Gulags and the Purges

1. What type of construction projects were built using the Gulag System?
   The most notable construction projects to come out of the Gulag would be the Canal from the White Sea to the Baltic Sea ( which was too shallow, and was deemed a failure), as well as the Moscow Metrosystem and other large scale but expensive projects such as the electrical facility in the Ukraine.

2.What were the conditions in the camps?
   Many of the camps exposed its prisoners to cold and brutal conditions due to the location of the camp, in some camps temperatures were reported dipping under -60 in the winter, to make the prisoners work harder the Zek rationed food, some of the worst camps were in Kolyma this is where the winter conditions were brutal, and the workers were forced to prospect gold by hand.

3.  Why do you think slave labor was used in the projects instead of paid labor?
    I think that they chose to use slave labor because the projects were so large in scale and expensive as it is that they could not afford to also pay workers, another problem was relating to the purges, many of the skilled workers and more skilled people were in Gulags or dead, because they were considered to be enemies of the state. Also, by using slave labor they were able to achieve much more, because the conditions could be lower in standard.

4. What were the issues surrounding Kirov's murder?, Why do you think he had been murdered?
 Surrounding Kirov's murder there were the issues of the assassins plan, he was originally caught and arrested, however the police later released him, and returned his gun to him, another strange thing about the murder of Kirov is that Kirov's bodyguard was no where to be found, when normally they were always together, the next day he too was killed. I think that he was murdered because he was too popular  for Stalin's good; he was more handsome, from russia ( not georgia) popular, and a moderate member of Politburo at the time, stalin would not want anyone to appear better for the job then him.

5. What was the great purge? what specific group did it target?
The great purge was a purge of the party where those who were deemed unrealiable were purged from the party, they mostly targeted people who had been supporters of trotsky or zinoviev.

6.What was the purpose of the Show Trials?
The show trials were put on in order to parade around those who Stalin wished to purge from the party, who had places of power. They were eventually pushed into false-confessions and killed, they were put on for show, and were given the maximum publicity to humiliate and make example of the men accused.

7.What was the Great Terror?
The great terror was the spread of the purges outside of the party, those in the military went first, admirals were shot, then anyone could accuse anyone within the USSR, citizens ratted out other citizens, where they would be taken away in the night and killed.