Political Transformation Flashcards
Terror (Inside the Party)
The first major purge of the party also known as the ‘Red Purge’ was conducted under the leadership of Lenin in 1921, where 156,900 party members were expelled from the party out of the total of 585,000 members.
Lenin states in the Pravda 1921 that purging is an aspect of the revolution in order to remove those “attached” to old bureaucratic values and the removal of Menshevik values who held competing visions.
- Despite ban on factions in the “Decree on party unity” during the 10th party congress.The purge was also for the removal of those against the NEP (introduced in March 1921), in order to maintain party cohesion, thereby transforming the party into a “centralised autocratic regime” Modern historian Stephen Kotkin.
- After Stalin’s economic transformation through the first piakalekta, which was considered widely successful in building the foundations of socialism in the USSR, he however experienced much opposition in the Seventeenth Party Congress (1934).
- J Arch Getty argues this tension stemmed from members’ position on the ‘periphery’, this position due to the centralisation of power in Moscow in order to limit the growth of possible contestants to Stalin personal dictatorship.
- This transformed the party into one where there was a “geography of authority” (Stephen Kotkin) in the 1930’s where due to the large area of the nation Stalin couldn’t solely control everything and thereby consolidated power in Moscow.
- Open critics of Stalin and his policy of collectivisation evident in the 150 down votes (which most were believed to be destroyed), symbolised the clear tension within the party
- This repression of party votes facilitated the transformation of the party into a personal dictatorship, with those such as Molotov Ryutin being arrested and sent to the Gulag in September 1937 due to his criticism of Stalin’s collectivisation and the call for Stalin removal from power, and heading the “Union of Marxist Leninists”
- This centralisation and limitation of party power is evident with only 1% of the population being represented in the party, which saw the repression of the rural population’s political power.
Beginning of Show Trials
- The murder of Kirov (head of the party in Leningrad), on the 1st of December 1934 blamed on old Bolsheviks, as a consequence of his unwavered support for Stalin
- This resulted in the beginning of the Moscow trial which saw the persecution of Bolshevik opposition no matter their innocence, American Sociologist Theda Skocpol states it was due to “Stalin’s drive to establish and maintain his own personal dictatorships.”
- Consolidated the party into a party dictatorship under Stalin, where the broad media coverage of the trials and public ‘executions’ symbolised a transformation into a police state, and the silencing of the public.
- Considered the beginning of the ‘Great Purge’ which estimated to last from 1936-38, resulting in the creation of the NKVD (secret police) who was second only to Stalin, killing an estimated 1.2 million people.
- In addition to the purges and show trials, in December 1935 conducted a ‘party verification campaign’ in which 1.9 million membership cards were reviewed out of the 2.3 million.
- 250,000 were removed from the party, leading to the purging of the lower ranks of the party which facilitated Stalin to completely consolidate and transform the party apparatus into a foundation of loyal supporters through terror and suppression.
Impact of Show Trials on Party members
- The Moscow trials saw the removal of both Trotskyists who held considerably powerful positions within the party, even after the exile of Trotsky in 1929. Many of those placed onto these show trials were former allies with Stalin such as former Politburo members Zinoviev and Kamenev who together with Stalin formed the ‘Triumvirate’ against Trotsky.
- Trial of the 16 (August 1936) Zinoviev and Kamenev, the first show trial, established his goal of removing all party opposition and sending a clear message which entrenched fear and absolute obedience, thus solidifying his grip and transforming the nature of the party structure.
- All personal views were now strongly withheld and as a result Stalin authority was no longer challenged.
- Bukharin and Rykov Trial / trial of the 21 (March 1938), this further reinforced this transformation and facilitated Stalin to consolidate all power within the party apparatus and fundamentally removed opposition within the politburo.
- A part of the NKVD focused on the removal of Bolshevik ‘old guard’ (1918-1928) where 75% of the ‘old guard’ were eliminated and therefore transformed the party into one filled with new members who all sworn allegiance to Stalin through a system of patronage.
- With Stalin’s growing paranoia surrounding his position as dictator of the USSR, fearing a Coup d’état he purged the red army military leadership under the belief they were collaborating with the ‘fifth column’ and were a part of a ‘military-fascist plot’.
- While 81 out of the 103 of red army generals were executed which crushed any chance of a Coup d’état, and thus military leadership was due to your loyalty to Stalin instead of your military leadership.
Outside of the Party
- In the processes of collectivisation under Stalin’s first piakelakta, it resulted in the liquidating the Kulak social class, with 6 million Kulaks forcibly dispossessed of their land.
- This widespread policy of ‘dekulakization’ from 1928 enabled the persecution of the Kulak social class which transformed the agrarian landscape of the USSR.
- This forced collectivisation resulted in the peasants to join state farms or Kolkhoz with those who didn’t face harsh reprisal such as Gulag or executions, leading to it being labelled ‘terror in the countryside’.
- Although, this terror of the rural USSR facilitated the rapid urbanisation of the cities, it also created a haunting legacy evident in the Holodomor which saw 7-14 million to starve as their grain was forcibly requisitioned inorder to feed the cities.
- Although gulags purpose was to re-educate or contain political prisoners, they often became used as a form of terror and repression of the populace as those who spoke out against the party would be sentenced to 10-15 in forced labour camps.
- Was a vital instrument in the incarceration of millions which would instil a pervasive atmosphere of fear and suspicion. This was a tool of social engineering and therefore embedded a culture in the USSR of repression and fear which saw public opinion silenced.
- The Gulag system facilitated the rapid modernisation of the nation through prestigious projects such as the White Baltic Sea Canal which saw the deaths of 12,000 prisoners and thereby instilled further fear into the population of the consequences of speaking out against the regime.
- Due to the publication of show trials and the mass hysteria created by the government such as denouncing the neighbour or informing NKVD of “enemies of the people”, it thus resulted in state sanctioned violence.
Regular citizens were caught in the crossfire with many falsely accusing their neighbour in order to gain favour with the NKVD and Stalin - Historian Helen d’Encausse explains how this helped advance Stalin’s power with: “The mutual distrust, the fear of being compromised had isolated every individual. This social atomisation was a decisive help to Stalin’s power which was able from then on to grow unhindered.”
