Chapter 7 Soviet foreign policy

Source analysis 7.2

Read and examine the following historical sources and answer the questions that follow.

Source 7.J

British cartoon published in 1939

Source 7.K

Extract from Alan Bullock, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, published 1992

The explanation [for the Ezhovschina against the army] can only be that Stalin was
prepared to run the risk of drastically weakening the Soviet Union’s capacity to defend
itself in order to make sure that there should be no command group which, in the event
of war and serious initial reverses, might seize the opportunity to carry out a coup
against them. It was not the actions of the Soviet generals that aroused his suspicion,
but that same attitude of mind which led him to judge them capable of acting
independently, and therefore politically unreliable.

Source 7.L

A joke current in the USSR during the late 1930s, reprinted in an article on Soviet anecdotal
humour in 1957

A flock of sheep were stopped by frontier guards at the Russo-Finnish border. ‘Why do
you wish to leave Russia?’ the guards asked them.
‘It’s the NKVD,’ replied the terrified sheep. ‘Beria’s ordered them to arrest all
elephants.’
‘But you aren’t elephants!’ The guards pointed out.
‘Try telling that to the NKVD.’

Cambridge University Press 1 © Thomas and Laurence, 2018

Chapter 7 Soviet foreign policy

Questions

1 Use the specified sources to answer the following question:

a. Using Source 7.J, identify the event that is the subject of the cartoon.

b. Identify the position held by Beria mentioned in Source 7.L.

c. Using Source 7.K, explain in your own words why Stalin purged the armed forces.

Cambridge University Press 2 © Thomas and Laurence, 2018

Chapter 7 Soviet foreign policy

d. Using all three sources and your own knowledge, assess how essential Stalin was
to the functioning of the Soviet Union during the period 1928–41.

2 Explain how each of these sources would be useful to an historian attempting to

understand the nature of life in the Soviet Union under Stalin. (Consider the perspective
of each source as well as its reliability.)

Cambridge University Press 3 © Thomas and Laurence, 2018