Essay: Russia’s international relations with Japan and Germany (1937 onwards)

Russia’s international relations with both Japan and Germany had become increasingly strained by 1937 as Germany, under Nazi control, had been steadily conquering surrounding land and was beginning to edge towards Russia whilst Japan had always been a threat to Russia as they had previously fought over territory in the Russo-Japanese war. By the end of the 1930s, Stalin had become confident that there was a good chance of war with Germany. As a result, he was keen to remove anyone who could possibly oppose his foreign policy or anyone who would attempt to slow down the pace of industrialisation as Russia needed its industry to boom in order to produce weaponry for the potential war. When Hitler was appointed as Chancellor of Germany the prospect of war became even more likely, as Hitler was extremely anti-communist which suggested he would be keen to fight the USSR. The Tsarist regime’s downfall had been social revolutions and Stalin was worried that his regime would be taken down by Germany, and as many peasants had turned against the regime, often murdering rural communists, Stalin felt it was important to cleanse the country of any opposition to his regime. Stalin became obsessed with the idea that national minorities in the countryside were allying themselves with the Germans and were planning to overthrow him which provoked him to use the purges as a weapon to ensure that the population of the USSR completely supported him. It is clear that although the threat of invasion played an important part in the purges, it was Stalin’s neurotic personality that was truly responsible, as even historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore, who sees the threat of invasion as a more important factor argues “The terror itself was the result of vast political, economic and diplomatic forces- but Stalin’s personality certainly shaped it.” This demonstrates that although it could be seen that the threat of invasion was a significant factor in the cause of the purges as it increased the strain on Stalin at the time and added to the fear and suspicion sweeping the country which allowed the purges to further escalate; without the catalytic effect of Stalin’s paranoia they never would have become so violent and extensive. By 1937, the purges had extended as far as the Red Army, with leading army officers being shot as Stalin had become paranoid that the army were no longer loyal to him and would not follow his policies. Prominent officers would often be tortured into falsely confessing to conspiring to rise-up and overthrow Stalin and would then be executed. This demonstrates the true extent of the purges and how Stalin had become totally gripped by paranoia as he was so obsessed with the imaginary threat of being overthrown that he purged his own army even with the threat of invasion hanging over him.  Stalin then began to purge the countryside, in a process commonly referred to as ‘ethnic cleansing’ as he had hundreds of thousands of people from national minorities in Russia either deported or arrested and then later executed. When Russia went to war with Germany in 1941, the ethnic cleansing reached a new height, with around 2 million Russians who belonged to national minorities being arrested or deported from the country. This demonstrates that the added strain of the threat of invasion was an influential factor in provoking the purges, but his paranoia was still the factor that underpinned the purges, a viewpoint that is compounded by historian Geoffrey Roberts who adds: “Stalin’s war against his borderland populations represented not so much a personal as political paranoia- a fear of the threat that nationalist secessionism could pose to the survival of the Soviet state in the time of war.” As the threat of invasion from Germany only increased the pressure on Russian industry to produce weapons and armour for a future war and with the people having already been placed under a great amount of strain after the results of the 5 year plan,  Stalin believed that they needed to be controlled in order to work to protect the country. Germany was far superior militarily to the USSR, and their clear strength of leadership which was shown in WWI had provoked fear in Stalin, who saw Russia as being held-back from full industrialisation by its inadequate transportation which pushed him to increase the pace of industrialisation. Powerful methods of coercion which were employed as part of the purges, such as the continuous threat of prison or execution, were used to force people to comply with the government’s orders and to work for the country. Therefore, it can be seen that Stalin believed he was working in the country’s best interest, and was using the purges and the immense fear they created as a weapon to control the population and to force them to further Russia’s industry in order to meet the added demands of war. Stalin’s belief in the power of the purges was supported by his ally in the Bolshevik party, Kaganovich, who commented that “the mass repressions were necessitated by the threat of war” which demonstrates how it was a widely held belief in the party that the purges were implemented for the good of the country. Overall, although the threat of invasion was a pivotal factor in the purges, as the constant fear that foreign armies might be preparing to attack Russia added to the sense of terror that was sweeping Russia at this time and led to the purges becoming chaotic and out of control as thousands of innocent members of national minorities were purged; without Stalin’s unstable mental state and his deep paranoia, which was only further fed by the constant fear that there were allies of the Germans throughout the countryside, the added strain on Russian industry that the threat of invasion provided would not have been enough to provoke the true horror of the purges that occurred under Stalin’s leadership.