themselves to phrases like: “according to my calculations,” “I am convinced,” etc.

However, any conscientious researcher who begins to study this problem quickly discovers that in addition to “eyewitness memories” there are a lot of documentary sources: “Several thousand items of storage of documents related to the activities of the Gulag have been identified in the funds of the Central State Archive of the October Revolution, the highest bodies of state power and government bodies of the USSR (TsGAOR USSR)”

Having studied archival documents, such a researcher is surprised to see that the scale of repression that we “know” about thanks to the media is not only at odds with reality, but is inflated tenfold. After this, he finds himself in a painful dilemma: professional ethics requires him to publish the data found, on the other hand, how not to be branded as a defender of Stalin. The result is usually some kind of “compromise” publication, containing both a standard set of anti-Stalinist epithets and curtsies addressed to Solzhenitsyn and Co., and information about the number of repressed people, which, unlike publications from the first group, is not taken out of thin air and not pulled out of thin air, and are confirmed by documents from the archives.

How much has been repressed?

February 1, 1954
To the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Comrade N.S. Khrushchev.
In connection with signals received by the Central Committee of the CPSU from a number of persons about illegal convictions for counter-revolutionary crimes in past years by the OGPU Collegium, NKVD troikas, the Special Meeting, the Military Collegium, courts and military tribunals and in accordance with your instructions on the need to review the cases of persons convicted for counter-revolutionary crimes and currently held in camps and prisons, we report: from 1921 to the present time, 3,777,380 people were sentenced for counter-revolutionary crimes, including 642,980 people to VMN, to detention in camps and prisons for a term of 25 years and below - 2,369,220, into exile and expulsion - 765,180 people. Of the total number of convicts, approximately, sentenced: 2,900,000 people - by the OGPU Collegium, NKVD troikas and the Special Conference and 877,000 people - by courts, military tribunals, the Special Board and the Military collegium.

... It should be noted that, created on the basis of the Resolution of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated November 5, 1934, by the Special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR, which existed until September 1, 1953, 442,531 people were sentenced, including 10,101 people to VMN, to imprisonment - 360,921 people, to exile and deportation (within the country) - 57,539 people and to other measures of punishment (counting the time spent in custody, deportation abroad, compulsory treatment) - 3,970 people...

Prosecutor General R. Rudenko
Minister of Internal Affairs S. Kruglov
Minister of Justice K. Gorshenin

So, as is clear from the above document, in total from 1921 to the beginning of 1954, people were sentenced to death on political charges. 642.980 person, to imprisonment - 2.369.220 , to link - 765.180 . It should also be borne in mind that not all sentences were carried out. For example, from July 15, 1939 to April 20, 1940, 201 prisoners were sentenced to capital punishment for disorganizing camp life and production, but then for some of them the death penalty was replaced by imprisonment for terms of 10 to 15 years. In 1934, the camps housed 3,849 prisoners sentenced to capital punishment with a substitute for imprisonment, in 1935 - 5,671, in 1936 - 7,303, in 1937 - 6,239, in 1938 - 5,926, in 1939 - 3,425, in 1940 - 4,037.

Number of prisoners

» Are you sure that the information in this memo is true?“, - a skeptical reader will exclaim, who, thanks to many years of brainwashing, firmly “knows” about millions of people shot and tens of millions sent to camps. Well, let’s turn to more detailed statistics, especially since, contrary to the assurances of dedicated “fighters against totalitarianism,” such data is not only available in the archives, but has also been published several times.

Let's start with data on the number of prisoners in the Gulag camps. Let me remind you that those sentenced to a term of more than 3 years, as a rule, served their sentences in correctional labor camps (ITL), and those sentenced to short terms - in correctional labor colonies (CPT).

However, those who are accustomed to accepting the opuses of Solzhenitsyn and others like him as Holy Scripture are often not convinced even by direct references to archival documents. » These are NKVD documents, and therefore they are falsified.- they say. - Where did the numbers given in them come from?».

Stalin's repressions:
What was it?

On the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression

In this material we have collected the memories of eyewitnesses, fragments from official documents, figures and facts provided by researchers in order to provide answers to questions that haunt our society again and again. The Russian state has never been able to give clear answers to these questions, so until now, everyone is forced to look for answers on their own.

Who was affected by the repression?

Representatives of various groups of the population fell under the flywheel of Stalin's repressions. The most famous names are artists, Soviet leaders and military leaders. About peasants and workers, often only names are known from execution lists and camp archives. They did not write memoirs, tried not to remember the camp past unnecessarily, and their relatives often abandoned them. The presence of a convicted relative often meant the end of a career or education, so the children of arrested workers and dispossessed peasants might not know the truth about what happened to their parents.

When we heard about another arrest, we never asked, “Why was he taken?”, but there were few like us. People distraught with fear asked each other this question for pure self-comfort: people are taken for something, which means they won’t take me, because there’s nothing! They became sophisticated, coming up with reasons and justifications for each arrest - “She really is a smuggler,” “He allowed himself to do this,” “I myself heard him say...” And again: “You should have expected this - he has such terrible character”, “It always seemed to me that something was wrong with him”, “This is a complete stranger.” That’s why the question: “Why was he taken?” – became forbidden for us. It's time to understand that people are taken for nothing.

- Nadezhda Mandelstam , writer and wife of Osip Mandelstam

From the very beginning of terror to this day, attempts have not ceased to present it as a fight against “sabotage”, enemies of the fatherland, limiting the composition of the victims to certain classes hostile to the state - kulaks, bourgeois, priests. The victims of terror were depersonalized and turned into “contingents” (Poles, spies, saboteurs, counter-revolutionary elements). However, the political terror was total in nature, and its victims were representatives of all groups of the population of the USSR: the “cause of engineers”, the “cause of doctors”, persecution of scientists and entire directions in science, personnel purges in the army before and after the war, deportations of entire peoples.

Poet Osip Mandelstam

He died during transit; the place of death is not known for certain.

Directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold

Marshals of the Soviet Union

Tukhachevsky (shot), Voroshilov, Egorov (shot), Budyony, Blucher (died in Lefortovo prison).

How many people were affected?

According to the estimates of the Memorial Society, there were 4.5-4.8 million people convicted for political reasons, and 1.1 million people were shot.

Estimates of the number of victims of repression vary and depend on the calculation method. If we take into account only those convicted on political charges, then according to an analysis of statistics from the regional departments of the KGB of the USSR, carried out in 1988, the bodies of the Cheka-GPU-OGPU-NKVD-NKGB-MGB arrested 4,308,487 people, of which 835,194 were shot. According to the same data, about 1.76 million people died in the camps. According to the estimates of the Memorial Society, there were more people convicted for political reasons - 4.5-4.8 million people, of which 1.1 million people were shot.

The victims of Stalin's repressions were representatives of some peoples who were subjected to forced deportation (Germans, Poles, Finns, Karachais, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Crimean Tatars and others). This is about 6 million people. Every fifth person did not live to see the end of the journey - about 1.2 million people died during the difficult conditions of deportation. During the dispossession, about 4 million peasants suffered, of which at least 600 thousand died in exile.

In total, about 39 million people suffered as a result of Stalin's policies. The number of victims of repression includes those who died in the camps from disease and harsh working conditions, those deprived of their money, victims of hunger, victims of unjustifiably cruel decrees “on truancy” and “on three ears of corn” and other groups of the population who received excessively harsh punishment for minor offenses due to repressive the nature of the legislation and the consequences of that time.

Why was this necessary?

The worst thing is not that you are suddenly taken away from a warm, well-established life like this overnight, not Kolyma and Magadan, and hard labor. At first, the person desperately hopes for a misunderstanding, for a mistake by the investigators, then painfully waits for them to call him, apologize, and let him go home to his children and husband. And then the victim no longer hopes, no longer painfully searches for an answer to the question of who needs all this, then there is a primitive struggle for life. The worst thing is the senselessness of what is happening... Does anyone know what this was for?

Evgenia Ginzburg,

writer and journalist

In July 1928, speaking at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Joseph Stalin described the need to fight “alien elements” as follows: “As we move forward, the resistance of capitalist elements will increase, the class struggle will intensify, and Soviet power, forces which will increase more and more, will pursue a policy of isolating these elements, a policy of disintegrating the enemies of the working class, and finally, a policy of suppressing the resistance of the exploiters, creating a basis for the further advancement of the working class and the bulk of the peasantry.”

In 1937, the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR N. Yezhov published order No. 00447, in accordance with which a large-scale campaign to destroy “anti-Soviet elements” began. They were recognized as the culprits of all the failures of the Soviet leadership: “Anti-Soviet elements are the main instigators of all kinds of anti-Soviet and sabotage crimes, both on collective and state farms, and in transport, and in some areas of industry. The state security agencies are faced with the task of most mercilessly defeating this entire gang of anti-Soviet elements, protecting the working Soviet people from their counter-revolutionary machinations and, finally, once and for all putting an end to their vile subversive work against the foundations of the Soviet state. In accordance with this, I order - from August 5, 1937, in all republics, territories and regions, to begin an operation to repress former kulaks, active anti-Soviet elements and criminals.” This document marks the beginning of an era of large-scale political repression, which later became known as the “Great Terror.”

Stalin and other members of the Politburo (V. Molotov, L. Kaganovich, K. Voroshilov) personally compiled and signed execution lists - pre-trial circulars listing the number or names of victims to be convicted by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court with a predetermined punishment. According to researchers, the death sentences of at least 44.5 thousand people bear Stalin’s personal signatures and resolutions.

The myth of the effective manager Stalin

Until now, in the media and even in textbooks one can find justification for political terror in the USSR by the need to carry out industrialization in a short time. Since the release of the decree obliging those sentenced to more than 3 years to serve their sentences in forced labor camps, prisoners have been actively involved in the construction of various infrastructure facilities. In 1930, the Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps of the OGPU (GULAG) was created and huge flows of prisoners were sent to key construction sites. During the existence of this system, from 15 to 18 million people passed through it.

During the 1930-1950s, GULAG prisoners carried out the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal, the Moscow Canal. Prisoners built Uglich, Rybinsk, Kuibyshev and other hydroelectric power stations, erected metallurgical plants, objects of the Soviet nuclear program, the longest railways and highways. Dozens of Soviet cities were built by Gulag prisoners (Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Dudinka, Norilsk, Vorkuta, Novokuibyshevsk and many others).

Beria himself characterized the efficiency of prisoners’ labor as low: “The existing food standard in the Gulag of 2000 calories is designed for a person sitting in prison and not working. In practice, even this reduced standard is supplied by supplying organizations only by 65-70%. Therefore, a significant percentage of the camp workforce falls into the categories of weak and useless people in production. In general, labor utilization is no higher than 60-65 percent.”

To the question “is Stalin necessary?” we can give only one answer - a firm “no”. Even without taking into account the tragic consequences of famine, repression and terror, even considering only economic costs and benefits - and even making all possible assumptions in favor of Stalin - we get results that clearly indicate that Stalin's economic policies did not lead to positive results. Forced redistribution significantly worsened productivity and social welfare.

- Sergey Guriev , economist

The economic efficiency of Stalinist industrialization at the hands of prisoners is also rated extremely low by modern economists. Sergei Guriev gives the following figures: by the end of the 30s, productivity in agriculture had reached only the pre-revolutionary level, and in industry it was one and a half times lower than in 1928. Industrialization led to huge losses in welfare (minus 24%).

Brave New World

Stalinism is not only a system of repression, it is also the moral degradation of society. The Stalinist system made tens of millions of slaves - it broke people morally. One of the most terrible texts I have read in my life is the tortured “confessions” of the great biologist Academician Nikolai Vavilov. Only a few can endure torture. But many – tens of millions! – were broken and became moral monsters for fear of being personally repressed.

- Alexey Yablokov , Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Philosopher and historian of totalitarianism Hannah Arendt explains: in order to turn Lenin's revolutionary dictatorship into a completely totalitarian rule, Stalin had to artificially create an atomized society. To achieve this, an atmosphere of fear was created in the USSR and denunciation was encouraged. Totalitarianism did not destroy real “enemies,” but imaginary ones, and this is its terrible difference from an ordinary dictatorship. None of the destroyed sections of society were hostile to the regime and probably would not become hostile in the foreseeable future.

In order to destroy all social and family ties, repressions were carried out in such a way as to threaten the same fate to the accused and everyone in the most ordinary relations with him, from casual acquaintances to closest friends and relatives. This policy penetrated deeply into Soviet society, where people, out of selfish interests or fearing for their lives, betrayed neighbors, friends, even members of their own families. In their quest for self-preservation, masses of people abandoned their own interests and became, on the one hand, a victim of power, and on the other, its collective embodiment.

The consequence of the simple and ingenious technique of "guilt for association with the enemy" is that, as soon as a person is accused, his former friends immediately turn into his worst enemies: in order to save their own skin, they rush out with unsolicited information and denunciations, supplying non-existent data against accused. Ultimately, it was by developing this technique to its latest and most fantastic extremes that the Bolshevik rulers succeeded in creating an atomized and disunited society, the likes of which we have never seen before, and whose events and catastrophes would hardly have occurred in such a pure form without it.

- Hannah Arendt, philosopher

The deep disunity of Soviet society and the lack of civil institutions were inherited by the new Russia and became one of the fundamental problems hindering the creation of democracy and civil peace in our country.

How the state and society fought the legacy of Stalinism

To date, Russia has survived “two and a half attempts at de-Stalinization.” The first and largest was launched by N. Khrushchev. It began with a report at the 20th Congress of the CPSU:

“They were arrested without the prosecutor’s sanction... What other sanction could there be when Stalin allowed everything. He was the chief prosecutor in these matters. Stalin gave not only permission, but also instructions for arrests on his own initiative. Stalin was a very suspicious man, with morbid suspicion, as we became convinced of when working with him. He could look at a person and say: “something is wrong with your eyes today,” or: “why do you often turn away today, don’t look straight into the eyes.” Morbid suspicion led him to sweeping mistrust. Everywhere and everywhere he saw “enemies”, “double-dealers”, “spies”. Having unlimited power, he allowed cruel arbitrariness and suppressed people morally and physically. When Stalin said that so-and-so should be arrested, one had to take it on faith that he was an “enemy of the people.” And the Beria gang, which ruled the state security agencies, went out of its way to prove the guilt of the arrested persons and the correctness of the materials they fabricated. What evidence was used? Confessions of those arrested. And the investigators extracted these “confessions.”

As a result of the fight against the cult of personality, sentences were revised, more than 88 thousand prisoners were rehabilitated. However, the “thaw” era that followed these events turned out to be very short-lived. Soon many dissidents who disagreed with the policies of the Soviet leadership would become victims of political persecution.

The second wave of de-Stalinization occurred in the late 80s and early 90s. Only then did society become aware of at least approximate figures characterizing the scale of Stalin’s terror. At this time, the sentences passed in the 30s and 40s were also revised. In most cases, the convicts were rehabilitated. Half a century later, the dispossessed peasants were posthumously rehabilitated.

A timid attempt at a new de-Stalinization was made during the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev. However, it did not bring significant results. Rosarkhiv, on the instructions of the president, posted on its website documents about 20 thousand Poles executed by the NKVD near Katyn.

Programs to preserve the memory of victims are being phased out due to lack of funding.

The history of Russia, like other former post-Soviet republics in the period from 1928 to 1953, is called the “era of Stalin.” He is positioned as a wise ruler, a brilliant statesman, acting on the basis of “expediency.” In reality, he was driven by completely different motives.

When talking about the beginning of the political career of a leader who became a tyrant, such authors bashfully hush up one indisputable fact: Stalin was a repeat offender with seven prison sentences. Robbery and violence were the main form of his social activity in his youth. Repression became an integral part of the government course he pursued.

Lenin received a worthy successor in his person. “Having creatively developed his teaching,” Joseph Vissarionovich came to the conclusion that the country should be ruled by methods of terror, constantly instilling fear in his fellow citizens.

A generation of people whose lips can speak the truth about Stalin’s repressions is leaving... Are not newfangled articles whitening the dictator a spit on their suffering, on their broken lives...

The leader who sanctioned torture

As you know, Joseph Vissarionovich personally signed execution lists for 400,000 people. In addition, Stalin tightened the repression as much as possible, authorizing the use of torture during interrogations. It was they who were given the green light to complete chaos in the dungeons. He was directly related to the notorious telegram of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated January 10, 1939, which literally gave the punitive authorities a free hand.

Creativity in introducing torture

Let us recall excerpts from a letter from Corps Commander Lisovsky, a leader bullied by the satraps...

"...A ten-day assembly-line interrogation with a brutal, vicious beating and no opportunity to sleep. Then - a twenty-day punishment cell. Next - forced to sit with your hands raised up, and also stand bent over with your head hidden under the table, for 7-8 hours..."

The detainees' desire to prove their innocence and their failure to sign fabricated charges led to increased torture and beatings. The social status of the detainees did not play a role. Let us remember that Robert Eiche, a candidate member of the Central Committee, had his spine broken during interrogation, and Marshal Blucher in Lefortovo prison died from beatings during interrogation.

Leader's motivation

The number of victims of Stalin's repressions was calculated not in tens or hundreds of thousands, but in seven million who died of starvation and four million who were arrested (general statistics will be presented below). The number of those executed alone was about 800 thousand people...

How did Stalin motivate his actions, immensely striving for the Olympus of power?

What does Anatoly Rybakov write about this in “Children of Arbat”? Analyzing Stalin's personality, he shares his judgments with us. “The ruler whom the people love is weak because his power is based on the emotions of other people. It's another matter when people are afraid of him! Then the power of the ruler depends on himself. This is a strong ruler! Hence the leader’s credo - to inspire love through fear!

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin took steps adequate to this idea. Repression became his main competitive tool in his political career.

The beginning of revolutionary activity

Joseph Vissarionovich became interested in revolutionary ideas at the age of 26 after meeting V.I. Lenin. He was engaged in robbery of funds for the party treasury. Fate sent him 7 exiles to Siberia. Stalin was distinguished by pragmatism, prudence, unscrupulousness in means, harshness towards people, and egocentrism from a young age. Repressions against financial institutions - robberies and violence - were his. Then the future party leader participated in Civil war.

Stalin in the Central Committee

In 1922, Joseph Vissarionovich received a long-awaited opportunity for career growth. The ill and weakening Vladimir Ilyich introduces him, along with Kamenev and Zinoviev, to the Central Committee of the party. In this way, Lenin creates a political counterbalance to Leon Trotsky, who really aspires to leadership.

Stalin simultaneously heads two party structures: the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee and the Secretariat. In this post, he brilliantly studied the art of party behind-the-scenes intrigue, which later came in handy in his fight against competitors.

Positioning of Stalin in the system of red terror

The machine of red terror was launched even before Stalin came to the Central Committee.

09/05/1918 The Council of People's Commissars issues the Resolution “On Red Terror”. The body for its implementation, called the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (VChK), operated under the Council of People's Commissars from December 7, 1917.

The reason for this radicalization of domestic politics was the murder of M. Uritsky, chairman of the St. Petersburg Cheka, and the assassination attempt on V. Lenin by Fanny Kaplan, acting from the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Both events occurred on August 30, 1918. Already this year, the Cheka launched a wave of repression.

According to statistical information, 21,988 people were arrested and imprisoned; 3061 hostages taken; 5544 were shot, 1791 were imprisoned in concentration camps.

By the time Stalin came to the Central Committee, gendarmes, police officers, tsarist officials, entrepreneurs, and landowners had already been repressed. First of all, the blow was dealt to the classes that are the support of the monarchical structure of society. However, having “creatively developed the teachings of Lenin,” Joseph Vissarionovich outlined new main directions of terror. In particular, a course was taken to destroy the social base of the village - agricultural entrepreneurs.

Stalin since 1928 - ideologist of violence

It was Stalin who turned repression into the main instrument of domestic policy, which he justified theoretically.

His concept of intensifying class struggle formally becomes the theoretical basis for the constant escalation of violence by state authorities. The country shuddered when it was first voiced by Joseph Vissarionovich at the July Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1928. From that time on, he actually became the leader of the Party, the inspirer and ideologist of violence. The tyrant declared war on his own people.

Hidden by slogans, the real meaning of Stalinism manifests itself in the unrestrained pursuit of power. Its essence is shown by the classic - George Orwell. The Englishman made it very clear that power for this ruler was not a means, but a goal. Dictatorship was no longer perceived by him as protection revolution. Revolution became a means to establish a personal, unlimited dictatorship.

Joseph Vissarionovich in 1928-1930. began by initiating the fabrication by the OGPU of a number of public trials that plunged the country into an atmosphere of shock and fear. Thus, the cult of Stalin’s personality began its formation with trials and the instillation of terror throughout society... Mass repressions were accompanied by public recognition of those who committed non-existent crimes as “enemies of the people.” People were brutally tortured to sign charges fabricated by the investigation. The brutal dictatorship imitated class struggle, cynically violating the Constitution and all norms of universal morality...

Three global trials were falsified: the “Union Bureau Case” (putting managers at risk); “The Case of the Industrial Party” (the sabotage of the Western powers regarding the economy of the USSR was imitated); “The Case of the Labor Peasant Party” (obvious falsification of damage to the seed fund and delays in mechanization). Moreover, they were all united into a single cause in order to create the appearance of a single conspiracy against Soviet power and provide scope for further falsifications of the OGPU - NKVD organs.

As a result, the entire economic management of the national economy was replaced from old “specialists” to “new personnel”, ready to work according to the instructions of the “leader”.

Through the lips of Stalin, who ensured that the state apparatus was loyal to repression through the trials, the Party’s unshakable determination was further expressed: to displace and ruin thousands of entrepreneurs - industrialists, traders, small and medium-sized ones; to ruin the basis of agricultural production - the wealthy peasantry (indiscriminately calling them “kulaks”). At the same time, the new voluntarist party position was masked by “the will of the poorest strata of workers and peasants.”

Behind the scenes, parallel to this “general line,” the “father of peoples” consistently, with the help of provocations and false testimony, began to implement the line of eliminating his party competitors for supreme state power (Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev).

Forced collectivization

The truth about Stalin's repressions of the period 1928-1932. indicates that the main object of repression was the main social base of the village - an effective agricultural producer. The goal is clear: the entire peasant country (and in fact at that time these were Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic and Transcaucasian republics) was, under the pressure of repression, to transform from a self-sufficient economic complex into an obedient donor for the implementation of Stalin’s plans for industrialization and maintaining hypertrophied power structures.

In order to clearly identify the object of his repressions, Stalin resorted to an obvious ideological forgery. Economically and socially unjustifiably, he achieved that party ideologists obedient to him singled out a normal self-supporting (profit-making) producer into a separate “class of kulaks” - the target of a new blow. Under the ideological leadership of Joseph Vissarionovich, a plan was developed for the destruction of the social foundations of the village that had developed over centuries, the destruction of the rural community - the Resolution “On the liquidation of ... kulak farms” dated January 30, 1930.

The Red Terror has come to the village. Peasants who fundamentally disagreed with collectivization were subjected to Stalin's “troika” trials, which in most cases ended with executions. Less active “kulaks”, as well as “kulak families” (the category of which could include any persons subjectively defined as a “rural asset”) were subjected to forcible confiscation of property and eviction. A body for permanent operational management of the eviction was created - a secret operational department under the leadership of Efim Evdokimov.

Migrants to the extreme regions of the North, victims of Stalin's repressions, were previously identified on a list in the Volga region, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Siberia, and the Urals.

In 1930-1931 1.8 million were evicted, and in 1932-1940. - 0.49 million people.

Organization of hunger

However, executions, ruin and eviction in the 30s of the last century are not all of Stalin’s repressions. A brief listing of them should be supplemented by the organization of famine. Its real reason was the inadequate approach of Joseph Vissarionovich personally to insufficient grain procurements in 1932. Why was the plan fulfilled by only 15-20%? The main reason was crop failure.

His subjectively developed plan for industrialization was under threat. It would be reasonable to reduce the plans by 30%, postpone them, and first stimulate the agricultural producer and wait for a harvest year... Stalin did not want to wait, he demanded immediate provision of food to the bloated security forces and new gigantic construction projects - Donbass, Kuzbass. The leader made a decision to confiscate grain intended for sowing and consumption from the peasants.

On October 22, 1932, two emergency commissions under the leadership of the odious personalities Lazar Kaganovich and Vyacheslav Molotov launched a misanthropic campaign of “fight against the fists” to confiscate grain, which was accompanied by violence, quick-to-death troika courts and the eviction of wealthy agricultural producers to the Far North. It was genocide...

It is noteworthy that the cruelty of the satraps was actually initiated and not stopped by Joseph Vissarionovich himself.

Well-known fact: correspondence between Sholokhov and Stalin

Mass repressions of Stalin in 1932 -1933. have documentary evidence. M.A. Sholokhov, the author of “The Quiet Don,” addressed the leader, defending his fellow countrymen, with letters exposing lawlessness during the confiscation of grain. The famous resident of the village of Veshenskaya presented the facts in detail, indicating the villages, the names of the victims and their tormentors. The abuse and violence against the peasants is horrifying: brutal beatings, breaking out joints, partial strangulation, mock executions, eviction from houses... In his response Letter, Joseph Vissarionovich only partially agreed with Sholokhov. The real position of the leader is visible in the lines where he calls the peasants saboteurs, “secretly” trying to disrupt the food supply...

This voluntaristic approach caused famine in the Volga region, Ukraine, the North Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Siberia, and the Urals. A special Statement of the Russian State Duma published in April 2008 revealed previously classified statistics to the public (previously, propaganda did its best to hide these repressions of Stalin.)

How many people died from hunger in the above regions? The figure established by the State Duma commission is terrifying: more than 7 million.

Other areas of pre-war Stalinist terror

Let's also consider three more areas of Stalin's terror, and in the table below we present each of them in more detail.

With the sanctions of Joseph Vissarionovich, a policy of oppression was also pursued freedom of conscience. A citizen of the Land of Soviets had to read the newspaper Pravda, and not go to church...

Hundreds of thousands of families of previously productive peasants, fearing dispossession and exile to the North, became an army supporting the country's gigantic construction projects. In order to limit their rights and make them manipulable, it was at that time that passporting of the population in cities was carried out. Only 27 million people received passports. Peasants (still the majority of the population) remained without passports, did not enjoy the full scope of civil rights (freedom to choose a place of residence, freedom to choose a job) and were “tied” to the collective farm at their place of residence with the obligatory condition of fulfilling workday norms.

Antisocial policies were accompanied by the destruction of families and an increase in the number of street children. This phenomenon has become so widespread that the state was forced to respond to it. With Stalin's sanction, the Politburo of the Country of Soviets issued one of the most inhumane regulations - punitive towards children.

The anti-religious offensive as of April 1, 1936 led to a reduction in Orthodox churches to 28%, mosques to 32% of their pre-revolutionary number. The number of clergy decreased from 112.6 thousand to 17.8 thousand.

For repressive purposes, passportization of the urban population was carried out. More than 385 thousand people did not receive passports and were forced to leave the cities. 22.7 thousand people were arrested.

One of Stalin’s most cynical crimes is his authorization of the secret Politburo resolution of 04/07/1935, which allows teenagers from 12 years of age to be brought to trial and determines their punishment up to capital punishment. In 1936 alone, 125 thousand children were placed in NKVD colonies. As of April 1, 1939, 10 thousand children were exiled to the Gulag system.

Great Terror

The state flywheel of terror was gaining momentum... The power of Joseph Vissarionovich, starting in 1937, as a result of repressions over the entire society, became comprehensive. However, their biggest leap was just ahead. In addition to the final and physical reprisals against former party colleagues - Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev - massive “cleansings of the state apparatus” were carried out.

Terror has reached unprecedented proportions. The OGPU (from 1938 - the NKVD) responded to all complaints and anonymous letters. A person's life was ruined for one carelessly dropped word... Even the Stalinist elite - statesmen: Kosior, Eikhe, Postyshev, Goloshchekin, Vareikis - were repressed; military leaders Blucher, Tukhachevsky; security officers Yagoda, Yezhov.

The day before Great Patriotic War Leading military personnel were shot on trumped-up cases “under an anti-Soviet conspiracy”: 19 qualified corps-level commanders - divisions with combat experience. The cadres who replaced them did not adequately master operational and tactical art.

It was not only the shopfront facades of Soviet cities that were characterized by the personality cult of Stalin. The repressions of the “leader of the peoples” gave rise to a monstrous system of Gulag camps, providing the Land of Soviets with free labor, mercilessly exploited labor resources to extract the wealth of the underdeveloped regions of the Far North and Central Asia.

The dynamics of the increase in those kept in camps and labor colonies is impressive: in 1932 there were 140 thousand prisoners, and in 1941 - about 1.9 million.

In particular, ironically, the prisoners of Kolyma mined 35% of the Union's gold, while living in terrible conditions. Let us list the main camps included in the Gulag system: Solovetsky (45 thousand prisoners), logging camps - Svirlag and Temnikovo (43 and 35 thousand, respectively); oil production and coal - Ukhtapechlag (51 thousand); chemical industry - Bereznyakov and Solikamsk (63 thousand); development of the steppes - Karaganda camp (30 thousand); construction of the Volga-Moscow canal (196 thousand); construction of the BAM (260 thousand); gold mining in Kolyma (138 thousand); Nickel mining in Norilsk (70 thousand).

Basically, people arrived in the Gulag system in a typical way: after a night arrest and an unfair, biased trial. And although this system was created under Lenin, it was under Stalin that political prisoners began to enter it en masse after mass trials: “enemies of the people” - kulaks (essentially effective agricultural producers), and even entire evicted nationalities. The majority served sentences from 10 to 25 years under Article 58. The investigation process involved torture and the breaking of the will of the convicted person.

In the case of the resettlement of kulaks and small nations, the train with prisoners stopped right in the taiga or in the steppe and the convicts built a camp and a special purpose prison (TON) for themselves. Since 1930, the labor of prisoners was mercilessly exploited to fulfill five-year plans - 12-14 hours a day. Tens of thousands of people died from overwork, poor nutrition, and poor medical care.

Instead of a conclusion

The years of Stalin's repressions - from 1928 to 1953. - changed the atmosphere in a society that has ceased to believe in justice and is under the pressure of constant fear. Since 1918, people were accused and shot by revolutionary military tribunals. The inhumane system developed... The Tribunal became the Cheka, then the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, then the OGPU, then the NKVD. Executions under Article 58 were in effect until 1947, and then Stalin replaced them with 25 years in camps.

In total, about 800 thousand people were shot.

Moral and physical torture of the entire population of the country, essentially lawlessness and arbitrariness, was carried out in the name of the workers' and peasants' power, the revolution.

The powerless people were terrorized by the Stalinist system constantly and methodically. The process of restoring justice began with the 20th Congress of the CPSU.

The development of disputes about the period of Stalin's rule is facilitated by the fact that many NKVD documents are still classified. There are different data on the number of victims of the political regime. That is why this period remains to be studied for a long time.

How many people did Stalin kill: years of rule, historical facts, repressions during the Stalin regime

Historical figures who built a dictatorial regime have distinctive psychological characteristics. Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili is no exception to this. Stalin is not a surname, but a pseudonym that clearly reflects his personality.

Could anyone imagine that a single mother-washer (later a milliner - a fairly popular profession at that time) from a Georgian village would raise a son who would defeat Nazi Germany, establish an industrial industry in a huge country and make millions of people shudder just with the sound of his name?

Now that our generation has access to ready-made knowledge from any field, people know that a harsh childhood shapes unpredictably strong personalities. This happened not only with Stalin, but also with Ivan the Terrible, Genghis Khan and the same Hitler. What is most interesting is that the two most odious figures in the history of the last century had similar childhoods: a tyrant father, an unhappy mother, their early death, education in schools with a spiritual bias, and a love of art. Few people know about such facts, because basically everyone is looking for information about how many people Stalin killed.

The path to politics

The reins of government of the largest power in the hands of Dzhugashvili lasted from 1928 to 1953, until his death. Stalin announced what policy he intended to pursue in 1928 at an official speech. For the rest of the term he did not deviate from his own. Evidence of this is the facts about how many people Stalin killed.

When it comes to the number of victims of the system, some of the destructive decisions are attributed to his associates: N. Yezhov and L. Beria. But at the end of all documents there is Stalin’s signature. As a result, in 1940, N. Yezhov himself became a victim of repression and was shot.

Motives

The goals of Stalin's repressions were pursued by several motives, and each of them achieved them in full. They are as follows:

1. Reprisals followed the leader's political opponents.
2. Repression was a tool to intimidate citizens in order to strengthen Soviet power.
3. A necessary measure to boost the economy of the state (repressions were carried out in this direction as well).
4. Exploitation of free labor.

Terror at its peak

The years 1937-1938 are considered to be the peak of repression. Regarding how many people Stalin killed, statistics during this period provide impressive figures - more than 1.5 million. NKVD order number 00447 was distinguished by the fact that it chose its victims according to national and territorial characteristics. Representatives of nations different from the ethnic composition of the USSR were especially persecuted.

How many people did Stalin kill because of Nazism? The following figures are given: more than 25,000 Germans, 85,000 Poles, about 6,000 Romanians, 11,000 Greeks, 17,000 Latvians and 9,000 Finns. Those who were not killed were expelled from their territory of residence without the right to assistance. Their relatives were fired from their jobs, military personnel were expelled from the ranks of the army.

Numbers

Anti-Stalinists do not miss the opportunity to once again exaggerate the real data. For example:

• The dissident believes that there were 40 million of them.
• Another dissident A.V. Antonov-Ovseenko did not waste time on trifles and exaggerated the data by two times - 80 million.
• There is also a version belonging to the rehabilitators of victims of repression. According to their version, the number of those killed was more than 100 million.
• The audience was most surprised by Boris Nemtsov, who in 2003 announced on live television that there were 150 million victims.

In fact, only official documents can answer the question of how many people Stalin killed. One of them is a memo by N. S. Khrushchev from 1954. It provides data from 1921 to 1953. According to the document, more than 642,000 people received the death penalty, that is, a little more than half a million, and not 100 or 150 million. The total number of convicts was over 2 million 300 thousand. Of these, 765,180 were sent into exile.

Repressions during the Second World War

The Great Patriotic War forced the rate of extermination of the people of their country to slow down slightly, but the phenomenon as such was not stopped. Now the “culprits” were sent to the front lines. If you ask the question of how many people Stalin killed at the hands of the Nazis, then there is no exact data. There was no time to judge the culprits. The catchphrase about decisions “without trial or investigation” remains from this period. The legal basis now became the order of Lavrentiy Beria.

Even emigrants became victims of the system: they were returned en masse and sentenced. Almost all cases were qualified by Article 58. But this is conditional. In practice, the law was often ignored.

Characteristic features of the Stalin period

After the war, repressions acquired a new mass character. The “Doctors' Plot” testifies to how many people from among the intelligentsia died under Stalin. The culprits in this case were doctors who served at the front and many scientists. If we analyze the history of the development of science, then that period accounts for the vast majority of “mysterious” deaths of scientists. The large-scale campaign against the Jewish people is also the fruit of the politics of the time.

Degree of cruelty

Speaking about how many people died in Stalin’s repressions, it cannot be said that all the accused were shot. There were many ways to torture people, both physically and psychologically. For example, if relatives of the accused are expelled from their place of residence, they are deprived of access to medical care and food products. Thousands of people died this way from cold, hunger or heat.

Prisoners were kept for long periods in cold rooms without food, drink or the right to sleep. Some were left handcuffed for months. None of them had the right to communicate with the outside world. Notifying loved ones about their fate was also not practiced. No one escaped the brutal beating with broken bones and spine. Another type of psychological torture is to be arrested and “forgotten” for years. There were people “forgotten” for 14 years.

Mass character

It is difficult to give specific figures for many reasons. Firstly, is it necessary to count the relatives of the prisoners? Should those who died even without arrest be considered “under mysterious circumstances”? Secondly, the previous population census was carried out before the start of the civil war, in 1917, and during the reign of Stalin - only after the Second World War. There is no exact information about the total population.

Politicization and anti-nationality

It was believed that repression would rid the people of spies, terrorists, saboteurs and those who did not support the ideology of the Soviet regime. However, in practice, completely different people became victims of the state machine: peasants, ordinary workers, public figures and entire nations who wished to preserve their national identity.

The first preparatory work for the creation of the Gulag began in 1929. Nowadays they are compared to German concentration camps, and quite rightly so. If you are interested in how many people died in them during Stalin’s time, then figures are given from 2 to 4 million.

Attack on the “cream of society”

The greatest damage was caused by an attack on the “cream of society.” According to experts, the repression of these people greatly delayed the development of science, medicine and other aspects of society. A simple example: publishing in foreign publications, collaborating with foreign colleagues, or conducting scientific experiments could easily result in arrest. Creative people published under pseudonyms.

By the middle of the Stalin period, the country was practically left without specialists. Most of those arrested and killed were graduates of monarchist educational institutions. They closed only about 10-15 years ago. There were no specialists with Soviet training. If Stalin led an active struggle against classism, then he practically achieved this: only poor peasants and an uneducated layer remained in the country.

The study of genetics was prohibited because it was “too bourgeois in nature.” The attitude towards psychology was the same. And psychiatry was engaged in punitive activities, imprisoning thousands of bright minds in special hospitals.

Judicial system

How many people died in the camps under Stalin can be clearly imagined if we consider the judicial system. If at an early stage some investigations were carried out and cases were considered in court, then after 2-3 years of the start of repression a simplified system was introduced. This mechanism did not give the accused the right to have a defense present in court. The decision was made based on the testimony of the accusing party. The decision was not subject to appeal and was put into effect no later than the next day after it was made.

The repressions violated all the principles of human rights and freedoms, according to which other countries had already lived for several centuries at that time. Researchers note that the attitude towards those repressed was no different from how the Nazis treated captured military personnel.

Conclusion

Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili died in 1953. After his death, it became clear that the entire system was built around his personal ambitions. An example of this is the cessation of criminal cases and prosecutions in many cases. Lavrenty Beria was also known by those around him as a hot-tempered person with inappropriate behavior. But at the same time, he significantly changed the situation, prohibiting torture against the accused and recognizing the groundlessness of many cases.

Stalin is compared to the Italian dictator Benetto Mussolini. But a total of about 40,000 people became victims of Mussolini, as opposed to Stalin’s 4.5 million plus. In addition, those arrested in Italy retained the right to communication, protection, and even to write books behind bars.

It is impossible not to note the achievements of that time. Victory in the Second World War, of course, is beyond any discussion. But thanks to the labor of Gulag residents, a huge number of buildings, roads, canals, railways and other structures were built throughout the country. Despite the hardships of the post-war years, the country was able to restore an acceptable standard of living.