Russia and Joseph Stalin (1878-1953)

Question 1

What was the situation in Russia during the interwar period different from?

Answer 1

The situation in Russia in the interwar period was very different from that of the other European countries

Question 2

Compared to Western Europe, what was Russia still?

Answer 2

Compared with Western Europe, Russia was still socially and economically backwards

Question 3

While Russia suffered from the scars of the First World War like other European powers, why did it suffer the same kinds of wounds from the Great Depression as most of the other European powers?

Answer 3

Like the other European powers, Russia suffered from the scars of the First World War, but because of its economic isolation from 1917, it did not suffer the same kinds of wounds from the Great Depression as most of other European powers

Question 4

Before the Bolshevik revolution, what had Russia been dominated by?

Answer 4

Before the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, Russian society had been dominated by a few extremely wealthy, landowning aristocratic families

Question 5

Was there a middle or working class?

Answer 5

There was a small middle class and a small, urban industrial working class

Question 6

What were the vast majority of the population?

Answer 6

However, the vast majority → (over ⅔ of the population) were poor peasants

Question 7

When was the social order overthrown?

Answer 7

The social order had been overthrown by the removal of Tsar Nicholas II in 1917 (and the subsequent assassination of his whole family in 1918)

Question 8

What key features dominated the period following the Tsar’s assassination?

Answer 8

The period that followed came to be dominated by the following key features:

• The impact of the political revolution that ended the
  autocratic rule of the Tsar
• The consequences of the seizure of power by the
  Bolshevik Party (later known as the Communist Party)
• The rise of Stalin’s dictatorship
• The rapid transformation of the Russian economy and
  social structure through the rapid industrialisation and
  collectivisation of all land under government control

Question 9

When did Stalin come to power?

Answer 9

Stalin came to power after the death of Lenin in 1924

Question 10

What did Stalin prove to be? and who is he often compared with?

Answer 10

Stalin proved to be one of the most ruthless and brutal dictators of the 20th C and is often compared with Adolf Hitler

Question 11

What did the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union and Hitler’s Nazi dictatorship prompt sociologist Hannah Arendt to do in her 1951 book ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism’?

Answer 11

The Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union and Hitler’s Nazi dictatorship prompted the great SOCIOLIGIST HANNAH ARENDT TO LINK THE TWO IN HER FAMOUS 1951 BOOK → ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism’

Question 12

What would other sociologists and political scientists do?

Answer 12

Other sociologists and political scientists would follow Arendt’s lead in describing Hitler and Stalin as ‘totalitarian dictators’

Question 13

How is this approach of linking the two dictators seen by 21 C historians?

Answer 13

This approach, however, is no longer seen as useful by 21 C historians, who prefer to study each of these dictatorships as a separate phenomena

Question 14

When Stalin came to power, what were the two things his authority was based on?

Answer 14

When Stalin came to power he based his authority on two things:

• He claimed to be Lenin’s chosen successor & a loyal
  servant of the Communist Party
• He claimed to be the new prophet of Marxist
  (communist) ideology

Question 15

Was Stalin always the natural leader of the party?

Answer 15

But Stalin was not always the natural leader of the party

Question 16

After Lenin’s death in 1924, what had Stalin already reached this position after?

Answer 16

Rather, after Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin had already reached this position after a brief power struggle within the Communist Party with Leon Trotsky

Question 17

Unlike the charismatic Trotsky who had lead the original Bolshevik seizure of power & then the Russian Red Army during the Civil War, what did Stalin present himself as?

Answer 17

Unlike the charismatic Trotsky → who had lead the original Bolshevik seizure of power & then the Russian Red Army during the Civil War, Stalin presented himself as solid, humble and a loyal party member

Question 18

What did Stalin suggest to his fellow party members about Trotsky?

Answer 18

Stalin suggested to his fellow party members that Trotsky would be likely to make himself a dictator & dominate the party if he were to be made leader

Question 19

What did Stalin use his position as General Secretary of the Communist Party to do?

Answer 19

Stalin also skilfully used his position as General Secretary of the Communist Party to build support

Question 20

What did Stalin offer party members?

Answer 20

It was Stalin who would offer party members better jobs, better houses (so-called dachas) and improve their quality of life

Question 21

What did historian Sheila Fitzpatrick call Stalin offering party members jobs, houses and etc?

Answer 21

HISTORIAN SHEILA FITZPATRICK → called this ‘patronage’, meaning that in the first stages of his dictatorship Stalin sued rewards for fellow party members

Question 22

What was reward under the Soviet system linked to?

Answer 22

Reward under the soviet was linked to patronage, favours and benefits that came with party membership and loyalty

Question 23

Where was the terror or fear during this patronage?

Answer 23

The terror, or fear, would come later

Question 24

Did Stalin’s campaign work? Where did he gain the greatets support from? and what happened to Trotsky?

Answer 24

Stalin’s campaign worked and he ultimately gained the greatest support among party members, while Trotsky was expelled from the party and exiled from Russia

Question 25

Soon after securing the leadership, who did Stalin create a ‘cult of personality’ around?

Answer 25

Soon after securing the leadership, Stalin started to create a ‘cult of personality’ around the dead former leader, Lenin

Question 26

When Stalin delivered the Euology at Lenin’s funeral in 1924, what did he proclaim himself as? and what did he declare about Lenin?

Answer 26

When Stalin delivered the Eulogy at Lenin’s funeral in 1924, he proclaimed himself as Lenin’s chosen successor & declared that Lenin should be revered as some kind of communist god

Question 27

What was the city of Petrograd renamed? and what happened to Lenin’s body?

Answer 27

The city of Petrograd was renamed Leningrad, & Lenin’s body was mummified and entombed in a huge mausoleum in Moscow

Question 28

What happened to Stalin’s authority as Lenin became greater in the public memory?

Answer 28

The greater Lenin became in the public memory, the more authority Stalin inherited as Lenin’s successor

Question 29

What did Stalin gain access to? and what did he make himself in rgeards to communist ideology?

Answer 29

Stalin gained access to Lenin’s papers & made himself the governing voice and authority in determining communist ideology

Question 30

What did Stalin gradually inherit?

Answer 30

Stalin gradually inherited Lenin’s status and the cult of personality

Question 31

What did it become clear that Stalin ahd inherited the ‘cult of personality’?

Answer 31

This became clear in 1929 where there was an official celebration of Stalin’s 50th birthday

Question 32

For Stalin’s birthday, what did the Soviet Press do?

Answer 32

The Soviet Press, completely controlled by the Communist Party, printed hundreds of letters that they claimed were sent in by loyal followers

Question 33

What did the letters call Stalin?

Answer 33

The letters called Stalin ‘all knowing’, ‘all good’, ‘all just’ and even ‘all powerful’

Question 34

Was Stalin mentioned in the national anthem?

Answer 34

Stalin was now mentioned by name in the national anthem (Not even Hitler of Mussolini had gone this far)

Question 35

When was Stalin’s cult of personality taken even further? With the publication of what?

Answer 35

This Stalinist cult of personality was taken even further in 1938 with the publication of Stalin’s version of Soviet History in a book entitled ‘History of all the All-Union Communist Party: Short Course’

Question 36

What occured in Stalin’s version of the history of the Communist Party?

Answer 36

In Stalin’s version, the history of the party and the revolution were rewritten, with Stalin as the hero of the story

Question 37

What did Stalin use films and art to depict himself as?

Answer 37

Stalin also made use of films and art to depict himself as above anyone else in the party, and in the Soviet Union

Question 38

What was Stalin’s personal dictatorship?

Answer 38

Stalin’s personal dictatorship was to completely control the Soviet Union until his death in 1953

Question 39

In this time, who did Stalin transform his country more than? When did the transformation begin?

Answer 39

In this time, Stalin transformed Soviet society far more than Hitler, Mussolini or Tojo ever did in Germany, Italy or Japan

• This transformation began shortly after Stalin came to power

Question 40

Prior to this transformation how had peasants lived?

Answer 40

Prior to this, peasants had been independent

Question 41

Where had peasants lived? Did this change?

Answer 41

They lived in remote communities, a long way from the centres of power, and they had access to food supplies as they could harvest the produce on their own small landholdings

• This was to change under Stalin’s rule

Question 42

From 1927, what was peasants land increasingly brought under and through what?

Answer 42

From 1927 → peasant land was increasingly brought under direct government control through the so-called ‘collectivisation initiative’ → where individual farms were consolidated into collective landholdings

Question 43

In 1928, what percentage of agricultural land in the Soviet Union was under peasant control?

Answer 43

In 1928 → more than 97% of agricultural land in the Soviet Union was under private peasant control

Question 44

In less than a decade, what percentage of land had been collectivised?

Answer 44

In less than a decade 93% of land had been collectivised

Question 45

What were the collective farms known as?

Answer 45

The collective farms were known as kolhozy

Question 46

What was the aim of Stalin’s program?

Answer 46

Aim of the program → to solve in the crisis in the agricultural industry that had developed since the mid 1920s

Question 47

What were collective farms thought to do?

Answer 47

Collective farms, it was thought, would increase food supply to urban areas

Question 48

Why did this plan fail?

Answer 48

This plan failed spectacularly as many peasants refused to work under the new conditions

Question 49

What happened to the number of livestock? and by the 1940s what did collectivisation prove to be?

Answer 49

The number of livestock soon started to fall dramatically, & by the 1940s collectivisation had proved a complete failure as the losses suffered in the Second World War had further hampered agricultural production

Question 50

What did several provinces suffer from in 1946? what did this result in?

Answer 50

On top of this, several provinces had suffered a severe drought in 1946, resulting in a famine that historians estimated killed over 1 million people

Question 51

Who did Stalin blame for the failure of his agricultural plan? and what did he declare them?

Answer 51

Stalin blamed some of the wealthier peasants, who he called kulaks, for the failure of his agricultural plan, & declared them enemies of the people and traitors to the revolution

Question 52

What were kulaks subject to?

Answer 52

They were subject to arrest and either exile, imprisonment or execution

Question 53

From the 1930s, what were gulags used as?

Answer 53

From the 1930s → special prison camps, called gulags, were increasingly used as instruments to punish opponents of the Stalinist regime

Question 54

What was the key reason for Stalin’s success in the power struggle after Lenin’s death?

Answer 54

Key reason for Stalin success in the power struggle after Lenin’s death → his ability to provide rewards

Question 55

What system became institutionalised? What did patronage become a part of?

Answer 55

This system of offering rewards to officials loyal to Stalin eventually became institutionalised → patronage became part of the way the Stalinist government operated

Question 56

What did patronage extend to include?

Answer 56

It soon extended to include party members and workers who could receive rewards for meeting production targets

Question 57

What did some receive? and what were a few granted?

Answer 57

Some received lavish bonuses and a few were granted celebrity status such as Alexei Stakhanov

Question 58

Simultaneously, what was also a key element in the power structure of Stalinism?

Answer 58

Simultaneously, fear was a key element in the power structure of Stalinism

Question 59

What was Stalin’s approach to eliminating opponents?

Answer 59

Stalin had a ruthless approach to eliminating opponents and the infamous ‘purges’- especially the mass purges of 1937 & 1938, have become synonymous with his rule

Question 60

By this time, what had Stalin done to the peasants independence? and what were the urban population like to control?

Answer 60

By this time, Stalin had shattered the independence of the peasants & the urban population were easy to control → as they unlike peasants, relied on the government for food, water & power

Question 61

How could they be watched? & What could be done to peasants/urban population if they appeared to oppose the Stalinist line?

Answer 61

They could also be easily watched & rounded up by the police if they appeared to oppose the Stalinist line

Question 62

From 1937, who did Stalin extend the purges to include?

Answer 62

From 1937 → Stalin extended the purges to include leading figures in the army, engineers & other educated citizens who might become potential rivals

Question 63

Who did Stalin also turn on?

Answer 63

Stalin also turned on the older members of his own party

Question 64

Who did Stalin remove from the party?

Answer 64

The so-called ‘Old Bolsheviks’ → who were members of the Bolshevik Party prior to the revolution & hence might be able to remember the past and challenge the Stalinist version of communist history - were removed

Question 65

In the Central Committe of the Communist Party, how many did not fall victim to the purges?

Answer 65

The political party surge became so extensive that 139 members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (elected in 1934) → all but 41 fell victim to the purges

Question 66

Who did Stalin replace the ‘Old Bolshevik’s with? What were they untainted by? and what were they loyal to?

Answer 66

To replace them, Stalin brought in a new generation of party officials, untainted by personal experience & loyal to the idea of the party favoured by the Stalinist versions of communist ideology and history

Question 67

What did the fear of challenge from old party members lead Stalin to become?

Answer 67

The fear of challenge from old party members also led Stalin to become increasingly obsessed with having Trotsky killed

Question 68

Even though Stalin had defeated Trotsky in the power struggle & Trotsky had fled the country, what was Stalin determined to make happen?

Answer 68

Even though Stalin had defeated Trotsky in the power struggle & Trotsky had fled the country- living in Mexico by 1940, Stalin was determined that Trotsky be assassinated (Trotsky was murdered on 20 August 1940)

Question 69

Alongside terror, what did Stalin do to the Soviet Union & its society?

Answer 69

Alongside the terror, Stalin also modernised the Soviet Union & transformed its society

Question 70

How was Stalin’s modernisation of the Soviet Union achieved?

Answer 70

This was achieved through the collectivisation of land
& by a series of Five-Year-Plans to modernise and
industrialise the Soviet economy

Question 71

How did Stalin trasnform society?

Answer 71

The rates of literacy increased under his rule & electricity became available in many parts of the
country, along with improved transport & roads

Question 72

What did Stalin help transform a backward society into?

Answer 72

Stalin helped transform a backward society into a global superpower → but it all came at a huge cost in human life