Dissertation Information for Kevin Neal Clark NAME: - Kevin Neal Clark
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2001)
ADVISORS: - J. Arch Getty
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Ivan T. Berend - Stephen P. Frank - Roman Koropeckyj
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: Out of control: The Great Terror and the Ukrainian communist party
Abstract: This dissertation is an examination of Stalins Great Terror in Ukraine and the decimation of the Ukrainian Communist party from 1936-1939. It explores the relationship between the Communist party leadership in Moscow and Kiev, and attempts to provide an analysis of the events that differs from traditional accounts that emphasize the role of Stalin and the struggle for power at the top of the regime. I have utilized primary source material in my research, particularly archival records and newspapers.
Local sources reveal enormous conflicts within the party that frequently led one side to denounce the other for treason. There was rivalry between powerful party leaders and ambitious party members who resented their privileges and authority. There was tension in the work place between management and labor over authority and increased work loads. There was a tendency for the party leadership to blame accidents, shortages, and poor production on "treasonous" officials rather seek the real causes for such problems.
Archival research proves that most of the repression was carried out from below. The leadership in Moscow set broad parameters for the purge, giving orders to local party committees to "unmask" enemies and those who protected them without specifically identifying who or how high in status they could be. Hierarchical relationships that had held the party together were undermined as rank and file members denounced their superiors as well as each other. Ambitious secret police officials at the local level made arrests on the basis of unverified denunciations and confirmed this testimony by obtaining confessions through the use of torture and psychological pressure. Stalin, for the most part, allowed the party to purge itself until the campaign virtually destroyed the party and the Politburo decided, for its own interests, to gradually bring it to a halt. This was done by restoring hierarchical relationships within the party and purging the purgers, particularly the denouncers and the secret police. The bureaucracy that emerged was strong enough to protect itself and to ensure that a Great Terror would never again take place.
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MPACT Scores for Kevin Neal Clark A = 0
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calculated 2008-09-10 22:05:17
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