Russia: Stalin Flashcards
why did Stalin rise into power
- trotsky’s weaknesses: arrogant, offended senior party members, little effort to build up any support, underestimated stalin in the georgian nationality issue, frightened many people in the USSR, people though of him as a threat and worried he would involve them in new conflicts, idealistic - permanent revolution, naive
- stalin’s tactics: trotsky fell ill when lenin was dying, he tricked trotsky by telling him the wrong date of lenin’s funeral (26th when it was on the 27th(1924)), stalin therefore appeared as chief mourner, he made great efforts to associate himself with lenin whenever possible as most people favoured lenin, manipulated trotsky to lower his prestige and position in morals and boost his, manipulative, later trotsky exiled in 1928
- stalin’s strengths: he was clever and cunning in using his power within the communist party, clever politician, planned his bid for power carefully, made great connections with lenin, great scheming, used the mistakes of his opponents to use them against them, devious, manipulative, hard-working, ruthless - betray alliances, killing opponents
- stalin as general secretary: used his position to put his own supporters into even more important posts and even transfer his opponent’s supporters into remote positions, important in giving him control over appointments
- stalin’s survival of lenin’s final testament: trotsky thought as long as stalin doesn’t get in his way and pose as a threat to the bolsheviks he can do whatever he wants without ruining his own reputation. lenin wanted him to be removed from his position but trotsky ignored and defied lenin. undermined his role.
- outmanoeuvring rivals: ruthless when picking off rivals, took bukharin’s side in the debate on the NEP to get rid of trotsky and later used trotsky’s arguments to oppose bukharin and get rid of him. even wanted to get rid of kamenev and zinoviev
- stalin’s policies: proposed in the future they should establish ‘socialism in one country’ rather than to spread revolution worldwide, straightforward georgian peasant - much more a man of the people, understood their feelings, russia was very behind so wanted to modernise the country
did stalin’s wartime leadership help the USSR defeat the german invaders?
operation Barbarossa: invasion of the soviet union by Nazi Germany in june 1941
NO: military mistakes by stalin, airforce destroyed on ground, 400 soldiers trapped on the route to moscow, due to the nazi-soviet pact (1939) stalin misjudged hitler - naive in trusting hitler, disastrous orders by stalin, paranoia made him purge many good army officers which affected him greatly, ignored warnings of attack and later realised and crumpled down - killed 20 million people
YES: in october, he ordered the ‘scorched earth policy’ where thousands of factories were reconstructed east of the ural mountains out of reach of the advancing germans - animals and crops were also moved (also negative for the people), the further the germans advanced the harder it was to get supplied from germany, best use of supplies and troops, steadfastly at the helm of russia, a huge soviet army under Marshal Zhukov surrounded the germans as they were attacking Stalingrad, moscow and leningrad - feb 1943, lots of machinery and rifles, stalin never accepted defeat, 1.3 million soldiers and 3000 tanks, propaganda and cult of personality came to aid
OTHER FACTORS: russian weather turned against the germans, incessant rain turned ground to mud, nov = temperatures fell way below 0 degrees, germans were not dressed or equipped for such conditions
how did stalin keep control over russia
- purges: process of removing positions
3 widely published show trials and a series of closed trials (1934 -1938) held in the soviet union during the late 1930s. started by the modern of sergei kirov who was the leader of the Leningrad communist party. people opposing him would get scared and the show trials showed he was a fair leader - helped to remove key rivals. he thought they were a threat to his authority -spread terror. counter revolutionaries - secret police: NKVD
the NKVD torture people and arrest them and force confessions out of them. they would threaten families and kill them. this removed rivals and helped to spread terror, fear of denunciation. informers promoted to ‘rat out’ fellow family members to stay away from the great terror, praised. destroy all potential opponents. - labour camps:
mostly in remote, inaccessible regions, very hard physical labour in cold conditions, take people away from their families, suppressed/restrained, 3 million people in camps called gulags 1939. remove any chance of opponents, they produced most of the gold, timber and other resources, industrialisation: 5 year plans, building roads, railways and infrastructural projects like the belomor canal. fear of disloyalty, discipline, severe punishments such as starved to death, torture, solitary confinement. job of the NKVD - propaganda & cult of personality:
clear to the russians which expressions of culture are permitted, education controlled USSR, portraits, statues and photographs of stalin everywhere, stalin square, stalin avenue, religious worship was banned, communism reviewed religion as a threat, anything expressing their own ideas or individuality was removed. everything was carefully monitored by the NKVD, he became a star of the soviet system, the aim was to praise stalin’s rule. people wouldn’t get any other ideas and think that whatever stalin was doing was the best for their country. only stalin optimist ideas published, social realism, idealistic vs materialistic and encourages reinforcement of communist values.
the communist party saw stalin as a hero and a ‘dictator of the people’ in a good way. they believed in him and worshipped him. indoctrinated people, secured his position of power, linking his position with lenin (people liked lenin), helped him to dominate and control the USSR
collectivisation
increase production of food supply, improving and boost agriculture, create a communist community, collective ownership of farms called kolkhozes
why? : population of the the industrial centres was growing rapidly, 2 million tonnes of short grains was needed to feed the workers, more workers in towns than countryside due to industrialisation so more crops needed to be grown, surplus food to sell abroad - more money for industrialisation, exportation, efficient farming, not relying on imports.
measures: establishment of collective farms, work and live together - workers have to do less labour, more crops with better machinery and equipment. Pravda newspaper made it compulsory, kulaks didn’t want to cooperate and share out their land so didn’t comply with this rule. anti- kulak propaganda sent out everywhere. kulaks sent to labour camps or poorer quality
successes: improved food production and agriculture immensely = more efficient, 50% of all peasant households had been collectivised = huge success.
initial decline but huge growth overall. provided resources for industrialisation, helped with new technology, benefits to countryside such as education and better conditions, huge grain procurement - seized by govt.
failures: peasants at first didn’t agree with this, halted town growth and created a labour shortage for industrial works, kulaks had small farms that were inefficient but they didn’t want to give them up, kulaks in protest burned crops and slaughtered animals. caused a famine in which 8 million people died in 1932-1933, kulaks sent to labour camps so by 1934 they didn’t exist. people died in agricultural russian countries such as Ukraine and Kazakhstan, animals on farms majorly decreased. resistance as opposition chose not to hand over crops and livestock.
industrialisation: 5 year plans
increase the USSR’s military defence, establish his reputation, rivals great economies of other countries such as the USA, beacon of socialism, catch up to advanced countries, avoid failures in war, boost social class, true communist state
why? : needed to modernise the USSR’s industry and agriculture
measures: 1st 5 year plan on major industries, increased production : strict targets
2nd 5 year plan to focus on heavy industry
successes: more natural resources, incentive propaganda - lots of motivation , improved transport and communication, moscow became underground, cities were built from the ground, better production = largely improved, glorified social workers, made their country more powerful, lots of mining, new buildings, workers had more work so higher pay, modernised country, Magnitogorsk very powerful iron and steel works production site
achievements: over both 5 year plans
steel = 4 —> 17.7
iron = 3.3 —> 14.5
oil = 11.7 —> 28.5
coal = 35.4 —> 128
electricity = 5.05 —> 36.2
failures : Russian cities did not expand in response to the large influx of workers, experiencing poor, unsanitary living conditions along with long hours and little pay, specific aims were too vague, planned inefficiently, unrealistic targets that were not met in those time scales, fewer technological advancements, disruption by WW2, pressure of targets meant quality wasn’t the best, not much honesty, might lie and fabricate figures since they were worried of not meeting targets.
consequences of stalin’s programme of modernisation
- kulaks: arrested and forced onto poor quality land which made them burn crops and slaughter animals in response, war of words turned into violence, soviet propaganda tried to turn people against them, stalin’s chosen victims for collectivisation - suffered badly, govt. took crops leaving peasants to starve, sent to labour camps
- women: 21% of building workers and 72% of health workers were women, 4/5 new workers that were recruited were women, by 1937, 40% of industrial workers were made up of women compared to the 28% in 1927, encouraged mothers to work by setting up day care systems, shortage of workers so govt. decided to concentrate on drafting more women into the industry
- industrial workers: forced labour in poor conditions like kulaks, engineering projects = very dangerous, NKVD introduced passports so you can’t leave factories - prevented free movement of workers in the USSR, strict targets and severe punishments like losing your house, job etc, strict factory discipline, used them for the goals of the 5 year plans
- city dwellers: housing provided by state, queuing = big part of life, stalin invested in education, proud to be living in communist regimes, loyal to stalin, wages fell, overcrowding, improved conditions, health care improved, almost no unemployment, poor availability of consumer goods, development of industry led to better energy supplies like hydro-electric power, improved transport with new railways and canals, people of moscow greatly benefitted from the new underground system
- professional workers: alexei stakhanov = glorified soviet worker - x14 the average coal in one shift, all workers encouraged to be stakhanovites, drastically increased workers’ productivity by the stakhanovite movement - campaign to demonstrate superiority of the system ‘hero of socialist labour’, used for propaganda to demonstrate superiority
