Russia 2

Question 1

What was Lenin’s Testament?(3)

Answer 1

Before Lenin died in January 1924, he wrote a document detailing his wishes after death. Written in December 1922, he criticised Stalin heavily saying;
“Stalin is too rude… That is why I suggest the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post”
He also stated how “Comrade Trotsky, on the other hand, is personally perhaps the most capable man in the present Central Committee”.

Question 2

What were Stalin’s strengths and weaknesses in the struggle for power?(4)

Answer 2

He was General Secretary of the Communist Party which meant he could appoint supporters to key jobs in the party, and could organise the congresses of the Party.
‘Lenin Enrolment’ was something he was in charge in which encouraged more new members to join the party. These workers were often very naive and hence were very loyal to Stalin.
He appeared to be moderate in dealing with rivals, and he was patriotic; one of his slogans was ‘Socialism in One Country’ which was the belief that the Soviet Union could be a successful Communist state even if the revolution didn’t spread to other states.

However, he had been seriously criticised in Lenin’s Testament and had a reputation for being very boring. Comrades jokingly called him ‘the grey blur’ and ‘Comrade Card Index’.

Question 3

What were Trotsky’s strengths and weaknesses in the struggle for power?(4)

Answer 3

Trotsky was a great speaker, and had worked very closely with Lenin personally during the civil war - which he was key in their victory.

However, he had a reputation for being arrogant. He also had not joined the party until 1917 which meant he did not have a good network of friends and supporters.
His belief in ‘Permanent Revolution’ was unpatriotic compared to Stalin’s ‘Socialism in One Country’. He believed that communism could only succeed if it spread to other countries.
His only main position of power was Commissar of War, but in peacetime this was obviously useless.

Question 4

What were Zinoviev and Kamenev’s strengths and weaknesses in the struggle for power?(2)

Answer 4

They were party bosses in Petrograd(Leningrad 1924-) and Moscow, and they worked closely together. Zinoviev also had a reputation as an insightful communist thinker and good speaker.
However, they had originally opposed Lenin’s plans for the October Revolution.

Question 5

How did Stalin eliminate Trotsky, Kamanev and Zinoviev as opposition?(3)

Answer 5

Trotsky + ‘Left Communists’ wanted Permanent Revolution, rapid industrialisation, and an end to the NEP but ‘Right Communists’ were prepared to put up with the NEP for longer in order to build a foundation for industrialisation.
1925 Party Congress; Stalin sided with Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin; because they had high positions in the party all the votes went their way. Trotsky lost his job as Commissar for War.
1926; Zinoviev and Kamenev formed the ‘United Opposition’ with Trotsky and criticised the way the party was running the economy.
Stalin accused them of being ‘factionalists’ - something outlawed by Lenin at the 10th Party Congress in 1921. This meant Zionviev and Kamenev were sacked. 1927, they were expelled along with Trotsky from the party.

Question 6

What was Stalin’s Secret Police?(3)

Answer 6

In 1934 the secret police(OGPU) was reorganised and changed its initials to NKVD. This was the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs.
Its work included; intimidating people; arresting people; forcing confessions from people who had been arrested through repeated interrogation; running prisons; executions.
1935 onwards - three-man teams of NKVD officers(troikas) decided people’s guilt and punishment. People arrested under Article 58 of the Criminal Code as ‘a counter revolutionary action’ but this included; stamp-collecting, speaking to foreigners, failing to cut photos of Trotsky from textbooks.

Question 7

Why did Stalin carry out the ‘purges’?(4)

Answer 7

To control peasants and workers better - Workers moved job up to three times a year in order to avoid getting shot. Some used false papers, and others lied about their backgrounds. Executions used to remove lots of these people that were not trusted by the state.

To control within the Communist Party - ‘Old Bolsheviks’ still often resented the one-man rule of Stalin. Many of these rivals who had been close associates of Lenin were shot.

To blame others for assassinations - Kirov; the party boss in Leningrad had opposed the shooting of Ryutin; also may have won the Central Committee elections at the 1934 Party Congress. Hence, assassinated in December; Zinoviev and Kamenev were arrested and accused of his murder.

To cover up weaknesses of the economy and government - Accidents in poorly run mines; Kemerovo 1936 - 10 killed and 14 severely injured. When facing opposition and experts they responded by execution.

Question 8

Describe phase 1 of The Purges(3)

Answer 8

Phase 1 - The chistka:
1931 - Ex Mensheviks shot as ‘wreckers’. These were local Communist Party bosses, soon also managers accused of ‘wrecking’(USSR).
1932 - Stalin fails to persuade the Politburo to have Ryutin shot
1933 - 18% of party members expelled as unsuitable or disloyal

Question 9

Describe phase 2 of The Purges?

Answer 9

Phase 2 - The show trials:
1936 - Stalin informs the new NKVD that they are four years behind in their search for enemies; Zionviev, Kamenev, Ryutin and 13 others tried and shot.
1937 - Trotsky’s ally Piatakov tried and shot.
1938 - Last big show trial - Bukharin tried and shot.

Question 10

Describe phase 3 of The Purges?

Answer 10

Phase 3 - The Yezhovshchina:
1937 July - Yagoda sacked and later executed(1938). Yezhov becomes head of NKVD; Operational Order 00447 issued the NKVD which kickstarts mass arrests.
Also Purges in the military; 1 in 5 officers(15-20,000) including supreme commander, Marshal Tukhachevsky are removed.
1938 November - Yezhov arrested and later shot.
1939 - By this point around seven million are imprisoned in labour camps.

Question 11

What were some consequences of the purges?(3)

Answer 11

Loss of ideas - Possibly 1 million party members who were confident of their own opinions had been killed including the minds of the ‘Old Bolsheviks’. This meant that the new generation who joined the communist party were completely in parallel thought to Stalin.
Loss of armed forces - Around 35,000 officers were arrested in 1937-38 and many of the most experienced officers were then shot in show trials; including Tukhachevsky; 81 of the 103 generals and admirals and 15,000 other officers. This heavily weakened USSR defences when Germany invaded.
Loss of general life - Possibly one million people were shot between 1937-38 and two million died in labour camps, but these numbers are greatly argued about. Nevertheless, combined with masses of death from collectivisation the number of innocent deaths was colossal.

Question 12

What was Stalin’s new Constitution and why did he create it?(3)

Answer 12

In 1936 Stalin’s government created a new constitution. It included:
freedom of speech and religion, free elections, right to vote from age 18, paid holidays, secret ballot, protection of individuals and their homes from interference and mistreatment. However, many of these never actually existed in the communist dictatorship.
The new Constitution sent a message that the Soviet Union had been transformed and made progress since the 1924 Constitution. Also, introducing secret ballot and giving young people a vote made the Soviet Union seem democratic.
It hoped to increased Stalin’s support in middle class and kulaks because it claimed they would no longer face discrimination because of class origins. It was also to make the West feel more positive about the Soviet Union and be willing to work with it; against the rise of Nazi Germany.

Question 13

What was the gulag?(4)

Answer 13

In Russian, GULAG stands for ‘Main Administration of Corrective Labour Camps’. By 1941 there were 8 million in labour camps.
These included; peasants arrested from collectivisation; workers convicted of wrecking; Communist Party officials; members and leaders of minority ethnic groups; foreign communists. There were also many who were simply there to fulfil the huge NKVD arrest quotas.
Slave labourers in the Gulag were sometimes referred to as ‘white coal’ because they provided the energy that ran the mines and factories.
Prisoners(‘zeks’) working in the camps faced long hours with little food, they were used to open up undeveloped areas of the north and east of Soviet Union. They felled trees, built roads, railway lines, and mined ores.

Question 14

How did Stalin control the Arts in the Soviet Union?(4)

Answer 14

1920s a style of ‘socialist realism’ emerged. By the 1930s; most influential style of art in the Soviet Union. 1932, Stalin published the decree:’On the Reconstruction of Literary and Art Organisation’, which dissolved all former art organisations.
In August the Leningrad Union of Artists was established which ensured all art in was in the socialist realism form.
The actual art style had to be easy to understand; carry a clear message; and show people in ordinary situations that are in fact vital to modernising and developing the Soviet Union.

Question 15

How did Stalin control Education in the Soviet Union?(5)

Answer 15

1930 Sixteenth Party Congress recruited 3 million volunteers from the Komsomol; ‘Cultural Workers’. They were tasked with educating workers and peasants. In response, 40% of teachers were attacked associated with the government.
1931 - a decree ordered curriculum and abolished the polytechnic focus created in 1918, subjects were now reading, writing, science and maths.
1932 - another decree reintroduced strict discipline; students required to do their homework and naughty students were expelled. From 60% in 1928, now 95% of children 8-12 enrolled in schools.
1933 - textbooks were launched to support the new curriculum that presented Stalin’s view of history.
Also - Number of universities increased by 800%. From 105 in 1914 to 817 in 1939.

Question 16

How did Stalin control Religion in the Soviet Union?(2)

Answer 16

Orthodox Church - Colleges for training priests were closed and religious publications and education for children became banned. By 1941 there were only 500 churches open while in 1914 there had been 54,000.
Very ancient churches including the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Baku(1937) and the Kazan Cathedral in Moscow(1936) were demolished to give tanks access to Red Square.
Islam - Mosques, Muslim schools and Islamic courts were shut. Going on Hajj to Mecca was banned. In 1939 there were only 1300 mosques open while in 1917 there had been 26,000.

Question 17

What were the consequences of Stalin’s control on Arts, Education and Religion?(2)

Answer 17

Many people had only a limited education and believed what they read or saw; they never had the confidence to question the ‘official truth’.
Many other people began not believed what they were told, and rumours and half-truths spread massively. The USSR became a country in which it was difficult to verify anything. For example, farmers dared not speak of crop diseases; factory managers did not discuss problems in raw material supply.

Question 18

How did Stalin control the nationalities in the Soviet Union?(2)

Answer 18

Stalin regarded the nationalities with suspicion. In 1932 a new regulation therefore required Soviet citizens to carry identity booklets which specified their nationality.
Between 1935 and 1938 Stalin deported members of at least nine different ethnic groups. For example, when Japan began to expand in the Far East; Stalin deported 142-172,000 Koreans Far East Russia to Uzbekistan and Kazakstan in 1937.

Question 19

How did Stalin change the role of women in the Soviet Union?(3)

Answer 19

1930 onwards - thousands of new crèches were created by the government, and day care centres so that mothers could work.
Article 122 of the 1936 Constitution gave women equal rights and pay as men. By 1937, women were 40% of industrial workers, 21% of building workers and 72% of health workers.
However, also in 1930 only 13.5% of party members were women. The Zhenotdel was closed down that year which had been run by two women.

Question 20

What was ‘the Great Retreat’?(4)

Answer 20

1927 - two-thirds of marriages in Moscow ended in divorce.
1934 - study revealed that birth rate throughout the whole Soviet Union had fallen from 45.6/1000 in 1913 to 31.0 in 1932.
1936 - Abortion was made illegal except to protect the health of the mother. An annual allowance for 2000 roubles was paid for five years for seventh and subsequent children of mothers.
Divorcing couples had to go to court and pay a fee. Divorced fathers had to pay maintenance for their children.
A new law in 1935 allowed the NKVD to deal harshly with youth crime; the parents could also be fined.

Question 21

How did Stalin improve equality in the Soviet Union?(3)

Answer 21

Health care and education improved; public libraries became available. There were also differing classes that benefitted from Stalin’s rule.
Skilled workers became foremen, supervisors or technicians. Above them were, managers who could receive items such as clothing and luxuries.
At the top was the nomenclature which was a group truly loyal to Stalin that took all the top jobs in the Communist Party and Govt.

Question 22

How did Stalin impair equality in the Soviet Union?(2)

Answer 22

The buying power of a worker’s wage fell by over 50% during the first Five Year Plan. In the same light, the average workers in 1930s Moscow ate 20% of the meat and fish he ate in 1900.
It was difficult to buy clothes, shoes and boots. Queuing to buy goods became normal.
Jews still suffered discrimination and the Finnish population in Leningrad was cut by a third in the 1930s simply because of long standing prejudices.

Question 23

Why was the ‘Cult of Stalin’ created?(2)

Answer 23

It put Stalin beyond criticism. In a country facing many problems, a focus on one man offered a sense of stability. It gave the sense that however chaotic things were, one man could make sense of it all, much like a God.
It presented Stalin as ‘the new Lenin’ who could be the centre point of loyalty. After Lenin’s death, a ‘cult of Lenin’ had developed and somebody else would need to continue it.

Question 24

How was Stalin portrayed by the ‘Cult of Stalin’?(3)

Answer 24

He was presented as a political genius - the one person who fully understood communism. However, Stalin was careful not to make the claim himself; he presented himself as the person who understood Lenin’s genius. This made him seem humble.
He was presented as a highly achieving leader - posters associated Stalin with the latest achievements of the Soviet Union. He was often pictured against backgrounds of factories, trains and farm even though he rarely actually went to those places.
He was also presented as a loving father - posters showed him surrounded by children or applauded by workers; they gazed at him as if he was an all-knowing and loving father-figure although in reality Stalin rarely mixed with ordinary people.

Question 25

What were the economic reasons to reform agriculture?(3)

Answer 25

For the Five-Year Plans to actually succeed, Stalin had to modernise the USSR's agriculture - in 1928, the country was 2 million tons short of the grain it needed to feed its workers. The USSR was importing food but agriculture was the biggest single resource it had. This looked bad from an economic point of view, and humiliating from a political point of view. Stalin also wanted to try to raise money for the industrialisation programme by selling exports of surplus food abroad. The money could also be used to modernise farming with proper tractors and farming methods.

Question 26

What were the political reasons to reform agriculture?(3)

Answer 26

By 1928 the NEP was still in place; it had increased grain production and reduced peasant unrest, but it had not modernised agriculture and peasant grain production was falling. Bukharin was also supporting it, so Stalin had the opportunity to isolate him completely from the party by destroying the NEP. In 1927 there was war scare between Poland in the west; or Japan and China in the east. In reality, there was little danger of war breaking out at this time. However, many party officials were worried about how to feed an army and people in case of a war.

Question 27

What were the ideological reasons to reform agriculture?(2)

Answer 27

Most peasants to Stalin were 'little capitalists' that needed to be brought under control. He believed this especially after peasants held back grain between 1927-28 waiting for the price to rise back up. Stalin also believed that by removing kulaks and NEPmen he could replace them with peasants who would actually gain from his new agricultural policies and hence would be more loyal to him.

Question 28

Explain the types of collectivisation farm?(2)

Answer 28

Peasants were forced to join their lands together to form large joint farms; Kolkhozes. Animals and tools were to be shared, while motor tractors provided by the government. Then up to 90% of the produce would be sold to the state, with the profits shared - the remaining 10% was to feed the farmers. There was also another type of farm; sovkhoz(state-owned). In these farms there was often more land and the peasants who worked the fields were paid a wage by the government. This fixed wage gave them a better income than the members of the kolkhozes.

Question 29

What were the theoretical advantages of collectivisation?(3)

Answer 29

It would be easier to make efficient use of tractors, fertilisers and other modern methods of farming because the farms were overall larger. Mechanised farming would require less manual labour and therefore release large numbers of peasants to work in growing industries. It would also be easier to collect grain and taxes from singular larger farms rather than many smaller farms

Question 30

How and why did Stalin 'liquidate the kulaks'?(3)

Answer 30

Peasants between 1928-29 were forced to join kolkhozes. Those who resisted were denounced as kulaks and arrested. December 1929 Stalin launched a campaign that would remove anyone who refused to join a collective farm from 1929 onwards. About 30,000 'kulaks' were killed between 1930-31. Many others were deported; 2 million were deported to the arctic north and to Siberia to work in the gulag. To Stalin, liquidising the kulaks was about more than seizing grain and reorganising agriculture. It was about stamping the control of Communism onto the peasant population - punishing the 'little capitalists'.

Question 31

What was the opposition to collectivisation and how did Stalin complete the campaign?(3)

Answer 31

Both rich and poor peasants resented chose to destroy crops and livestock rather than hand them over to the Govt. Hence in 1930 Stalin slowed down the collectivisation campaign. From 1929-33, the number of sheep slaughtered dropped from over 140 to just 50 million. In 1932 he began the campaign once more - as a result between 6 and 12(million) people died across the Soviet Union. In Kazakhstan about 1.3 million staved to death. By July 1933, 83% of arable land and 64% of peasants households had been collectivised.

Question 32

What part did the Machine Tractor Stations play in collectivisation?(2)

Answer 32

MTSs were set up to rent out agricultural machinery(such as tractors and combine harvesters) to groups of collective farms. The MTSs also acted as collecting points for the grain being demanded by the state. Each MTS had a 'political department' staffed by members of the secret police in order to keep watch on communities. There was often confusion as the whether the collective farm manager; local Communist Party Boss; or MTS staff.

Question 33

What was the famine in Ukraine from collectivisation?(3)

Answer 33

Ukraine had been described as the 'bread basket' of the Soviet Union because it's farms produced lots of grain. However, many Ukrainian peasants refused to join collectivisation because they felt it was returning to serfdom. Hence, because Ukraine's big population had many peasants, and Stalin particularly disliked Ukraine; the liquidation was the worst in the USSR. In Ukraine the time of starvation is remembered as the 'Holodomor'. Between 1932-33 modern estimates suggest about 3 million Ukrainians died. It has also been estimated that during June 1933; 28,000 people died from hunger every day.

Question 34

What were some successes of collectivisation?(2)

Answer 34

The Communist Party was now in control of the countryside and the peasant population; especially through the MTSs. In 1928, 0.03 were exported for sale abroad compared to 1.69(million tonnes of grain) were exported in 1933. This grain helped to pay for the Five-Year Plans; a huge economic success. Around 19 million peasants fled to cities and became workers in the new factories of the Five-Year Plans.

Question 35

What were the reasons to reform industry?(4)

Answer 35

The scissor crisis suggested that the NEP was never going to be able to pay for industrialisation. It also went against the principle of Communism(a workers state) and now a new direction was required because the aftermath of the Civil War had ended. In 1927 there was a war scare that caused serious concerns about agriculture and industry. If the Soviet Union got into a modern war, it would be crushed without a modernised industrial sector; coal, iron, oil and steel production would all have to increase. During the power struggle, Trotsky, Zionviev and Kamenev had criticised the slow pace of industrialisation. By rapidly industrialising through Stalin's own ideas - it would undermine support for these rivals.

Question 36

What was Gosplan?(2)

Answer 36

Gosplan was the State Planning Committee that had been set up by Lenin in 1921. Its jobs was to take general aims of the communist leadership and turn these into specific goals for key industries to meet. Once the decision to launch Five-Year Plans was confirmed Gosplan became extremely important - 5,000 new factories were established between 1928-1937 under Gosplan.

Question 37

What were the aims of each of the Five-Year Plans?(3)

Answer 37

The first Five-Year Plan from 1928-1932 was to increase output of 'heavy industries' such as coal, iron, steel, engineering and chemicals. The second Five-Year Plan from 1933-1937 was to follow the first Five-Year Plan but also greater efficiency and better use of resources and consumer goods produced. The third Five-Year Plan from 1938-41(cut short by Hitler) was to improve education and make more military equipment.

Question 38

What was the Stakhanovite Movement?(3)

Answer 38

Aleksey Stakhanov was the son of peasant who worked the coal mines in easter Ukraine. It was reported on The night 31 August 1935 he had mined 14 times his quota in a coal mine. This started a movement across the Soviet Union in which he was portrayed as a national hero and the Soviet Union's ideal worker. However, the whole thing was a set up and over time many workers came to resent the Stakhanovites as they were often people that were selfish, and only cared about their own productivity.

Question 39

What were some successes of the Five-Year Plans?(5)

Answer 39

The first Five-Year Plan hugely increased output from 1928 to 1937. Coal increased from 35.4 to 128. Oil increased from 11.7 to 28.5. Steel increased from 4.0 to 17.7.(all in millions of tons produced) New industrial cities - such as Magnitogorsk, Komsomolsk, Novosibirsk and Perm - now had steelworks and industrial complexes that produces vast amount of modern material. Unemployment that had been 1.3 million in 1928 practically vanished by 1940. Industrial workers had increased from 4.6 million to 12.6 million. Tractor and fertiliser production had hugely increased. Industry had also spread to areas east of the Ural Mountains that had never previously been industrialised. Re-armament and weapon production also hugely increased which would eventually help the Soviet Union win the Second World War.

Question 40

What were some failures of the Five-Year Plans?(3)

Answer 40

Problem with low quality goods; tyres blew after short distances, machines broke down. There were terrible shortages of consumer goods and it became normal to queue for hours for basic items. Working conditions also fell; huge numbers of people fell from scaffolding, or were crushed by machinery. With the First-Year Plan many of the factories overproduced or underproduced and to be shut down. Organisation and transport was often chaotic.

Question 41

What were the effects of industrialisation and collectivisation on the workers in the towns?(4)

Answer 41

Housing for many workers was low quality. Workers lived in barracks with little comfort and few conveniences. Between 1928 and 1933, the consumption of meat, fruit and milk in the city of Leningrad declined by 66%. Working conditions were hard. In 1932 the laws changed so that if a worker had one day off work without notice; they lost their job, housing and ration card. By 1940, being 20 minutes late to work led to a 25% cut in pay for six months. Stalin reintroduced major differences in workers pay depending on their productivity; communist ideas about equality of wages were abandoned. The government also introduced internal passports in 1932 in an attempt to prevent people from freely moving around the country; looking for a new job. By the end of 1934, over 27 million internal passports had been issued.

Question 42

What were the effects of industrialisation and collectivisation on the peasants in the countryside?(3)

Answer 42

Villages had always had very basic housing; this continued under the communal farms with little money going to improve the conditions. There was food rationing, and there were few tractors or agricultural machinery to go around often. Productivity on farms was so bad that in 1939 the government was forced to allow peasants to sell produce from their garden plots in order to increase the amount of food available. Soon just 3% of the land of the collective farms was producing 30% of the food consumed in the Soviet Union. Just like the workers, peasants were issued internal passports. Nonetheless many ran away from communal farms and got arrested in towns. In the first six months of 1933 alone, 400,000 people were arrested as 'undesirables' or 'socially harmful elements'.