Government USSR Flashcards
Lenin Dealing w/ opposition
-Red Terror
-1917-23 Cheka executed up to
200,000 ppl
- Cheka led by dzerzhinsky = party
committee formed dec 2927 to deal
w/ counter-revolution, sabotage &
speculation
- Chistka 1918 + early 20’s
-non-violent
- Approx ⅓ Party purged
- Cheka replaced by OGPU 1922 = terror more discreet, bureaucratic + inward looking
Stalin dealing with opposition: After Lenin’s Death
Outmanoeuvre his opponents in the politburo (1924-28 ish)
- i.e using his power of patronage as General secretary to remove and replace members
- i.e with Sergei Kirov made head of the party in Leningrad 1926 (s.loyalist) to replace out-of favour Zinoviev
Stalin dealing w/ opposition: Purges 1930s
- Initially non violent
- Chistka of 1932-35 removed officials which opposed/concerned at speed of implementation of policies
- By 1935 22% of party removed
- Key victims Kamenev,zinoviev (LEft) Bukharin, Rykov (Right)
stalin dealing with opposition: show trial
- Former figures of party accused of anti-soviet activities
- i.e Trial of the 16 in Aug 1936 -> Zinoviev + kamenev
stalin dealing w/ opposition
- outmanoeuvre opponents
- Purges 1930s
- Show trial
Brezhnev dealing with opponents
- Assert power and sidelined rivals
- Potential rivals in politburo sidelined
- Podgorny -> largely ceremonial post og head of state
Centralising power: Lenin
- Soviet constitution of 1924
- Ussr (Union of Soviet Socialist republics) federal (in theory)
- Tightened the authority of the CP over republics largely based in Moscow
- Russians advantaged = land mass (90%), population (72%) & CP membership(¾)
Centralising power: Lenin Limit
*Limits *
- Remote areas = bolshevik mafia + black marketeers
- Factions within the party, sparked intro of NEP 1921 left & right -> Resolution oon Party Unity 1921 -> 10th Party Congress -> ban on factions
Lenin: Power of bureaucracy
- Increase of party bureaucracy help consolidate control
- Membership inc. by 1924 1 mn -> need admins -> start creating own class
- Nomenklatura system of appointments of approved people from Party leadership
Lenin: Personal power
- Collective leadership
- Met daily
- 1919 dismissed all suggestions of personal dictatorship as ‘utter nonsense’
Own influence - Could bring party into line by threatening to resign
- treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918 and adoption of NEP 1921
Lenin: Apparatus of state
-*Bring under power of state *
- Trade unions and factory committees brought under Bolshevik control
- By early 1920s real power from apparatus of state to party
- 1919 secret police responsible to politburo>sovnarkom
Stalin: Role of Communist party (CPSU)
-Cronyism (lead to gerontocracy)
-Rubber-stamping Bureaucratic machine controlled by his inner circle
Stalin: Role of Communist party (CPSU) -> CRONYISM
- By end of 1930s Stalin was the only remaining member of the 1924 Politburo, others had been removed during disputes over economic policy - replaced with stalin’s cronies i,e Molotov and Kalnin
Stalin: Role of Communist party (CPSU) -> Rubbeer-stamping bureaucracy
- As 1930s went on institutions of gov. + party meet less frequently
-> politburo daily 1920s
-> Politburo 9 x a yr by mid-1930s
Stalin: Personal Power
- (role of CPSU)
- *High stalinism (1945-53) *
- The cult of personality
- The mingrelian Affair of 1951 - purge of party in Georgia to remove Beria’s allies
Stalin: Personal Power -> Limits
- imposed from w/in the Party
- ## limits from below
Stalin: Personal Power -> Limits from w/in party
- Politburo made Stalin lower the over ambitious targets for the 2nd 5-year plan with fear it would result in chaos and opposition
stalin: personal power -> limits from below
- Tensions between local party members and regional authorities
- 1930s stalin’s statement that castigated those party members that were ‘dizzy with success’ in implementing collectivisation overzealously
- *Declining power w/in leadership of 1945 *
- Unable to sack those who supported Beria and Malenkov in the politburo
stalin: additional
- The soviet Constitution of 1936
- (theory) more democratic
- Every citizen given vote, stalin said: ‘the constitution of the USSR is the only thoroughly democratic constitution in the world’
- (practically) nothing could threaten the dominance of the CP
- Only candidates from communist party could stand
Khrushchev: Centralising Power
- Decentralising efforts to regional councils
– this caused crisis of 1957 - attempt to remove khrushchev from power by the ‘Anti-Party Group’ led by Malenkov and Molotov, persuade presidium ask resignation -> K said it was a central committee decision and survived
