Examine the relative importance of economic and political factors in the causes of the Stalinist terror

The Stalinist terror is a wide-reaching term that may be broadly interpreted to mean the actions taken by Stalin and the Communist leadership to purge unfavourable elements, both in the party and society at large, deemed a hindrance to socialism. In this sense, a specific time period is difficult to distinguish since the terror manifested itself in multiple ways and targeted different groups at varying points in time. Instances of purges were evident from the very start when Stalin came to power as General Secretary in 1924 and can be seen to have continued well into the 1940s. A more overt period of ‘cleansing’ is said to have started with the introduction of collectivisation and the first Five Year Plan in 1928 and upheld until the 18^thParty Congress of 1939. Within this ten year period, victims of the Stalinist terror ranged from kulaks, bourgeois experts, national minorities, factory managers, the army, low ranking party officials and even high-profile Bolsheviks. Given such far-reaching targets, it is hard to pinpoint exactly what motivated Stalin to unleash violence on such a scale yet possible explanations may be found in political, economic, personal and even ideological factors. By exploring the way in which Stalin removed potential opponents within his own Party, purged un-cooperative regional officials and executed several important military leaders, the political motivations to become an unchallenged, totalitarian leader are clear. Equally, economic factors may be discerned through the need to scapegoat the failures of Stalin’s rapid modernisation programs, provide slave labour for the construction of infrastructure and maintain the pace of the Five Year Plans. Despite these political and economic factors being the most obvious triggers of the terror, some historians have argued that elements of Stalin’s personality or even Russia’s autocratic history played a part in instigating the terror. Nonetheless, the impact of these seem minimal and may therefore be argued that on the whole, Stalin’s motives for the terror were fundamentally political yet conveniently intertwined with economic considerations.