Stalin Flashcards
Stalins
• In 1922 Lenin had appointed him as
This gave him control over Party appointments.
From 1924 he developed a new policy of This made him appear to be a serious theoretician.
Trotsky
• He had been Commissar of
& Commissar of
• This gave him a high profile in the government (Sovnarkom).
• During the Civil War he had created and organised the •
This gave him a high profile; he was also a strong orator.
Kamenev and zinoviev
Kamenev was Party chief in Moscow, Zinoviev in Leningrad.
• They were old friends of Lenin and tended to work together.
• Zinoviev was made head of the international Communist movement in 1919
Bukharin
Was one of the leading intellectuals and theorists in the Party.
• He was a firm supporter of Lenin’s policy from 1921 of the
• The youngest of the Party leaders, he was regarded by Lenin as the
‘golden boy’ or ‘darling’ of the Party.
What position did Stalin have in the politburo
General secretary
1924 what did he say was nota world revolution but in accordance with Leninism
Socialism in one country
Lenin enrolment may 1924
128,000 new people to join the party
What was Stalin’s article in the Pravda in march 1930
Dizzy with success
Congress of victors 1934
Kirov = 1225 votes
Stalin = 927 votes
Kirov
Kirov was mysteriously assassinated, December 1934.
Stalin passed the Emergency Decree against Terrorism.
Trial of 16 1936
Zinoviev &Kamenev executed.
Trial of 17 1937
former supporters of Trotsky executed.
Trial of 21 1938
Bukharin executed
Red army trials
• In 1937, eight senior generals were tried for trying to overthrow the government.
• All eight, including Marshal Tukhachevsky, had worked with Trotsky in the Civil War.
• In these years Trotsky was still alive in Mexico, criticising Stalin.
• After the trial, 37,000 officers were dismissed from the Red Army.
• Trotsky was assassinated in 1940.
WW2 impact
• Following the German invasion (June 1941), Stalin gave more power to the state.
• He ended the terror against state administrators.
• In 1941 Stalin became chair of Sovnarkom; by 1945 he was known as ‘Generalissimo’
• During the war, the State Defence Committee (GKO) was main government body.
Post war terror
• After 1945 Stalin still used terror; the GULAG peaked in 1950 at 2.5m.
• The main incident was the Leningrad Affair (trials in 1949, executions 1950).
• Stalin was concerned about Party independence in Leningrad; the Party leaders there had become heroes following the 900-day Nazi siege.
• 100 Party officials were shot (including Woznesensky and 2000 arrested.
Testing loyalties
Stalin turned 70 in 1949; his age made him more paranoid.
• He even stooped to threatening the relatives of his ‘rivals’
• In 1948 he demanded that the Politburo expel Molotov’s wife, Polina, from the Party.
• Molotov abstained but later apologised to Stalin; his wife was exiled internally.
Doctors plot
. One of the reasons for Polina’s (Molotov’s wife’s) arrest was that she was Jewish; Stalin was anti-Semitic.
• Like most anti-Semites, Stalin regarded Jews as a foreign influence, and this at a time of international tensions (the Cold War).
• In 1952-3 accusations were made that Jewish doctors in the Kremlin were trying to poison Soviet leaders.
If Stalin had not died in March 1953 there might have been a new purge.
