Stalin Flashcards
When did Stalin join the Bolsheviks?
1904
How did the Menshevik Nikolai Sukhanov describe Stalin in the power struggle?
“In the political arena Stalin was nothing more than a vague, grey blur”
How did Lenin describe Stalin’s want for power in his Testament?
“I am not convinced that he will always manage to use this power with sufficient caution”
What happened for Lenin to want Stalin removed of his position in Jan 1923?
Stalin spoke illy of his wife
When was Stalin appointed General Secretary?
April 1922
What did Trotsky call Stalin in 1927?
“The gravedigger of the revolution”
What are reasons for Stalin changing economic policy during the power struggle?
Opportunist seeking power - opposing NEP would isolate Bukharin his last opponent
NEP has run into crisis - grain prices fell and food shortages
When did Stalin become the undisputed leader of the USSR?
Nov 1929 - Bukharin voted out of Politburo
What were the main of aims of Stalin in 1920s?
Complete revolution at home
Suppress opposition
Build a strong centralist state
Promote working class Bolsheviks into positions of power
What was the Triumvirate and when was it formed?
An alliance between Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev formed in Dec 1922 (wanted to isolate Trotsky)
When was Lenin’s testament issued to the Central Committee?
May 1924
When was Trotsky forced from his position as Commissar of War?
Dec 1925
When was the 14th Party Congress and what gave Stalin support there?
Jul 1926
Stalin argued for socialism in one country which was popular and sided with the favourable NEP
Zinoviev was forced from his position
What happened in Nov 1926?
Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev form the United Opposition however they were accused of factionalism so they were removed from the party
When did Stalin change his economic stance during the power struggle?
Jan 1928 after grain crisis
How did Stalin initially centralise the party?
Nomenklatura ensures loyalty
Party over Government
Party was centralised into a Stalin selected committee rather than Politburo
Lenin enrolment made sure members were employed loyal to Stalin
How much did membership increase between 1930-1933 due to Lenin Enrolment?
From 1,700,000 in 1930 to 3,500,000 in 1933
What did Trotsky write in Revolution betrayed about Stalin’s centralisation?
1936 -
Stalin’s rule formed an ‘administrative pyramid’ where a bureaucratised society had emerged from his centralisation
Who drafted the 1936 Constitution and what did he call it?
Bukharin - the most ‘democratic constitution in the world’
What did the 1936 Constitution promise?
Local autonomy (self government) to ethnic groups and support for national cultures
Four yearly elections with all over 18 being allowed to vote
Extensive civil rights
How was the 1936 Constitution not followed through?
There was little of the promised religious freedom
Party leaders in Georgia were purged in 1951
“Free from arbitrary arrest” was a big fat lie
When did the Cult or Personality develop?
From Dec 1929 - his 50th birthday
What slogans were used to describe Stalin in his cult?
“Stalin is the Lenin of today”
“Mighty leader”
“Father of the nation”
What was the History of the All-Union Communist Party?
A historical textbook published in all educational institutions in 1938 - said Stalin was the main figure of the revolution while Trotsky was the enemy of the State
How many copies of the History of the All Union Communist Party we’re sold?
It sold 34 million copies in the Soviet Union by 1948
What and when was the Shakhty Show Trial?
1928 - the first important show trial - 58 engineers accused of being counter revolutionary and forced to confess - 5 killed and 44 received sentences
Who was Genrikh Yagoda?
The first Head of the NKVD - employed to improve prions so he created gulags
Who created gulags and why?
Yagoda - prisons were overpopulated so the new corrective labour camps were built and placed under the OGPU then NKVD
What was the largest gulag camp?
The White Sea Canal construction gulag in which 100,000 prisoners were employed
How many prisoners died during the construction of the White Sea Canal?
25,000 prisoners
Who was Stalin’s wife and when did she die?
Nadezhda - committed suicide in Nov 1932
What was the turning point for Stalin in 1932?
The suicide of his wife who wrote in a note that his policies were inhumane and she sympathised with those he repressed
What political opposition made Stalin turn to Terror?
Bukharin elected back to Central Committee (1930)
Two opposition parties opened in the party - “old Bolsheviks” and the Ryutin platform
What was the Ryutin platform?
An opposition group in the party led by Martemyan Ryutin that critiques his political direction - members were arrested and Ryutin was shot in 1937
When did Stalin announce his first purge of the party?
April 1933
When was Kirov murdered?
Dec 1934
Why was Stalin murdered?
Kirov was applauded at the 17th Party Congress for his opposition of the economic direction - forcible grain seizures
How many were arrested under the “terrorist plotting” decree?
6500 people arrested under the December law
How many party members were expelled from the party as anti-Leninists and when?
Following the Dec law in Jan 1935 250,000 party members expelled
What percent of the 17th Party Congress we’re arrested and shot?
70%
When were the Great Purges?
1936-1938
Who became NKVD chief in Sept 1936?
Nikolai Yezhov
When did Yezhov replace Yagoda?
Sept 1936
When was the military purged and what happened?
May to June 1937
8 commanders and hero’s of the civil war were arrested tortured and shot
How much of the military High Command was purged and shot?
767 purged and 512 killed
What was the “Trial of the Twenty One”?
Third major show trial - March 1938 - 21 Bolsheviks including Bukharin and Yagoda were executed
Who did Stalin blame for the economic problems and chaos?
Saboteurs -
What did Stalin say about saboteurs?
“The neater we get to achieving socialism, the more evident will be the counter revolutionary character of every oppositional tendency”
How did Stalin portray the Kirov murder to the masses?
He claimed it was the first of a wide ranging murder plot against Stalin’s inner circle and that the party needed to be purged
How many were executed between 1937 and 1938?
Three million
Why did Stalin purge and murder (theory)?
Lust for power - to preserve a totalitarian state the masses must be scared into coercion
To distract from the country’s economic and social problems
Paranoia
Which individual close to Stalin lived on through his leadership unscathed?
Molotov
Who was blamed for starting the Great Terror in 1936?
The NKVD blamed Trotsky for contacting Komsomol members and old Bolsheviks in a plot to murder Stalin
What was the unwritten rule of the party?
That Bolsheviks should not kill their own colleagues
What is an example of Stalin breaking “the right to be free from arbitrary arrest”?
The arrests and murdered of family members including the deaths of Kamenevs wife and son
What was the “social cleansing”?
Arrests of those described as “degenerates” - those whose presence was considered corrupting and disruptive - prototypes, beggars etc
What was the Yezhovshchina?
1937-38 - the spread of purges to the ordinary citizen most notably on social and cultural figures with 250,000 “anti Soviets” drawn up
How can Stalin’s leadership be described as totalitarian?
He ruled as a dictator in a One Party State, controlling all activities - economic, intellectual, political and cultural - all directed towards the states goals which are decided by him
What is evidence of Stalin as a totalitarian dictator?
His physical and mental suppression of opposition - collectivisation, dekulakisation, the purges and the Great Terror, Party bureaucracy
What did Lenin call artists and those who influenced culture?
“Engineers of the soul” who could indoctrinate the population with socialist values
By how much did real wages fall from 1928 to 1937?
3/5
How much had the urban population increased by between 1926 and 1939?
31 million people
What did an American engineer working in the USSR say about working conditions?
“The physical aspect of the cities is dreadful. Stench, filth, dilapidation batter the senses at every turn
Who were the privileged groups in society?
Members of the party, trade union officials, members of the intelligentsia - writers etc - Stakhanovites, engineers
How were the privileged members of society treated superior?
Given extra food parcels, separate work canteens, lowered prices, better accommodation
What is an example of people evading the oppressive society?
The BLAT system - an informal network where people provided each other with goods and services
What did Stalin say about improvements in society in 1935?
“Life has become better, life has become more joyous”
What are examples of improvements in quality of life in the mid 1930s?
Food supplies were improving
All rationing was abolished in 1936
Education and healthcare was free (a welfare state)
Leisure facilities - 30,000 cinemas built
When was all rationing abolished?
1936
What did the term to “speak Bolshevik” mean?
The culture of becoming well mannered and proper as to become a genuine Soviet person - culturedness