While the tsarist state often made use of the military and other forces of power during times of opposition, Stalin largely curtailed the population through regular imprisonment and execution. Nadezhda Mandelstam, in her memoirs Hope Against Hope, recalls how her husband was taken for writing satirical poems about the Soviet Union’s dictator. Mandelstam discusses the fear of Stalin’s exterminating force, which performed their duties under the saying, “Give us a man, and we’ll make a case.” Regardless of innocence or guilt, all whom Stalin deemed as pests to the state were faced with the possibly of internment, forced labor, or death. This threat of terror included those individuals hindering the progress of the state. Spies and wreckers—those who were condemned for harming the industry or success of the Soviet Union—were hunted, imprisoned, and appeared in show trials where the verdict had often been predetermined; similar to how it was under the tsar, opposition in Stalin’s Russia was met with a swift and often harsh
While the tsarist state often made use of the military and other forces of power during times of opposition, Stalin largely curtailed the population through regular imprisonment and execution. Nadezhda Mandelstam, in her memoirs Hope Against Hope, recalls how her husband was taken for writing satirical poems about the Soviet Union’s dictator. Mandelstam discusses the fear of Stalin’s exterminating force, which performed their duties under the saying, “Give us a man, and we’ll make a case.” Regardless of innocence or guilt, all whom Stalin deemed as pests to the state were faced with the possibly of internment, forced labor, or death. This threat of terror included those individuals hindering the progress of the state. Spies and wreckers—those who were condemned for harming the industry or success of the Soviet Union—were hunted, imprisoned, and appeared in show trials where the verdict had often been predetermined; similar to how it was under the tsar, opposition in Stalin’s Russia was met with a swift and often harsh