Stalin Darkness At Noon Analysis

This highlighted not only Stalin’s fear of being subsided as leader of the USSR, but his ruthlessness in the face of opposition. Then followed the 1936 Show Trials, in which there were many arrests of party members, ex-opponents, military figures and non-party members. The first involved Zinoviev, Kamanev and their allies, who confessed under force for falsified crimes of being responsible for attempts to wreck Soviet industry and to kill Soviet leaders, and subsequently were shot after being convicted. The second followed in January 1937, in which Karl Radek, a well known Trotskyite and Pyatakov was shot, again on falsified crimes. In March 1938, Bukharin and 20 members of the old Right Deviation were tried, and found guilty of working with Trotsky and foreign governments against the USSR. All confessed and were shot, with Tomsky being so crippled by fear that he committed suicide. The Show Trials were a grotesque sham by which Stalin cast immense fear into the hearts and minds of Russia’s political clout, ensuring total control over any opposition through fear alone. Removal of any potential opposition was extended in July 1937 when Yezhov (Stalin’s head of the secret police from 1936) drew up a list of over 250,000 ‘Anti-Soviet elements’, which included intelligentsia such as artists, writers, musicians, priests and so forth. This became known as the Anti-Soviet List, ad anyone unfortunate enough to be found on it was arrested,

The Russian Revolution and the purges of Leninist and Stalinist Russia have spawned a literary output that is as diverse as it is voluminous. Darkness at Noon, a novel detailing the infamous Moscow Show Trials, conducted during the reign of Joseph Stalin is Arthur Koestler’s commentary upon the event that was yet another attempt by Stalin to silence his critics. In the novel, Koestler expounds upon Marxism, and the reason why a movement that had as its aim the “regeneration of mankind, should issue in its enslavement” and how, in spite of its drawbacks, it still held an appeal for intellectuals. It is for this reason that Koestler may have attempted “not to solve but to expose” the shortcomings of this political system and by doing so

“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said in his impactful narrative that paints a picture of the Gulag labor camps in Soviet Russia through personal experience, eyewitness testimony and interviews, and primary research material. Solzhenitsyn is describing the silence that survivors of the Gulag were forced to exhibit after staring terror and fear directly in the face during their time in the Gulag. The silence Solzhenitsyn is describing, is claimed to be one of the reason the Gulag is often not given the attention in history books and in the forefront of our minds that the Gulag deserves. The Gulag is believed to be one of the most horrible and inhuman acts of the 20th century, yet western society tends to shy away from mentioning the Gulag when discussing tragedy. This paper will examine historians’ views on the Gulag and why it has been overlooked in history as the horrible tragedy it was and the impact that this silence has had, not only on the survivors, but also the impact it has had on Russia and its society as a whole.

So in actuality, the moment Rubashov chose to allow his conscience to dictate his beliefs—instead of No.1—was the moment that he stood in opposition of the party. "No.1 has faith in himself, tough, slow, sullen, and unshakable. He has the most solid anchor-chain of all. Mine has worn thing in the last few years...The fact is: I no longer believe in my infallibility. That is why I am lost" (101). After further reflection Rubashov begins to understand. The idea had not changed, it had just been followed to its logical extreme. "We were held for madmen because we followed every thought down to its final consequence and acted accordingly" (100). The older generation was being replaced by the younger; just as the Neanderthaler replaced the Apes as the dominant species. True, the Neanderthaler must have been considered to be unnatural, uncouth, and vicious by the Apes, but despite those attributes, they became the altering force of nature, and evolution ensured their success (234-235). The older generation had stagnated. It was time that they were replaced by a superior species.

For example, Rubashov represents the group of people that work and toil for a glorious nation and eventually, world. This is due to the constant devotion to the former ideals of the Party, even if the Party has been led astray. This is confirmed when Rubashov states in his interrogation, “I demand nothing…except to prove once more my devotion to the Party” (Koestler 198). In contrast, the dedicated interrogator Gletkin represents the group of people that zealously follow the ideas of the Party, regardless of whether it is morally correct. This is represented through the cold conduct that Gletkin displays throughout Rubashov’s interrogation, disregarding the attempt at understanding the motives of Rubashov.

By the year of 1936, Russia had suffered a famine, uncontrolled urban migrations, and faced a threat of an oncoming European war. Additionally, many of Stalin’s colleagues began to question his position in power. These factors worried Stalin, as he feared that if the Soviet Union were to be invaded, the instability in the country would result in an uprising against him. To assuage these feelings, Stalin enacted a campaign to eliminate anyone who opposed him, his rule, or the principles of Communism.

In "Darkness at Noon", Harold Krents vividly describes some of the everyday prejudices disabled citizens must face. Presented in an often humorous fashion, the author opens the reader’s eyes to the cruel ironies of society’s preconceived and inaccurate judgments, and their long reaching effects on his life.

Darkness at Noon (1940), discusses the most intriguing and widely debated principles of political systems; justice, morality, and philosophy. These three concepts are touched upon several times throughout the novel to describe the ways of the Communist Party and the ruthlessness of the Soviet Revolution.

The novel, Darkness at Noon, clearly referenced Stalin’s purges that occurred during the late 1930s. The story follows an old Bolshevik—Rubashov—as he experienced the Great Purge and subsequent show trial. Through a theme of old vs. new and the overarching fear and brutality of the time period, Darkness at Noon contributes to a further understanding of the 30s in the Soviet Union.

Russia was a communist state under the totalitarian rule of Joseph Stalin in the early 20th century. Stalin rose to power with the help of the previous leader, Lenin, due to their shared views about Karl Marx’s belief about communism. During his rule, Stalin referred to many totalitarian ways to force the people of Russia to accept communism in the society. Some of these include censorship, propaganda, and indoctrination. Any publication or form of media that incorrectly represented or was not related to Stalin, the government, or communism was blocked or shut down. In addition to this, Stalin enforced all media to positively advertise him, the government, and communism. This was a form of indoctrinating the people of

In addition to this, in the mindset of the day, if someone was suspected of anti-Bolshevik activities, they were automatically guilty. The investigator would look for anything he could find that could possibly make the person guilty at all. Sometimes the investigator would take up a random piece of literature, say it was bad, and have the suspect shipped off, even if the “incriminating” evidence was something as benign as the children’s story Goodnight Moon. The investigator would not be the one to tell the suspect what he was even accused of; he would just take the “evidence” and people would soon kidnap the suspect and toss him in a cattle car to Siberia, which was cramped with a mass of other convicts. When the prisoners reached the Gulag, an official there would take everyone’s valuables and toss the convicts into cramped cells. The interrogation could start at any time. For some the interrogations were that day, and for others it never came and their lives were lived out in the dirty cells. When and if the interrogator got a confession out of someone, a prison sentence was read out and the convict was sent off to the actual Gulag.

Nicolas Werth’s “A State Against Its People: Violence, Repression, and Terror in the Soviet Union” featured in The Black Book of Communism is a detailed monograph of mass violence in the Soviet Union. In his work, Werth seeks to explain how mass violence became normalized and institutionalized the Soviet government as a result of cycles of violence that began in 1917 under Lenin and ended in 1953 with Stalin’s death. In his analysis, Werth examines the interrelatedness of Soviet violence and argues that after 1917, violence eventually became the norm in the Soviet Union and define Soviet social history. Werth uses each period of violence to explain the ways in which in transformed Soviet society and eventually contributed to the next cycle.

The people’s freedom of speech was stripped along with many of their other human rights, and nobody would dare go against Stalin because it meant certain death. The third source is propaganda that is shown to be false by the content of source two, and this second source also argues with what is said in the first source. This first source describes the purging and consolidation of the ranks of the Bolsheviks, which were really just the murder of anyone who was against Stalin and his beliefs. It also describes that the completion of the construction of a new classless socialist society was created by a rallied Bolshevik party, and the destruction of the enemies of the party. This means that Stalin had successfully eliminated his competition and had managed to seize control over the people, causing a total dictatorship, led through power and fear. The reality of the communist party of the soviet union was that the people involved were exploited and suffered, just as explained in the second source. This ultimately led to the downfall of a self destructing society, one we know as Communist

He also admitted to conspiring with Trotsky to destroy Communism - this conspiracy was called the 'Trotskyite - Zinovievite Conspiracy. The other Trials were in 1937 with Trotsky, but he was not in the country, yet they still said he was the lead conspiracer and a counter-revolutionary. In 1938, Bukharin was put on trial, he admitted to nearly everything except, conspiring to plotting the murder of Lenin. These trials made the Russian people believe that there was a conspiracy going on and that anyone could be in on it. This made workers suspicious of anyone who did not produce as much as their fellow workers, this meant that everyone worked hard.

Criminal charges should and will be brought against the former leader of the Soviet Union, Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (also known as Joseph Stalin), born on December 18, 1879, in the Russian peasant village of Gori, Georgia, the son of Besarion Jughashvili, a cobbler, and Ketevan Geladze, a washerwoman. () Joseph Stalin will be charged with the following eight crimes: Genocide - the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation,() Politicide - a gradual but systematic attempt to exterminate an independent political entity,() Democide - the murder of any person or people by their government, () Crimes against Humanity - are particularly odious offences in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or a grave humiliation or degradation of human beings, () Classicide - is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of a social class through persecution and violence, () Terror - intense, sharp, overmastering fear, () and Mass Killings - is the act of murdering many people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time.() Similar charges will files and handed down to four of Joseph Stalin’s key henchman, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda, and Nikolai Yezhov, during the Ukraine Famine of 1932-1933. In this essay we will be looking in to Joseph Stalin policies, why he developed these policies and how his four top henchmen helped plan