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Documents-based questions
DOCUMENTS-BASED QUESTION 1
(Higher and Ordinary Levels)
Read the two sources and answer the questions that follow. Document B is on page 39.
Document A
This is an extract from the final speech by prosecutor Andrei Vyshinsky on ‘The criminal activities of Bukharin and his fellow traitors’ before the Supreme Court of the USSR, 11 March 1938.
Bukharin’s participation in such a monstrous crime as the attempt on Lenin’s life by Kaplan, the Socialist-Revolutionary terrorist, on August 13, 1918, has now been fully revealed...
The court investigation established, with exhaustive thoroughness, that the Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites, as agents of the intelligence services of certain states, worked to undermine the military power of the USSR; aimed for the overthrow of Soviet power and the restoration of capitalism...
The crimes of the accused are proved by their own testimonies, by the evidence of witnesses, by the findings of expert witnesses, and by material evidence. The entire Soviet people and all the honest men throughout the world are awaiting your sentence. Let your sentence, Comrade Judges, resound as a bell calling for new victories. The entire country demands one thing: shoot the plotters as foul dogs, crush the accursed vipers.
The years will pass and graves of traitors will be overgrown with wild weeds and thistles, while bright rays of our sun will shine over our Fatherland as brightly as ever. Along the road cleaned of this filth, our people will march onward; headed by our great teacher and leader, Stalin, they will march towards Communism.
Source: Soviet Russia Today, April 1938, Vol. 7, No. 2 Note: Fanya Kaplan had attempted to assassinate Lenin in 1918.
Document B
This is an extract from Nikolai Bukharin’s last plea before the Supreme Court of the USSR, Moscow, on 12 March 1938.
I once more repeat that I admit that I am guilty of treason to the socialist fatherland, the most wicked of possible crimes, of the organization of kulak uprisings, of preparations for terrorist acts and of belonging to an underground, anti-Soviet organization.
I categorically deny that I was connected with foreign intelligence services, that they were my masters and that I acted in accordance with their wishes.
I categorically deny my involvement in the assassination of Kirov ... According to Yagoda’s testimony, Kirov was assassinated in accordance with a decision of the ‘bloc of Rights and Trotskyites’. I knew nothing about it.
We came out against the joy of the new life with the most criminal methods of struggle. I reject the accusation of having plotted against the life of Vladimir Ilyich [Lenin], but my counter-revolutionary allies, and I at their head, endeavoured to murder Lenin’s cause, which is being carried on with such tremendous success by Stalin. I await the verdict. What matters is not the personal feelings of a repentant enemy, but the flourishing progress of the USSR and its international importance.
Source: http://art-bin.com/art/obukharin.html Note: Kirov was the leader of the party in Leningrad – his assassination started the Great Terror. Yagoda was the former head of the NKVD.
QUESTIONS
1 Comprehension (a) According to document A, what verdict does Andrei Vyshinsky demand? (b) Give two examples from document A to show that Vyshinsky strongly disapproves of the actions of the accused men. (c) In document B, what crimes did Bukharin admit to being guilty of? (d) In document B, how does Bukharin try to show his support of communism?
2 Comparision (a) From document B, did Bukharin agree with all of the allegations made against him in document A? (b) Which of the two sources do you think is more reliable? Explain your answer with reference to both sources.
3 Criticism (a) Would you agree that document A is a clear example of propaganda? (b) What are the strengths and weaknesses of document B as a historical source?
4 Contextualisation Ordinary Level (1 A4 page): What role did the show trials play in Stalin’s Russia? Higher Level (1.5 A4 pages):
How important was terror in Stalin’s Russia?
DOCUMENTS-BASED QUESTION 2
(Higher and Ordinary Levels)
Read the two sources and answer the questions that follow.
Document A
This is an edited extract from the verdict of the Trial of the Sixteen (The First Show Trial), August 23 1936.
Thus it is established that 1) G. E. Zinoviev; 2) L. B. Kamenev; 3) G. E. Evdokimov; 4) I.P. Bakayev; 5) S. V. Mrachkovsky; 6) V. A. Ter-Vaganyan and 7) I. N. Smirnov are guilty of: a) Having organized the united Trotskyite-Zinovievite terrorist centre for the purpose of assassinating the leaders of the Soviet Government [and the Communist Party]. b) Having prepared, and on December 1, 1934, perpetrated the foul murder of Comrade S. M.
Kirov… c) Having organized a number of terrorist groups who made preparations to assassinate Comrades
Stalin [and other named leaders] 8) E. A. Dreitzer; 9) I. I. Reingold; 10) R. V. Pickel; 11) E. S. Holtzman; 12) Fritz David; 13) V. P. Olberg; 14) K. B. Berman-Yurin; 15) M. I. Lurye (Emel, Alexander) and 16) N. L. Lurye are guilty of having been, while members of the underground counter-revolutionary terrorist TrotskyiteZinovievite organization, active participants in the preparations fo the assassination of the leaders of the Party and the Government… Sentences: All to the supreme penalty – to be shot, and all property personally belonging to them to be confiscated.
Source: Report of the Court Proceedings: The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre
Document B
This is an extract from a pamphlet written by the Communist Party of Great Britain about the Trial of the Sixteen in August 1936.
On August 24th, 1936, a trial concluded in Moscow. A Soviet Court, acting in conformity with the established Criminal Code of the country, gave its verdict. Zinoviev, Kamenev and fourteen others, charged with plotting the murder of Stalin… and other leaders of the Communist Party and the Government of the Soviet Union, were found guilty. The death sentence was pronounced. It was carried out thirty hours later. The Court also pronounced that the main instigator of the intended murders was Leon Trotsky... No one will gainsay [deny] the importance of this trial. It has aroused much controversy. Sensational reports are of daily occurrence in the British Press. They tell of a “new Stalin purge”, “the end of Bolshevism”, of “risings by the Red Army”... In short, an anti-Soviet campaign is in full swing. These sensational reports are coupled with attacks on the trial of Kamenev, Zinoviev and their associates, in the hope of discrediting the Soviet Union and its responsible leaders. It is hardly necessary to say that the reports of “a new wave of terror” in the Soviet Union are completely untrue, and that the main source of these reports is the German Nazi propaganda machine.
