May Improvements Flashcards
Purges
(Tractors is one)
Reasons for Gulag Economic
Military officials and other sections of society purged in Yetzchivch
1936 Tractor thousand 15 hp units is 173
Workers also happy to blame managers
Mental illness dates
1888 1889 1894 1932 70% joined after 1929 party
KRUSHCHEV ESTIMATED the Central Comitee death tally 70%
Stalinist Control Themes
Collectivisation (maybe Industrialisation), Purges (Focus on outcomes rather than causes so who Stalin killed so Kulaks and in the party), Cultural Revolution but with an focus on control
It’s a fairly simple argument and I reckon you can definitely write a fantastic essay on this
GPW Improvements
Arrested 35,000 officers in purges
300,000 casualties and 78k dead in race to Berlin (I guess shows people’s resilience
1941
Oil
USSR 33.0 (MILLION tonnes)
Germany 5.7 (million tonnes)
1941
Coal
Million Tonnes
USSR 151.4
Germany 315.5
1943 - The Battle of Kursk was the largest tank battle in history, involving some 6,000 tanks, 2,000,000 troops, and 4,000 aircraft.
At Kursk Zhukov didn’t tell Stalin about his tactics but it was effective
Operation Bagration 1944
Lasted 68 days
Ends successfully with 1.2 million strong German Army Group Centre destroyed
Prepared in utmost secrecy and used massed aircraft and tanks
Surprised Germans with scale and ferocity
Most importantly, Stalin pretty much accepted responsibility, admitting to his closest associates, “Lenin left us a great legacy, but we, his heirs, have (messed) it up”
Stalin was determined to reach Berlin first
Selected best field commanders
300,000 caulsuties including 78,000 dead in desperate attempt to get to Berlin
Not all propaganda good and some confusing
P.Korin Alexander Nevsky 1942-1943
Former leader, the message is about being brave like Nevsky. Built on nationalism, Nevsky not a communist and many didn’t know who he is.
Collectivisation Improvements
Party activists helped by the OGPU (Secret Police)
25k urban party activists
Dizzy with success claimed targets were being met
Robert Conquest believes 7 million died in 1932-34 Famine which Stalin likely manmade
32 million horses 1928
18 million horses 1940
By the end of 1931 Stalin had collected 22.8 million tonnes of grain which was enough to feed the cities.
-Grain produced prior so arguably not a change
Kulak killing was stupid as they were the best farmers and
Peasant passive resistance of apathy (low enthusiasm), neglect (have little care) and petty insubordination (a bit of disobeying orders)
Collective farms has to supply quotas of grain to the towns which state paid very low prices for and after quota met peasants could supply any surplus at local market which usually came from peasant private plots and main source of milk, butter eggs etc for urban population.
Since no wages peasants made very little money making private plots very important on kolkhoz.
Downturn in the mid 1930s
culture revolution improvements
Socialist Realism lay with Lenin’s belief that Art and Literature must educate the workers in the spirit of Communism.
Threshing Machine part of Art too
Vasily Shulgin’s policy of “withering away of the school”. He believed education should be directly linked to Factories or how to teaching peasants anti religious literature but not reading books or solving maths problems in order to make a Child socially useful. However, many of the arts
and science subjects were reinstated and the changes to education did not last long.
Child support wages were fixed at 25% of wages or salary for on child, a third for two and 50-60% for three or more.
Films need to be relatable to the population
Kinda know but not working class enough so many young people’s lives didn’t really change
Kinda know -
Divorce rates in the city of Leningrad declined, but marriage rate did too. The ratio of marriage to divorce had therefore not changed much.
Policy of Withering away
Vasily Shulgin’s policy of “withering away of the school”. He believed education should be directly linked to Factories or how to teaching peasants anti religious literature but not reading books or solving maths problems in order to make a Child socially useful. However, many of the arts
and science subjects were reinstated and the changes to education did not last long.
At start marriages less formal and abortions and divorces much easier to obtain
Mothers with six children received a substantial cash payment of 2000 roubles a year for five years, with additional payments for each child up to the eleventh.
Child support wages were fixed at 25% of wages or salary for on child, a third for two and 50-60% for three or more.
Laws against prostustion and homosexuality
Industrialisation Improvements
Yaguda
23,000 NKVD workers who supported him were killed)
Yaguda gained full control of it in 1934 and had many supporters. It took three years for Stalin to deal with this by arresting him in 1937.
USSR won WW2
In 1937 the USSR spent 26.4% of their national income on defence compared to 5.7% in the British Empire
300 Russians died in 1929 sino China war (too early in Industrilisation for significant improvement)
However in 1937 Japan spent 28.2% of their national income on military strength which is more than the USSR
Early 20s
- Stalin was elected as General Secretary of the Communist Party. (Apr 1922)
- Trotsky did not attend Lenin’s funeral; Stalin was one of the pallbearers. (Jan 1924)
- The Central Committee, dominated by the anti-Trotsky “triumvirate” Stalin, Kamenev & Zinoviev, decided not to make Lenin’s Testament public. (May 1924)
SIOC 1924
Stalin RTP Improvements
SIOC nationalist and Pete,istic unlike PR
- The Central Committee, dominated by the anti-Trotsky “triumvirate” Stalin, Kamenev & Zinoviev, decided not to make Lenin’s Testament public. (May 1924)
- The end of the “triumvirate”: Zinoviev & Kamenev attacked Stalin, by Zinoviev for being too pro-peasant, & by Kamenev for being too powerful. Stalin realigned himself alongside Bukharin & the “Rightists”. (Dec 1925)
PARTY ORGANISATION -
Stalin became in Control of party organisation - allowed Stalin to influence selection of delegates who were sent to annual party conference where major issues of policy decided as well as who was to be part of Central Committee. He packed Congress with his supporters giving Trotsky a hostile reception at Conferences 1924 onwards which helped him join up with Zinoview and Kamenev
Stalin appeared boring and mediocre but was persistent Trotsky believed Russian working class too small and economy underdeveloped for Communist revolution to survive in Russia and needed support of working class in the more industrialised countries of Europe
Party Secretary - Allowed him to control to some extent the business of the politburo.
Position bonus
Party Secretary - Allowed him to control to some extent the business of the politburo.
Civil War improvements
Nice bonus is that Officers elected before ranks introduced
Lenin and Trotsky made some strategic decisions together
Trotsky took forces to fiercest parts of the Front
As it is estaimtaed that nearly four million deserted by the end of 1921, there were also full scale mutinies in the Red Army and other indispline
Bolsheviks had single, unified command structure
• Whites made up of different groups who had very different aims and beliefs
• -Difficult to develop Political strategy or co-operate
• -little chance of developing a co-ordinated military strategy
Whites main messages: Civilised, Reds stealing (food) from Peasants, Reds were Asian (racist)
• Red main messages: We’re true Russians, we’re modern and offering you a bright modern future unlike the Whites, White leaders were foreign puppets
Ukrainians and Georgians wanted more independence so supported Whites less when they wanted to return to pre 1917 borders and didn’t support the Whites when in their territory
Allied troops unmotivated and had no public support
France 16k
Called Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army before Trotsky installed discipline
White disunity
Lack of trust and lack of trust for kolchaks’ motives no coordinated approach unlike Bolsheviks
Separated by large distance and NO TELEPHONE LINES
Battle of Petrograd kinda know
1919-
Trotsky’s good leadership allowed the Red’s to defeat Yudenich’s White Army as he noticed the gap in the White’ surrounding allowing Trotsky to get supplies and reinforcement allowing him to stay and fight.
Jamie bonus
If you are talking about the battle of Petrograd for the Civil War you could say the Reds had 55,500 compared to the Whites 18,500 which is due to Trotsky gathering more people.
Cult of Stalin
By mid 30s Stalin’s image is everywhere in paintains, sculptures and poems
How many Red Guards armed after Kornilov Affair?
40,000
Source point October Nature - Arrest
Bolsheviks then arrested the remaining members of the Provisional Government.
Oct rev dates summary
Has to happen first and Lenin needs to become chairman before he does his decrees.
