Name: ____________________
Historiography Agree – Disagree – Revise Activity
For each of the following statements by REVISIONIST historian Sheila Fitzpatrick:
 Decide to either Agree, Disagree, or Revise the statement
 Provide 3-5 points of information, facts, evidence, etc. to support your decision
1. Stalin’s policies in the process of catching up is harmful to the population (A – D – R)
2. The policies of Stalin limit the next generation of Soviet leadership (A – D – R)
3. The state regulates all aspects of domestic life, but doesn’t perform very well (A – D – R)
4. The policies of Stalin built the Soviet bureaucracy and state (A – D – R)
5. The policies of Stalin created reliance on the state (A – D – R)
6. The environment of fear and paranoia was necessary to build the state (A – D – R)
MAK-xamples
*You can decide to Agree, Disagree, OR Revise ANY of the statements
as long as you provide evidence  you are correct
The most spectacular episode of terror was undoubtedly the Great Purges of 1937–38 (A)
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The assassination/death of Kirov was used as a pre-text for the trials
Trials were filmed
Bolshevik revolutionaries of 1917 purged from Stalin’s government
Trotsky tried in absentia (later assassinated in Mexico)
Ex. The commissar vanishes
The most spectacular episode of terror was undoubtedly the Great Purges of 1937–38 (D)
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Stalin purged members of the government on numerous occasions, not just in 1937-8
The Great Purges primarily targeted government officials, not common people
o These revolutionaries were already guilty of crimes against Eastern European people in the
Civil War…may have deserved punishment…
Holodomor resulted in the death of MILLIONS of Ukrainians
Stalin’s greatest crimes were those that he concealed, not those that he publicized
Forced collectivization redistributed population, liquidated kulaks, and imprisoned others in gulags
The most spectacular episode of terror was undoubtedly the Great Purges of 1937–38 (R)
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The Great Purges of 1937-38 had a theatrical element of spectacle, which drew attention in building a
Stalinist State, but obscured Stalin’s more significant crimes
o Stalin arranged for Kirov to be killed, thus initiating the trials
o Trials were filmed
o Holodomor resulted in the death of MILLIONS of Ukrainians
o Forced collectivization redistributed population, liquidated kulaks, and imprisoned others in
gulags