03 Party and government 1917-1953

Question 1

Leadership of the USSR at the start

Answer 1

-Sovnarkom was the head of the Soviet government and was nominally in charge, but in reality just rubber-stamped the decisions of the Politburo (Communist Party leadership)

-Led by Lenin, and the influential; Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin, Trotsky, Stalin

Question 2

Democratic features of Lenin’s government - the people’s support

Answer 2

-The first decrees were genuinely popular and truly reflected what the majority of workers, peasants, and soldiers wanted 

-There was genuine support for a Bolshevik-dominated government in Petrograd and Moscow

-e.g. The Petrograd trade union Council and the first conference of female factory workers both gave the full support to the new Bolshevik government

Question 3

Democratic features of Lenin’s government - government

Answer 3

-Each Sovnarkom member was elected, showing democratic influences they were entitled the “People’s Commissars” implied the revolutionary nature of the new government

-Belief in Democratic Centralism - ‘Freedom of discussion, unity of action’, everyone got a say but once a decision was made everyone had to follow it - although sometime there was more debate like in 1921 over NEP

Question 4

Un-Democratic features of Lenin’s government - Constituent Assembly

Answer 4

-By January 1918, Lenin was turning against democracy as he refused to recognise the results of a nationwide election held in November 1917 in which the Bolsheviks lost

-After the election a Constituent Assembly was created with a Bolshevik minority

-Constituent Assembly met for the first time in January 1918 but Lenin closed the assembly after only 1 day

Question 5

Un-Democratic features of Lenin’s government - leaving WW1

Answer 5

-Lenin approved the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 which gave away 35% of Russian territory to the central powers, Soviets weren’t consulted

-The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was extremely unpopular which meant that Bolsheviks lost the Soviet elections in May 1918, however Lenin refused to recognise the results in order to stay in power and demanded new elections which would then be postponed due to the Civil War

Question 6

Change in the nature of Lenin’s government by 1924 - In line with earlier plans - the Party

Answer 6

-The Party contained many powerful leaders and Trotsky, Stalin, Bukharin, Zinoviev, and Kamenev all helped to make important decisions and Lenin was simply considered ‘first amoung equals’

-Bolsheviks who were not considered role models were removed from the party in a non-violent purge called the Chitska starting 1932-35

Question 7

Change in the nature of Lenin’s government by 1924 - In line with earlier plans - the effect on the people

Answer 7

-In the ‘Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’ the non-Russian republics were encouraged to celebrate their own national identities in 1922

-A repressive secret police used extreme violence against the Church and harassed class enemies, such as businesspeople who grew too rich

Question 8

Change in the nature of Lenin’s government by 1924 - Not in line with earlier plans - the Party

Answer 8

-Key decisions were taken by the Politburo of the Communist Party and then fed down to the lower levels of the party and the soviets

-USSR had become a one-party state and the All-Russian Congress of Soviets had become a rubber stamp

Question 9

New bureaucratic elite in the Party

Answer 9

-Early civil war 1918 communist party was a small body, made of workers and revolutionaries

-By 1921, party expanded and dominated by former middle classes.

-Party bureaucracy started to form new elite, with privileges above the normal person like 5000 party members lived in best Moscow hotels during civil war.

-Less likely to debate issues and more likely to carry out instructions.

Question 10

When was the Power Struggle?

Answer 10

After Lenin’s death - 1924-1928

Question 11

The defeat of Trotsky

Answer 11

-After Lenin’s death in January 1924, Stalin, Kamenev, and Zinoviev all formed an anti-Trotsky alliance (1924-1925) which broadly supported NEP
-Didn’t matter that Kamenev and Zinoviev were ideologically similar to Trotsky, they just thought he was the strongest
-At the 1924 13th Party Congress Trotsky’s proposals were rejected, and in 1925 he was removed as head of the Red Army and then withdrew from active politics

Question 12

The defeat of the United Opposition

Answer 12

-Following his defeat, the anti-Trotsky alliance split apart as it had achieved its goal and Stalin formed an alliance with Bukharin and the right wing of the Party from 1925-1927

-Kamenev and Zinoviev put aside their differences with Trotsky to form the United Opposition in 1926, arguing for rapid industrialisation, world revolution and the ending of NEP

-As the United Opposition were now an organised group arguing against approved Party policy, Stalin accused them of ‘factionalism’ and they were all expelled

Question 13

The defeat of Bukharin

Answer 13

-In 1928 Stalin performed a U-turn and adopted the policies of the left wing, rejecting NEP in favour of rapid industrialisation as the general mood in the Party was starting to shift against NEP due to its increasing failures

• Adopting the policies of the left gave Stalin a distinct identity in the Party, something which he had been lacking, and the lefts support

-When Bukharin attempted to mount a defence of NEP in Party meetings, he was simply outvoted and Stalin stripped Bukharin of his most important posts

Question 14

Main reasons Stalin won the power struggle - The importance of policies

Answer 14

-Stalin’s socialism in one country was a positive patriotic message which contrasted to Trotsky’s increasingly impractical policy of worldwide revolution
-When the United Opposition argued for rapid industrialisation in 1926, they found little support as their was the trauma of the civil war and the fact that NEP was created by Lenin
-When Stalin suggested it in 1928 the political context had changed as food shortages in the cities and fears of foreign invasion created an appetite for extreme solution, and Bukharin who was defending NEP was defeated

Question 15

Main reasons Stalin won the power struggle - Stalin’s position as General Secretary

Answer 15

-Was General Secretary meaning much of the Party bureaucracy was loyal to him as he was the one who could promote these career-focused men
-Was seen as a boring job by the rest of the politburo

Question 16

Main reasons Stalin won the power struggle - Stalin’s political skill

Answer 16

-Stalin only became General Secretary because no one else wanted the position as it was regarded as a boring, dead-end post, and he was known as ‘comrade card index’

-Stalin’s ability to turn this position into a powerful weapon does displays his ability as a skilled political schemer

-This was demonstrated by the clever way he took advantage of Lenin’s funeral, by his willingness to make and break alliances, his use of Lenin’s ban on factions to silence his opponents

Question 17

Main reasons Stalin won the power struggle - Stalin’s personality

Answer 17

-It would be wrong to see Stalin as just a ruthless politician and many people were prepared to support him because they liked his personality

-As the 1923 Lenin Enrolment was bringing in thousands of politically basic workers, being seen as a ‘man of the people’ rather than a high flying intellectual like Trotsky was, was a positive advantage

-Stalin choosing to emphasis this could be seen as a clever tactic but could also be an honest reflection his upbringing in poverty on the fringe of the Empire

Question 18

Main reasons Stalin won the power struggle - The weaknesses and mistakes of his opponents

Answer 18

-Trotsky, despite his achievements, was unpopular as he saw no need to control his arrogance, or build friendships and alliances in the wider Party

-That Trotsky failed to attend Lenin’s funeral, or argue for the publication of his Testament, were huge errors of his judgement

-Zinoviev and Kamenev failed to realise that Stalin was a serious rival and they Lenin’s Testament from being published, protecting their reputations but also failing to destroy Stalin’s

Question 19

Impact of the Power Struggle on the Communist Party - Debate within the Party - under Lenin

Answer 19

-Between 1917-1928, the Communist Party included members who believed a variety of different things

-Lenin tolerated differences in view at the top of government e.g Lenin wanted to create a union of nations but Stalin want to keep it as Russian control

Question 20

Impact of the Power Struggle on the Communist Party - Debate within the Party - by the end of the struggle

Answer 20

-By the end of the power struggle, only the policies Stalin advocated for were allowed (ideological orthodoxy), Socialism in one country, Collectivisation, and industrialisation

-Stalin argued that Trotskyites and Bukharin’s followers posed a real threat to the Party and that Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Trotsky needed to be arrested and Trotsky expelled from the Party and exiled from the USSR

Question 21

Impact of the Power Struggle on the Communist Party - Leadership of the Party - under Lenin

Answer 21

-Under Lenin there were many people who had authority with Stalin, Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev, and Kamenev

Question 22

Impact of the Power Struggle on the Communist Party - Leadership of the Party - by the end of the struggle

Answer 22

-Stalin had a near monopoly on authority
-By 1928, Bukharin was still highly regarded by most of the Party, even though his policies were rejected
-Zinoviev and Kamenev forced to apologise, Trotsky expelled from party and country

Question 23

Impact of the Power Struggle on the Communist Party - Nature of Party Membership - by the end of the struggle

Answer 23

-Stalin initiated the Lenin Enrolment in 1923, allowing 130,000 people to join the Communist Party, which he justified by arguing that the Party needed new working-class members
-These new poorly educated members were suspicious of the Party intellectuals Trotsky and Bukharin, and wanted well paying jobs meaning they supported Stalin who could give them promotions
-By 1928, the Party was very different with these new members being more interested with their careers than the ideas of the revolution

Question 24

Impact of the Power Struggle on the Communist Party - Party Democracy - under Lenin

Answer 24

-In 1921, the Party was based on Democratic Centralism and all Party members voted for delegates who attended the Party Congress, which then elected the Central Committee

Question 25

Impact of the Power Struggle on the Communist Party - Party Democracy - by the end of the struggle

Answer 25

-From 1923, Stalin began to issue an ‘approved list’, local parties were encouraged to send delegates from the approved list

-In 1923, around 1/3 of the delegates at the Party Congress were selected from Stalin’s list and as the 1920s went on, this number grew meaning Stalin gained more power over the Congress

Question 26

Impact of the Power Struggle on the Communist Party - Role of the Party - under Lenin VS by the end of the struggle

Answer 26

-Was a party full of dedicated revolutionary radicals
VS
-The Party increasingly had the role of administering and implementing the decisions of the Politburo and the leader
-Party became increasingly privileged and became a party full of professional administrators dedicated to their own career

Question 27

Stalin feeling insecure by the mid-1930s

Answer 27

-In 1932, Ryutin, a former party secretary, issued a document to members of the Central Committee that was highly critical of Stalin. He accused Stalin of building a personal dictatorship and called upon members of the Politburo to kill him but they refuse

-Party officials were often critical of the unrealistic targets set under the Five-Year Plans and drew attention to the fact that they could not be achieved.
-These criticisms gained strength at the 1934 Congress of Victors, celebrating the successes of the Soviet Union. The Party put pressure on Kirov to put forward these criticisms and Kirov received a wave of support and a standing ovation and he got more votes than Stalin

Question 28

Stalin solving his insecurities in the mid-1930s

Answer 28

-The event that was to precipitate the Great Purge (1936-38) was the murder of Kirov. Kirov was murdered on December 1st, 1934.  

-The fact that Kirov was without a bodyguard and the members of the NKVD trained the assassin to fire a pistol means it is thought that the murder was done under Stalin’s order.  

-Both Zinoviev and Kamenev were arrested, brought to trial in January 1935 and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.  

-Thus, the murder of Kirov was the catalyst for the purging of large sections of the Communist Party.  

Question 29

Stalin maintaining his power after WW2 - defending against the new generation

Answer 29

-Almost immediately after the war the old guard of Stalin’s associates such as Molotov and Kaganovich found themselves eclipsed by the rise of younger generations within the Party leaderships.

-Beria was essentially running a state within a state, he was in charge of the secret police and the Mingrelian Affair of 1951 involved a purge of the Party in Georgia that removed some of Beria’s allies.

-The Politburo was enlarged from 10 to 36 members, which allowed Stalin to bring in more of his supporters such as Brezhnev and Ignatev.

Question 30

Stalin maintaining his power after WW2 - defending against people earning prestige from WW2

Answer 30

-Leningrad Affair of 1949. 800 day siege, 1 million people dead. At no point did it fall - WW2 - Stalin became afraid that Leningrad would become too autonomous, therefore in 1949 Stalin accused them of being traitors and dispersed them across the country

-Stalin became afraid of the popiulariy of Zhukov had after he led Russia through the war. Zhukov became known as ‘the man who never lost a war’ in 1946, Zhukov was demoted to a regional position and had medial posts ever after