1040 Ch. 25 • Economic; Depression and Dictatorship

state had been officially separated in 1918, religious life went on as before,
at least in rural areas, both in Orthodox regions and in the Islamic
republics. Moreover, despite promoting atheism Stalin nonetheless dis­
couraged unmarried couples from living together, banned abortion, and
forbade homosexuality. Gradually in the 1930s, Stalin’s early enthusiasm
for equal opportunity for women waned; the state-approved image of the
female as mother of committed Soviet children prevailed.

“Darkness at Noon”: Stalin’s Purges

By 1934, Stalin was no longer content merely to expel from the party those

who did not share his views. He promulgated a state decree that expedited

the punishment of those deemed to be “terrorists.” As arrests mounted in

number, executions replaced sentences of hard labor. The charges became

more and more outrageous—accusations of secretly plotting to overthrow

the state, of “w recking” Soviet industries, of trying to restore capitalism, or

of simply being “bourgeois” or the wife of an “enemy of the people.” Lead­

The first Stalinist “show

trial,” 1930: an accused

bureaucrat “confesses”

to industrial sabotage.