Download political repression in the Soviet

Gulag and purges
The vision of Nikolai
Getman and historical
background
I will talk about :
• Historical background:
-Joseph Stalin
-Purges
-Gulag
• Nikolai Getman’s biography
• Nikolai Getman’s pictures
Joseph Stalin
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He was born on the 18 December in the
town of Gori in the Tiflis Governorate of
the Russian Empire (today in Georgia)
he received a scholarship to attend
the Tiflis Spiritual Seminary
He anonymously published poetry in
Georgian in the local press and engaged
in student politics .
joined the Russian Social-Democratic
Labour Party, a Marxist group.
His skill, charm, and street-smarts won
him the respect of Lenin, and he rose
rapidly through the ranks of the
Bolsheviks.
In October 1917, the Bolshevik Central
Committee voted in favor of an
insurrection so Lenin appointed
Stalin General Secretary in 1922 .
Following Lenin's death, a power struggle
began, between the seven Politburo
members.
He subsequently managed to consolidate
power by suppressing Lenin's criticisms
and expanding the functions of his role,
eliminating any opposition.
He served as the Premier of the Soviet
Union from 1941 onward.
The exact number of deaths caused by Stalin's regime is still a
subject of debate, but it is widely agreed to be in the order of
millions
STALINISM: Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (Russian: Большо́й терро́р) was a
campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union which occurred
from 1936 to 1938. It involved a large-scale purge of the Communist
Party and government officials, repression of peasants and the Red
Army leadership, and widespread police surveillance, suspicion of
"saboteurs", imprisonment, and arbitrary executions . They grew from
his paranoia and his desire to be absolute autocrat.
Several reasons could be named for Joseph Stalin's terror:
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First of all, he believed that the country had to be united
Secondly, Stalin calculated that the Soviet Union only had 10 years to
catch up with the Western world in terms of industrial growth .
Third, the leader became increasingly paranoid (seeing plots
everywhere) and power-mad (he demanded continuous praise and
applause).
in 1935, his wife killed herself.
1934-1939: The cult of Stalin
In 1934 Sergey Kirov, a rival to Stalin,
was murdered. Although Stalin is
believed to have been behind the
assassination, he used it as a
pretext to arrest thousands of his
opponents, who, in his words,
might have been responsible for
Kirov's murder. In the same period
thousands of religious leaders
were imprisoned while churches
were closed.
The cult of Stalin replaced churches
with its icons. Propaganda was
everywhere – pictures, statues,
continuous praise and applause
for the leader. History textbooks
and photographs were changed to
make him the hero of the
Revolution, and obliterate the
names of purged people.
Gulag
• The Gulag (Glavnoe Upravlenie ispravitel’notrudovykh LAGerei )was the government agency
that administered the main Soviet forced labor
camp systems during the Stalin era, from the
1930s until the 1950s.
• The first camps were created in 1918
• The camps housed a wide range of convicts,
from petty criminals to political prisoners.
• Where Gulag were located?
In the extreme geographical and
climatic regions of the country from
the Arctic north to the Siberian east
and the Central Asian south.
• What did prisoners do?
Prisoners were engaged in a variety
of economic activities. Their work
was typically unskilled and manual.
They performed harsh physical
labor.
Prisoners faced meager food
rations, inadequate clothing,
overcrowding, poorly insulated
housing, poor hygiene, and
inadequate health care.
Nikolai Getman
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He was born on December 23,
1917 in Ukraine
From early childhood, he was
always drawing; his drawings
were primitive, but were utterly
sincere.
He grew up with his father and his
two older brothers, Pyotr and
Aleksandr.
After graduating in 1937, he
entered the Kharkov Art College to
become a professional artist.
He was called up to join the Red
Army
He spent about eight years in
Siberia (Taishetlag) and Kolyma
(Svitlag)
He was freed on August 30, 1953
"The most important thing in a picture is colour.
It is through your use of colour that you will
make the viewer sense the mood of your canvas.
Without color there is no art."
Lunchtime: They Bring
In The Gruel
GULAG Prisoners
Eternal Memory in the
Permafrost
Escape
“I am sometimes asked how I felt, or rather
how anyone can feel in such
unimaginable circumstances as loss of
freedom, arrest, interrogation, trial,
prison, labour camp. The human brain
possesses a unique ability to adapt, and
this ability is far greater than we can
imagine in ordinary life. I did not think
about death at all because I did not
believe in it. I did not live in permanent
fear, but with an extremely heightened
sense of danger. I was always on my
guard, but the main thing is that I
would not have survived without the
belief, the absolute conviction that good
would triumph over evil.
There is a human virtue called strength of
will. I realized what a great, unbending
force that is, if even the terrible Gulag
machine could not extinguish it.”
Moving Out
The presentation has
finished.
I Hope was interesting
and
thanks for your attention