the Left in 1927. It became clear that he would exclude factions or individuals that opposed his personal authority. Although Trotsky, Bukharin, and other old Bolshevik party leaders were stripped of their influential positions, they still underestimated Stalin. The Stalin-Bukharin debate developed behind the scenes. The well off peasants (kulaks), were taxed heavily by the state and withheld their grain from the market. Bukharin favored further concessions to them, including raising state grain prices. Stalin on the other hand began taking severe actions against the kulaks and officials who sympathized with them.Early 1929, Stalin attacked the Right openly and accused anyone belonging to the Right as purposely hindering industrialization and collectivization, and therefore deemed as traitors. The secret police were encouraged to arrest anyone with out warrant if they were suspected of any treasonous behavior. In 1934, the secret police was dissolved and its duties were assumed by the Peoples Commissariat of International Affaires (NKVD)12. NKVD employees were highly paid and obtained the best privileges. This state with in a state kept records of millions of citizens, and spied on all party agencies. They were expected to show loyalty to the NKVD first and to the party second. In 1936, a special committee was established to investigate all party members and liquidate enemies of the state. Private citizens were encouraged to denounce any and all suspected counterrevolutionaries. In Spring, forty members of Stalins personal bodyguard were tried for secretly conspiring against the state. As the rapidly growing NKVD justified its existence by uncovering conspiracies everywhere, Stalin ordered careful surveillance even of Politburo members.13 A reign of terror swept the U.S.S.R. that dwarfed that of the French Revolution. Unlike the French, the terror in Russia reached its peak twenty years after the Revolution. The French terror claimed...
