Soviet Union - Focus - Soviet State under Stalin

Question 1

Question of totalitarianism?

Answer 1

1. Emerged to describe dictatorship, especially with defined and similar characteristics.
2. Defined as system of government with total control over lives within the state and the state itself.. features such as power ideology, single party state.

Question 2

Question of Stalinism?

Answer 2

Political system developed under Joseph Stalin, highlighted within a period of the USSR which the CPSU asserted force over society, headed by Stalin. E.g. collectivisation, industrialisation, secret policy..

Question 3

Russian economy in 1920s

Answer 3

1. Scissor crisis, inflation for industry goods and decrease in agricultural goods.
2. NEP stabilised Russia but was reason for issues like scissor crisis

Question 4

Industrialisation: nature and party opinion

Answer 4

1. Transition from agrarian society to industrialisation, changing rural-urban divide.

2.. Divides on this need for industrialisation, however Stalin saw it as a necessity by late 1920s.

Question 5

Industrialisation: Features (Five year plans)

Answer 5

1. Five Years plan run by Gosplan, process of collectivisation and industrialisation ran by system.

Question 6

Features of 1st Five year Plan (1928-32)

Answer 6

• Increasing heavy industry; steel and electricity, 1500 state enterprises propped up.
• Prestige projects

Question 7

Features of Second five year plan (1933-37)

Answer 7

• Heavy Industry; transport, machinery and chemical industries with 4500 enterprises opened.

Question 8

Features of Third year plan (1938-41)

Answer 8

• Achievements: consumer industries, workers failed and shrinking labour force.

Question 9

Features of political transformation

Answer 9

1. The Great Terror; intense control through economy, opposition, NKVD
2. Social Atomisation
3. Purges and Show Trials
4. Gulags
5. Propaganda

Question 10

Social and cultural change in the USSR

Answer 10

1. Urban and rural change, collectivism and industrialisation both having negative short-term impacts but positive long-term.
2. Industrialisation, collectivisation and 5 year plans.
3. Clergy and Nobility
4. Religion
5. Ethnic minorities and women