When we think of the Stalinist terror, we often focus on the show trialsShow Trials Full Description:Highly publicized, choreographed trials of prominent Bolshevik leaders (such as Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Bukharin). The defendants were forced to confess to impossible crimes, such as conspiring with Fascists or plotting to kill Lenin, to justify their execution. The Show Trials were political theater designed for domestic and international consumption. They were not about justice, but about constructing a narrative. By forcing the “Old Bolsheviks” to confess, Stalin rewrote history, presenting himself as the only loyal disciple of Lenin and his rivals as lifelong traitors. Critical Perspective:These trials demonstrated the psychological power of the regime. The fact that hardened revolutionaries confessed to absurd crimes revealed the effectiveness of the state’s torture methods and its ability to break the human spirit. They served as a warning to the entire population: if the heroes of the revolution could be traitors, then anyone could be a traitor, justifying universal suspicion.
Read more of Old Bolsheviks or the chilling knock on the door in the middle of the night. But behind the theatrical cruelty lay a vast, grinding bureaucracy—a system of camps that became a state within a state.

In this week’s podcast, I explored the history of the GulagGulag Full Description:The government agency that administered the vast network of forced labor camps. Far more than just a prison system, it was a central component of the Soviet economy, using slave labor to extract resources from the most inhospitable regions of the country. The Gulag system institutionalized political repression. Millions of “enemies of the people”—ranging from political dissidents and intellectuals to petty criminals—were arrested and transported to camps to work in mining, timber, and construction. Critical Perspective:Critically, the Gulag was an economic necessity for the Stalinist system. The “Economic Miracle” of the Soviet Union relied heavily on this reservoir of unpaid, coerced labor to complete dangerous infrastructure projects that free labor would not undertake. It signifies the ultimate reduction of the human being to a unit of production, to be worked until exhaustion and then replaced.
Read more through the lens of Anne Applebaum’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book. What emerges is a picture of a system that was both meticulously planned and chaotic in its execution.

The Metrics of Murder

The years 1937 and 1938 are remembered as the height of the Great Terror. However, as Applebaum notes, these were not necessarily the deadliest years in the camps. Death rates were actually higher during the famine of 1932-33 and the desperate war years of 1942-43.

What made 1937 unique was the shift in intent. The camps transformed from indifferent prisons where people died of neglect into institutions where death was often the goal. This transformation was driven by quotas. StalinStalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician, dictator and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. Read More signed orders listing specific numbers of people to be arrested in each region—thousands to be shot (Category 1), thousands more to be imprisoned (Category 2).

These quotas were treated like production targets. Local NKVD bosses, eager to prove their loyalty, would petition Moscow for permission to arrest more people, to exceed their targets just as a factory might exceed its quota for steel production.

The Purge of the Architects

Perhaps the most surreal aspect of this period is how the system turned on its own creators. Genrikh Yagoda, the secret police chief who oversaw the expansion of the camps, was shot in 1938. His successor, the “bloodthirsty dwarf” Nikolai Yezhov, followed him to the grave soon after.

Even the administrators of the Gulag itself were not safe. Matvei Berman, the boss of the Gulag from 1932 to 1937, was executed for “sabotage.” His crime? The failure of the slave labor projects he managed. When roads were built badly or coal mines underperformed, the system needed a scapegoat. It couldn’t be that slave labor is inherently inefficient; it had to be a Trotskyist conspiracy.

The Paranoia of Networks

Why did Stalin decimate his own security services? As I discussed in the episode, much of it comes down to the nature of Soviet society. In a world where the rule of law didn’t exist, people survived through blat—connections. They built networks of patronage and loyalty to get jobs, apartments, and food.

To Stalin, these networks looked like rival power bases. A camp commander with a loyal staff wasn’t just an administrator; he was a potential threat. The terror was, in part, a war against the informal structures of Soviet life, a way to ensure that the only loyalty that mattered was loyalty to the leader.

Study Announcements:

We are launching a series of live masterclasses for A-Level and IB students in 2026!

• Jan 25: The Russian Revolution & Stalinism
• Feb 15: America 1945-74
• March 15: China from Mao to Deng
• April 19: Weimar & Nazi Germany

These sessions will focus on exam technique, essay structure, and historiography. Booking opens on Monday—don’t miss out!

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Transcript

Nick: Welcome to the Explaining History podcast.

Firstly, if you are a student of A-level history, we’ve got some exciting stuff coming up. Tickets will go live on the website on Monday, but here are the dates for our 2026 study sessions:

• Sunday, January 25th (3pm UK): The Russian Revolution and Stalinism – How to navigate the chaos of 1917 and structure the perfect dictatorship essay.
• Sunday, February 15th (3pm UK): America 1945-74 – From Truman to Nixon, covering civil rights, Vietnam, and Watergate.
• Sunday, March 15th (3pm UK): China from Mao to Deng Xiaoping (1949-78) – Handling the complexity of domestic events and international relations.
• Sunday, April 19th (3pm UK): Weimar and Nazi Germany 1933-45 – From Depression to Dictatorship.

These will be live video workshops. You can purchase access via the website, and there is a “season pass” discount if you want to attend multiple sessions. Spaces are limited due to bandwidth, so make sure you book early. We won’t just be rehashing facts; we’ll be getting inside the mind of the examiner and helping you structure your knowledge to hit the top marks.

With that in mind, we’re going to dive into an aspect of the terror that gets slightly overlooked: the role of the Soviet camps.

I’m looking at Anne Applebaum’s book Gulag. While I don’t always agree with her political analysis, her historical work on this subject is significant.

In Chapter Six, “The Great Terror and its Aftermath,” she begins with a verse from Anna Akhmatova’s Requiem, capturing the atmosphere where “only the dead could smile.”

Applebaum writes that objectively, 1937 and 1938—the years of the Great Terror—were not the deadliest in the history of the camps. The number of prisoners peaked much later, in 1952. Death rates were actually higher during the famine of 1932-33 and the war years of 1942-43.

Statistically, the peak numbers of deaths under Stalinism come from the famine and the Nazi invasion. However, 1937 marks a watershed. It was the year the camps transformed from indifferently managed prisons into deadly institutions where prisoners were deliberately worked to death or murdered.

This terror was not spontaneous. It was a bureaucratic process. Stalin signed orders listing quotas of people to be arrested in each region. Category 1 meant execution; Category 2 meant 8-10 years in the camps.

Local NKVD officers, eager to show zeal, often requested to increase these quotas. The Armenian NKVD asked to shoot an additional 700 people; the Ukrainian NKVD asked to arrest an additional 30,000 “kulaks and anti-Soviet elements.”

The terror also consumed the founders of the Gulag itself. Genrikh Yagoda, the secret police chief responsible for the camp system’s expansion, was shot in 1938. His successor, Nikolai Yezhov, purged Yagoda’s men and then fell victim to the purge himself.

Matvei Berman, boss of the Gulag from 1932 to 1937, was executed for leading a “Right-Trotskyist terrorist and sabotage organization.” The charges were surreal—he was accused of creating “privileged conditions” for prisoners and sabotaging construction projects.

Why this self-cannibalization? It was partly because the system needed an explanation for failure. The slave labor projects—canals, mines, factories—were inefficient and often failed to meet targets. Rather than admitting the flaw was in the system, Stalin blamed “wreckers.”

Furthermore, Stalin feared networks. In Soviet society, people survived through blat (connections). To Stalin, these networks of loyalty looked like rival power bases. A camp commander with a loyal staff was a threat. The purge was a way to break these networks and ensure the only loyalty was to the leader.

I hope that was useful. Remember, tickets for the study days go live on Monday. Get in there quickly to avoid disappointment!

Take care, and I’ll catch you on the next Explaining History podcast. Bye.