How successful were the communist leaders in crushing opposition in the years 1917-41

Question 1

Introduction

Answer 1

• By 1941, Stalin had absolute control over the Party
• No one dared speak out against the regime
• From 1917 Lenin too was intent upon controlling the people
• Opposition was not tolerated
• terror used extensively
• The fact that the Communists won the civil war and retained power is testament to Lenin’s success in crushing opposition
• They were both successful with crushing opposition

Question 2

Paragraph One-

Lenin seizing power

Answer 2

Lenin was a leader of a small minority group, therefore faced huge opposition. To deal with this opposition he used a mixture of ruthlessness and concession.

RUTHLESSNESS

• Dismissal of Constituent Assembly
• Closure of anti-Bolshevik press
• leading kadets
• Mensheviks and right-winged SRs imprisoned
• Propaganda campaign against the Bourgeoisie (scape goats)
• Set up the Cheka

CONCESSIONS

• Decree on Land
• Workers Control Decree
• However in reality these two decrees weer recognising what was already taking place.

Question 3

Paragraph Two-

Lenin’s ruthlessness in the civil war

Answer 3

Lenin’s ruthlessness in crushing opposition was apparent during the civil war.
Red Terror
- During 1918-21 between 1/2 to 1 million killed.
- Others tortured and sent to labour camps
-Cheka. Ruthless. Seen in grain requisitioning under War Communism and in huge number of victims (From Tsar and his family to ordinary workers, merchants, professors, peasants (most notably the Kulaks). All of these groups suffered and their families and friends an soemtimes even whole villages.
- Priests, Jews, Catholics and some Muslims were persecuted (the league of Godless coordinated anti-religious propaganda)
- Cheka were keen to show their loyalty so often took the law into their own hands at a local level

Fact the Civil War was won was testament to Lenin’s ruthlessness.

Even within the Party there was a tightening of control

• 1919 Politburo set up
• 1921 ban on factions
• 1923 nomenklatura system introduced
• 1922 Georgia brutally suppressed (self-determination not allowed)

Question 4

Paragraph Three-

Stalin’s Terror

Answer 4

When Stalin was leader, there was a huge extension of Terror, which was already seen as a legitimate policy of the state.

• Kulaks destroyed
• Bourgeois managers and engineers were made scapegoats when excessively high targets were not reached. Shown through show trials

1929 Societ prisons were full

• Yagoda’s suggestion about gulags
• Stalin’s belief that terror was needed if the USSR was to close the gap between itself and Western powers.

Question 5

Paragraph Four-

Stalin’s disordered personality

Answer 5

A. Brown argued that Stalin’s ‘disordered personality’ led to a Terror that went ‘beyond the logic of communist rule’

Stalin’s paranoia led to purges of the top Bolsheviks

• Show trials and purges of Party members at local level
• Also military tribunal of 8 senior military commanders (including Tukachevsky) and over 2/3rds of the High Command
• Purge of the military intelligence
• Approximately 50% of officers corps purged in armed services

Question 6

Paragraph Five-

Yezhov 1937-38

Answer 6

Although Terror endemic under Stalin, it reached its worst excesses under Yezhov 1937-38

Politburo resolution 1937

• Ordinary people involved
• 1936-39 an estimated 10-15 million died from torture, execution and exile in camps