Stalin

Question 1

What did Lenin’s testament reveal about Trotsky and Stalin?

Answer 1

Stalin has too much power in his hands as Secretary General, is too rude and makes too many enemies. Trotsky is too self-assure, prefers the administrative part of work but it overall the best leader.

Question 2

What is the background information on Trotsky and Stalin in the USSR?

Answer 2

Trotsky was more popular than Stalin and therefore Stalin was given a lesser role as General Secretary in 1922 and Trotsky was the Commissar for War. Trotsky was a persuasive speaker and maintained a presence in foreign affairs. Tension between the two increased as Lenin’s health began to fail; Lenin advocated for shared on his death bed in january 21 1924. A struggle for power emerged between the two each fighting for their own policies. Trotsky wanted ‘permanent revolutions’ around the world but Stalin wanted to build up strength and wanted ‘communism in one country’.

Question 3

What happened at Lenin’s funeral?

Answer 3

Stalin tricked Trotsky that he would not reach the funeral in time and not to travel back and he therefore missed it which made him look disrespectful. Stalin then gave a great speech praising Lenin and talking about being his successor.

Question 4

Why was Trotsky feared?

Answer 4

The older communists feared he was going to become a dictator, he also wanted to push forward a revolution to end the NEP, especially as he had support from the Red Army, which is why they allowed Stalin to expel younger, more radical party members.

Question 5

What was the NEP?

Answer 5

The New Economic Plan was set in place by Lenin to give small businesses freedom to be run by individuals not the state.

Question 6

How did Stalin take control of the government following the death of Lenin?

Answer 6

The leading Bolshevik communists did not make Lenin’s testament public as it criticised them. In 1924, the first party congress since the death of Lenin, Stalin joined Zinoviev and Kamenev to defeat Trotsky. Stalin made sure that only his supporters were in the seats as General Secretary. Trotsky gained no votes and soon lost his job and was not in control of the Red Army. In 1926, Stalin turned of Zinoviev and Kamenev by joining Bukharin and the right wing of the party, putting forward his idea about ‘socialism in one country’. Zinoviev and Kamenev lost their jobs in the politburo. In 1927 Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev were expelled from the party. Finally Stalin turned on Bukharin in 1928 and the right wing of the party, attacking the NEP and had them removed from their posts in 1929, by 1929 Stalin celebrated his 50th birthday as the undisputed leader of the USSR.

Question 7

What was Stalins Constitution?

Answer 7

In 1936 Stalin setup a new constitution that replaced Lenin’s 1923 constitution. It changed the name of the Central Executive Committee to the Supreme Soviet and the new leader of the Presidium was the head of state. This gave Stalin all of the power to control the government as well as a few rights for the people, for example leisure time and work. It also made anyone eligible to vote but only Communist parties could stand.

Question 8

What were the Great purges?

Answer 8

The purges of 1934-1938 where Stalin cleaned out all opposition from the party and in government, including old powerful Bolsheviks such as Zinoviev and Kamenev in the ‘show trials’. Stalin removed all communists that stood in his way or ordinary people that spoke their mind.

Question 9

How did the purges begin?

Answer 9

When Stalin introduced collectivisation in the late 20s, many farmers and communists hated him. One of these was a very popular party boss, Kirov who was favourite to replace Stalin. In december 1924, Kirov was murdered outside of a government building and the death was blamed on many communist members by Stalin. Among these was Zinoviev and Kamenev who were all put on a ‘show trail’.

Question 10

What were ‘show trails’?

Answer 10

Show trails were publicly broadcasted trails of communist party members where they were accused of plotting against Stalin and being ‘Trotskyists’ or American agents or working for Nazi Germany. Many old bolsheviks appeared in public and admitted to crimes they didn’t commit and were shot - most of them were tortured to do this. Stalin was extremely paranoid and had most of the party purged and parts of the Red Army.

Question 11

Who were famously purged?

Answer 11

Yagoda, Turkhachevsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Rykov.

Question 12

What was the purpose of the Gulags?

Answer 12

Gualgs were labour camps where the NKVD would send you if you opposed Stalin. They were special projects such as Dams or Canals where no wages would be paid and little food was given out - they were worked till their deaths and then replaced. Stalin used this to set fear into his public. This was known as the period of the Great Terror.

Question 13

What was the result of the purges?

Answer 13

One-third of officers in the Red army, One-third of all communist members, Two-thirds of the original Bolshevik government and 7 million ordinary citizens were killed or imprisoned. This made Stalin the undisputed leader of the USSR and made everyone too afraid to oppose him. Stalin stopped the purges in 1938 as they were out of control, he blamed the NKVD and purged it.

Question 14

What was Stalin’s cult of personality?

Answer 14

Stalin used propaganda all around to brainwash his people into thinking he was a god. He doctored images and re-wrote text books to make people believe he was the most important person after Lenin in the starting and finishing of the revolution and he, Lenin and Marx were the top communists. As the people had no access to communications all they had to believe was the propaganda and soon people adored Stalin. People however were banned from speaking against him and all statistics altered to show that his policies were working.

Question 15

What was the state of the USSR?

Answer 15

World war one and the Bolshevik revolution had left the USSR in ruin with homes, factories and farmland destroyed as well as a series of famines such as the 1921 famine. Stalin needed to prove his policies were effective and he was a strong leader. Stalin knew that the majority of the large population worked in agriculture but wanted to expand industry west and therefore needed to improve transport links. The USSR needed to be stronger to defend against capitalist attacks. Although the NEP was successful at making money, only the small majority of Kulaks were the wealthy farmers and could not support the entire of the USSR.

Question 16

What was collectivisation?

Answer 16

Stalin realised by the end of the 1920s that the rich and successful Kulaks were still producing food inadequately and were not producing enough food to feed the population. In 1927 Stalin made farmers able to volunteer their farms under one collective farm known as a kolkhoz so that they could afford efficient machinery. In 1929 no one had listened and there had been a great famine so Stalin made the plan compulsory. The peasants and Kulaks hated this and so they burnt their crops and slaughtered their animals so the state could not use it. There was a famine in 1930. In 1931 Stalin tried to re-enforce collectivisation after relaxing it in 1930 but again there was resistance and a worse famine that killed 15 million. Stalin blamed the Kulaks and sent them to the gulags or executed them. By 1939 99% of land was collectivised and 90% of peasants lived on one of the 250,000 Kolkhoz which were run by government officials. 90% of food went to the state.

Question 17

Why did stalin collectivise the farms?

Answer 17

He wanted more food to feed the workers in industry.
He needed a surplus of food to sell overseas to bring money into the country.
He needed people to leave the land and go to work in industry.
He wanted an excuse to destroy the kulaks, who believed in private ownership, not communism.

Question 18

Was Stalin successful with collectivisation?

Answer 18

Stalin achieved most of his aims:
Grain production rose to nearly 100 million tonnes in 1937, although the numbers of animals never recovered.
Russia sold large quantities of grain to other countries.
Some 17 million people left the countryside to go to work in the towns.
The kulaks were eliminated.
The peasants were closely under the government’s control.
However, the human cost was immense:
Perhaps 3 million kulaks were killed.
There were famines in 1930 and 1932-3 when 5 million people starved to death.

Question 19

How did Stalin tackle trying to setup industrialisation?

Answer 19

The government wanted to be in charge of industry and tasked the Gosplan with setting up state run industrial plans.

Question 20

What was the aim of the First five year plan?

Answer 20

First plan (1928-1932)
Emphasised heavy industry, coal, oil, iron, steel and electricity which would all help setup foundations for future industry. The targets were set emourmously high and were unrealistic but coal and iron doubled their output, electric power almost trebled, 1,500 new industrial plants were built and 100 new towns were built. One of these industrial plants was the city of Magnitogorsk where iron ore was mined.

Question 21

What was the aim of the Second Five year plan?

Answer 21

Second plan (1932-1937)
Industry was still top priority but communications like railways were also focused on so that industries and city could be connected. New industries such as chemicals and metallurgy grew. Examples of this are the Turkestan-Siberian Railroad, The Dneiper Dam, The Belomor Canal

Question 22

What was the aim of the Third Five year plan?

Answer 22

Third plan (1937-1941)
This focused on the build up of ammunitions, tanks and planes which saved the USSR when the plan was interrupted in 1941 by the entering of the second world war.

Question 23

What techniques were used during industrialisation?

Answer 23

Competition was introduced to motivate workers by creating leader boards, certificates and creating the Stakhanovite movement which increased productivity by 41% in the first plan and 82% in the second.
Stalin brought in experts from foreign countries, particularly America and Britain (the Dnieper dam was supervised by an American) and Ford helped with the production of 140,000 new cars in 1932. Single managers were given quotas they had to fulfil and did as they liked, if they succeeded they were given rich bonuses.

Question 24

Were the five year plans successful?

Answer 24

The improvements in production between 1928 and 1937 were phenomenal:
Coal - from 36 million tonnes to 130 million tonnes
Iron - from 3 million tonnes to 15 million tonnes
Oil - from 2 million tonnes to 29 million tonnes
Electricity - from 5,000 million to 36,000 million kilowatts
New buildings were spectacular, transport and living standards were improved and it helped them fight the Germans.
However the quotas were unrealistic, always changing and were not organised well. Many of the workers were slave workers and kulaks from the gulag. Strikers were shot, and wreckers (slow workers) could be executed or imprisoned. Thousands died from accidents, starvation or cold. Housing and wages were terrible, and no consumer goods were produced for people. Collectivisation was not working and the workers went hungry.