вЂ“ Appointed head of the Leningrad Communist Party in 1926 вЂ“ Long career as a Bolshevik, and an accomplished officer during the RCW When he was shot dead under highly suspicious circumstances on 1st Dec 1934, the evidence pointed to an organised assassination. Sergei Kirov was a popular, handsome, Russian official - Stalin could only be the first and last of those four things - who had made the fatal mistake of showing enough talent and spirit to attract StalinвЂ™s jealousy. Thus began one of the darkest aspects of his reign. Stalin started to fear the possibility of united opposition against him. The Five Year Plans and collectivisation had indeed set the country on the path to modernisation, but they had also caused much disruption and suffering the Great Famine was particularly worrying to many in the Party. Though Stalin was paramount leader of the Party and the USSR, cracks were beginning to show by 1932. anecdote on StalinвЂ™s mother Keke Geladze But I confess, even about that I was wrong.вЂќ So I thought that there was no better occupation for a man, and I would have been proud that I was a priestвЂ™s mother. He said: вЂњMama, do you remember our Tsar? Well, IвЂ™m something like the Tsar,вЂќ to which Geladze replied вЂњYouвЂ™d have done better to become a priest.вЂќ Stalin then asked, вЂњWhy did you dream so much of me becoming a priest?вЂќ, with Geladze replying вЂњI saw how little they worked and how well they lived. According to an unpublished memoir of her doctor, the two had a short discussion where she asked Stalin how his career was going. Hearing that his mother Geladze was ill, Stalin visited her for the final time on 17th October 1935.

The Politburo in 1917, and the fates of its members Left: Stalin with Antipov, Kirov, and Shvernik in 1926. Right: Stalin and Molotov by the Moscow Canal To his right is his croney Molotov, and to his left NKVD chief Yezhov Left: Stalin standing by the Moscow Canal.

To what extent did the purges weaken the USSR?.How did Stalin put the USSR under a reign of terror, and keep her there?.How valid would it be to firmly distance LeninвЂ™s use of terror from StalinвЂ™s?.Why did Stalin want to purge both the Party and wider society?.How and why did KirovвЂ™s murder become a seminal point in political development in StalinвЂ™s USSR?.The Soviet experience of WW2, and how it shaped the USSR after the war.State control: the purges and the cult of personality.Economic policies: collectivisation and the Five Year Plans.The state of the USSR in 1924: the power struggle after LeninвЂ™s death, and StalinвЂ™s victory.

You are under arrest my lord