Stalin's Terror: the machinery of state terror and the Seventeenth Party Congress

The machinery of state terror

• Lenin established the Cheka in December 1917
• From 1922 to 1934, security functions were carried out by the Department of Political Police (OGPU), who supervised a network of labour camps
• In 1934, responsibility for internal security passed to the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD)
• In 1934, labour camps were reorganised into a national network, known as Gulags

The Seventeenth Party Congress (1934)

• The Seventeenth Party Congress was hailed as the 'Congress of Victors' and was a celebration of the successes of industrialisation
• It…