Essay plans - Unit 5

Question 1

What was the main cause of the Terror?

Answer 1

Political

1. Stalin = naturally paranoid, suicide of his wife (1932) increased this, also held grudges
2. Stalin believed he was the only one that could move Russia to socialism, viewed anyone who disagreed as traitorous.
3. Stalin felt threatened by gorwing opposition - 1932 Ryutin ‘eveil genius of the Russian revolution’ called for him to be removed. 1934 Kirov called for increased rations for workers and end to forced grain seizures - standing ovations and more votes than Stalin - feared being removed from government.
4. NKVD concerned about their status - end to grain seizure by Kirov reduced role of NKVD. Did the NKVD kill Kirov - to raise their profile?
5. 1934 Kirov’s murder - justification for the Terror, launching the Terror, evidence of a conspiracy = Yagoda power to arrest and execute ‘terrorist plotting’ - death penalty extended to anyone - subversive activity. Also purge on the party.

Economic concerns

1. Concerns that local leaders weren’t following his economic policies - not arresting kulaks, reluctant to purge industrialists
2. Deflected blame for economic failures from Stalin - poor conditions, lack of facilities and violence - Stalin encouraged workers to blame managers ‘wreckers or sabatoeurs
3. Condeming people to camps = a free labour force. 300,000 prisoners build Belamor canal with 700 dying per day

Foreign policy

1. Stalin convined war was imminent and Stalin wanted to remove any opposition to his foreign policy or the rate of industrialisation to rearm

Social reasons

1. Significant opposition to the economic policies - urban workers (wages, living conditions, worker discipline)
2. Violence of collectivisation allienated many peasantry - lots of attempts to sabotage and murders of rural communists
3. Many against the methods to enforce collectivisation and industrialisation - 1928 Shakhty coal mine questioned the pace, accused of ‘couter-revolutionary’ activity and given a public show trial.

Question 2

How far was Stalin responsible for the terror?

Answer 2

Stalin

1. prior to 1934 - Stalin used terror to remove opposition - 1FYP - kulaks, class enemies, wreckers - labour camps. Shakhty trial ‘counter-revolutionary activity’ - 5 executed or long prison sentences
2. Initial terror post Kirov - ordered by Stalin. NKVD given poors to arrest and execute ‘terrorist plotting’. Purge of the party.
3. Stalin made statements that allowed the Terror to extend - the NKVD is four years behind. In 1937 Doctrine of the Sharpening Class Struggle - extending the terror

Lenin

1. Lenin open about the need for Terror in 1918 - we stand for organised terror. ‘Our aim is to fight against the enemies of the Soviet goernment’ - he also established labour camps
2. Dec 1917 - Lenin established the Cheka - employed 100,000 and was largest and best funded agencies in Russia. Entirely able to carry out arrests, interrogations and executions of its own accord, not accountable.
3. Red Terror - attack anyone guilty of ‘counter-revolution’ 1918-1929 - 300,000 killed.
4. Lenin - preiodic purges of the party - expelled but not violent

Communist party

1. Approved Stalin’s orders regarding the Terror - post Kirov they demanded local party organisations identify ‘Trotskyites’ and ‘Zinoveivites’ leading to 1000s of arrests
2. They approved the ‘Doctrine of Sharpening Class Struggle in 1937’
3. Local level party members were involved in criticising and denouncing those in higher positions (for opportunities) and visa versa (to show loyalty)

NKVD

1. Interrogated, arrested, extracted confessions and oversaw trials. Key role in Show Trials.
2. Yezhoc responisble for drawing up order 00447 establishing committees at regional level responsible for searching out anti-soviet elements and meeting quotas
3. Local KVD groups felt under pressure to meet or exceed targets - so they spiralled out of control and gained their own momentum. Turkmenistan - 3225 executions approved but local NKVD shot 4,037 (25% over the limit)

The people

1. Russian people collaborated - denouncing their friends and neighbours
2. In one area in Kiev 69 people were denounced by 1 man, in Odessa a man denounced 230.
3. Mixed motives - survival, loyalty or gain.

Question 3

How far did the Great Terror reform Russia?

Answer 3

Social impact

1. Focus changed. Initially the members of the party, 1935-36 - leadership of the party, the NKVD and the army. 35,000 army officers exiled or shot and over 23,000 NKVD agents killed. Between 1935-1936 1/2 million convicted, 23,000 shot and 405,000 in camps
2. 1937-38- Yezhovshchina. 1.5 m arrested and 680,000 shot. 10% adult men executed or in labour camps. Majority in towns and in professional/managerial position.
3. Industrial managers, local party leaders, trade union leaders purged and replaced by new more loyal members, end of 1938 1/3 of Comunist party members purged.
4. 1937 - terror focused on national minorities - seen as potential spies. 1938 National campaigns = majority of work. 110,000 POlish and 16,000 Latvians purged.

Economic impact

1. Lied about targets to avoid punishment - so hard to plan
2. Purges removed the most expereinced - leading to reductions on targets. EG coal 1932-36 coal doubled but 1936-40 no increase

Political impact

1. Show trials - eliminated opposition to Stalin in the 1920s ‘exposed as traitors’
2. Deflected attention from economic problems and failings. Blaming managers for inequalities and poor conditions. eg. KAZAN officials on trial for using govt fund to finance luxury lifestyles

Question 4

How successful was Stalin’s social and cultural policy?

Answer 4

The church

1. Partially
2. BY 1941, nearly 40,000 churches and 25,000 mosques closed. Also Jewish synagogues and schools closed.
3. Number of active priests fell from 60,000 in the 1920s to 5665 by 1941 - purged and sent to camps
4. Strong religious belief persisted. In 1937 over 1/2m said they were religious believers

Women

1. ‘Family code’ 1936 - Abortion illegal, contraception banned = increase in birth rate from under 25 per 1000 in 1935 to 31 per 1000 in 1940. Divorce became more difficult and prosititution illegal.
2. BUT divorce remained high (37% in Moscow in 1934) and over 150,000 abortions for every 57,000 live births. An increase in women working as prostitutes
3. Despite focus on family life, number of women working in factories increased. In 1928, 3 million women workers by 1940 this was 13m

Children

1. Largely successful - reformed education - focusing on better skilled and educated. Significant improvement in literacy rate. 1917 65% by 1941 94% in towns and 86% in rural areas
2. Membership to Komsomol increased in 1928 2m by 1939 7m, by 1945 15m
3. Many young people in non soviet movements even in 1940 30% of 15-24 year olds were members

‘Soviet man’

1. Partially successful - estimated that only 1/5 of workers enthusiastically supprted the regime
2. Soviet campaigns - imrpve men’s behaviour towards women, reduce alcohol consumption had limited success
3. Many were avid consumers of culture suggesting they enjoyed this form of propaganda. Magnitogorsk more that 600,000 tickets were sold at the cinema, Jan 1936, 40,000 books sold

Arts and culture

1. Successful - 1930s art and culture tightly controlled. Socialist realism only accpetable form - glorified Stalin, govt policy and economic achievemtns
2. 1934 union of writers - limited freedom, many stopped writing. R.Service ‘ All artistic figures went in fear of their lives’
3. Film makers - tightly controlled and must be ‘in a form that can be understood by millions’. 1936-37 - 68 films withdrawn mid production for not following instructions
4. Art and culture were closely monitored. 37-38 60 plays were banned.

The Cult of Stalin

1. Highly successful - 1940s = god like status, heir of Lenin
2. 1938 - ‘history of the All-union communist party’ exaggerated Stalin’s role in Oct rev and him as Lenin’s closest friend. main history text book, 1948 sold 34 m copies
3. Cult ridiculed by some in Russia but evidence that there was great respect for Stalin’s transformation of Russia into a world superpower.

Question 5

How far was Stalin’s foreign policy in the 1930s a failure?

Answer 5

SUCCESS: Russia maintained peaceful relations with Germany for the majority of the 1930s

1. Treaties in 1922 (Rapallo) and 1926 (Berlin) established economic and military collaboration with Germany.
2. Between 1929 and 1932, there was extensive collaboration between the Russian and German military. For example, a German aircraft factory was founded near Moscow, German armaments manufacturers produced weapons for Russia, and a secret joint facility for developing chemical weapons was founded in Samara.
3. Although relations changed after 1932 as Stalin became committed to collective security, relations with Germany did not end, and between 1935 and 1937 there were negotiations on improving economic and political relations.

SUCCESS: Russia joined the League of Nations

1. Russia joined the League of Nations in 1934. At the point Russia joined, its membership comprised 58 countries. Consequently,membership gave Stalin international credibility.
2. Western countries were happy for Russia to join for a number of reasons. For example, they respected Litvinov (the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs), Russia had established diplomatic relations with America in 1933, and both Russia and America were united in their concern over Japanese and German aggression.
3. Stalin could see advantages to joining as it allowed him to co-operate with democratic socialists in other countries in the fight against fascism.

FAILURE: Stalin’s commitment to collective security was not matched by commitment on the part of France and Britain

1. The Franco-Soviet Pact (1935) had significant weaknesses and was vague about the circumstancesin which either country would be required to act. France saw the Pact as a political measure to scare Hitler and not an agreement that would require any military action on their part.
2. While Stalin initiated large-scale Russian involvement to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), Britain and France did not intervene.
3. Following Anschluss, Britain and France did not respond to Stalin’s calls for a conference to discuss how to respond to German aggression. Britain then initiated a policy of negotiating with Hitler, known as appeasement.In 1938, Stalin wasexcluded from the Munich Conference despite having signed mutual defence pacts with both France (who attended) and Czechoslovakia (the focus of German aggression).

FAILURE: Russian intervention in the Spanish Civil War had a negative impact on his relations with Western democracies

1. Stalin’s intervention in Spain was rapid and large-scale. For example, he sent 18,000 machine guns, 400 tanks and 650 aircraftto Spain. Comintern also organised ‘International Brigades’ –groups of volunteers from all over the world willing to fight for the Spanish Republic.
2. However, Western democracies were suspicious of Stalin’s motives in Spain. They were concerned that Communists were becoming increasingly influential in the Republican government.
3. They were also concerned that Stalin was using his involvement in Spain to hunt down supporters of Trotsky who had gone to Spain to fight.

The Nazi-Soviet Pact was of MIXED success for Russia

1. The Pact was signed in August 1939. Under the terms of the Pact, Stalin gained land in Poland, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania andEstonia.
2. However, Stalin had miscalculated the strength of the French army. He thought that war between France and Germany would last for years, wearing each countrydown. However, the rapid fall of France in June 1940 gave Hitler complete control over Western Europe, with the German army stronger than ever.
3. Germany invaded Russia much earlier than Stalin expected. Although Stalin had been warned of the invasion by Allied intelligence forces, he refused to believe them. Consequently, when the German forces attacked Russia in June 1941, they proceeded without resistancefor threehours whileStalin retreated to his country house in a panic.