Stalin Flashcards
1
Q
When did Stalin join the Bolsheviks?
A
1904
2
Q
How did the Menshevik Nikolai Sukhanov describe Stalin in the power struggle?
A
“In the political arena Stalin was nothing more than a vague, grey blur”
3
Q
How did Lenin describe Stalin’s want for power in his Testament?
A
“I am not convinced that he will always manage to use this power with sufficient caution”
4
Q
What happened for Lenin to want Stalin removed of his position in Jan 1923?
A
Stalin spoke illy of his wife
5
Q
When was Stalin appointed General Secretary?
A
April 1922
6
Q
What did Trotsky call Stalin in 1927?
A
“The gravedigger of the revolution”
7
Q
What are reasons for Stalin changing economic policy during the power struggle?
A
Opportunist seeking power - opposing NEP would isolate Bukharin his last opponent
NEP has run into crisis - grain prices fell and food shortages
8
Q
When did Stalin become the undisputed leader of the USSR?
A
Nov 1929 - Bukharin voted out of Politburo
9
Q
What were the main of aims of Stalin in 1920s?
A
Complete revolution at home
Suppress opposition
Build a strong centralist state
Promote working class Bolsheviks into positions of power
10
Q
What was the Triumvirate and when was it formed?
A
An alliance between Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev formed in Dec 1922 (wanted to isolate Trotsky)
11
Q
When was Lenin’s testament issued to the Central Committee?
A
May 1924
12
Q
When was Trotsky forced from his position as Commissar of War?
A
Dec 1925
13
Q
When was the 14th Party Congress and what gave Stalin support there?
A
Jul 1926
Stalin argued for socialism in one country which was popular and sided with the favourable NEP
Zinoviev was forced from his position
14
Q
What happened in Nov 1926?
A
Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev form the United Opposition however they were accused of factionalism so they were removed from the party
15
Q
When did Stalin change his economic stance during the power struggle?
A
Jan 1928 after grain crisis
16
Q
How did Stalin initially centralise the party?
A
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
17
Q
How much did membership increase between 1930-1933 due to Lenin Enrolment?
A
From 1,700,000 in 1930 to 3,500,000 in 1933
18
Q
What did Trotsky write in Revolution betrayed about Stalin’s centralisation?
A
1936 -
Stalin’s rule formed an ‘administrative pyramid’ where a bureaucratised society had emerged from his centralisation
19
Q
Who drafted the 1936 Constitution and what did he call it?
A
Bukharin - the most ‘democratic constitution in the world’
20
Q
What did the 1936 Constitution promise?
A
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
21
Q
How was the 1936 Constitution not followed through?
A
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
22
Q
When did the Cult or Personality develop?
A
From Dec 1929 - his 50th birthday
23
Q
What slogans were used to describe Stalin in his cult?
A
“Stalin is the Lenin of today”
“Mighty leader”
“Father of the nation”
24
Q
What was the History of the All-Union Communist Party?
A
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
25
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
26
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
27
Who was Genrikh Yagoda?
The first Head of the NKVD - employed to improve prions so he created gulags
28
Who created gulags and why?
Yagoda - prisons were overpopulated so the new corrective labour camps were built and placed under the OGPU then NKVD
29
What was the largest gulag camp?
The White Sea Canal construction gulag in which 100,000 prisoners were employed
30
How many prisoners died during the construction of the White Sea Canal?
25,000 prisoners
31
Who was Stalin’s wife and when did she die?
Nadezhda - committed suicide in Nov 1932
32
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
33
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
34
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
35
When did Stalin announce his first purge of the party?
April 1933
36
When was Kirov murdered?
Dec 1934
37
Why was Stalin murdered?
Kirov was applauded at the 17th Party Congress for his opposition of the economic direction - forcible grain seizures
38
How many were arrested under the “terrorist plotting” decree?
6500 people arrested under the December law
39
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
40
What percent of the 17th Party Congress we’re arrested and shot?
70%
41
When were the Great Purges?
1936-1938
42
Who became NKVD chief in Sept 1936?
Nikolai Yezhov
43
When did Yezhov replace Yagoda?
Sept 1936
44
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
45
How much of the military High Command was purged and shot?
767 purged and 512 killed
46
What was the “Trial of the Twenty One”?
Third major show trial - March 1938 - 21 Bolsheviks including Bukharin and Yagoda were executed
47
Who did Stalin blame for the economic problems and chaos?
Saboteurs -
48
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”
49
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
50
How many were executed between 1937 and 1938?
Three million
51
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
52
Which individual close to Stalin lived on through his leadership unscathed?
Molotov
53
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
54
What was the unwritten rule of the party?
That Bolsheviks should not kill their own colleagues
55
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
56
What was the “social cleansing”?
Arrests of those described as “degenerates” - those whose presence was considered corrupting and disruptive - prototypes, beggars etc
57
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
58
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
59
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
60
What did Lenin call artists and those who influenced culture?
“Engineers of the soul” who could indoctrinate the population with socialist values
61
By how much did real wages fall from 1928 to 1937?
3/5
62
How much had the urban population increased by between 1926 and 1939?
31 million people
63
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
64
Who were the privileged groups in society?
Members of the party, trade union officials, members of the intelligentsia - writers etc - Stakhanovites, engineers
65
How were the privileged members of society treated superior?
Given extra food parcels, separate work canteens, lowered prices, better accommodation
66
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
67
What did Stalin say about improvements in society in 1935?
“Life has become better, life has become more joyous”
68
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
69
When was all rationing abolished?
1936
70
What did the term to “speak Bolshevik” mean?
The culture of becoming well mannered and proper as to become a genuine Soviet person - culturedness
71
Who was culturedness restricted to and why?
The wealthy and privileged as cultured/proper/soviet goods were expensive
72
Why was Russia’s foreign policy so bad?
They had tried to start a world revolution secretly through the Comintern - they isolated themselves as a communist state surrounded by capitalist ones
73
What was Hitler known as?
The enemy of communism
74
What is an example of Russia’s failed foreign policy?
When a quarter of a million were killed after Russian communists tried to intervene in the Chinese civil war
75
What is a Kolkhoz farm?
A collective farm in which members farmed the land as a cooperative and were allowed a small private plot
76
What was a Sovkhoz farm?
A state owned collective farm directed by the state and was mostly used to cultivating virgin land
77
When did Stalin turn to total collectivisation formally?
September 1929
78
At the 14th Party Congress what did Staling say about economy?
He called for the “transformation of our country from an agrarian society into an industrial one”
79
When did Stalin announce the Great Turn?
Dec 1927 - 15th Party Congress
80
Why did the Great Turn occur?
NEP failing to produce desired amount in late 1920s
| To move towards a socialist state industry had to develop so it was not dependent on the peasant masses
81
When was the First Five Year Plan?
1928-1932
82
What was the aim of the First Five Year Plan?
To increase production by 300%
| Develop heavy industry and electricity
83
How successful was the First Five Year Plan?
```
Electricity trebled
Iron output doubled
However ...
Consumer industries were largely neglected
Success in reports was exaggerated
```
84
How did Stalin motivate mass industrialisation?
Propaganda campaign to enthuse those working
Offered incentives to tho who were successful - Stakhanovite movement
Over exaggerated reports of success
Fear of war
85
When was the Second Five Year Plan?
1933-1937
86
What the aims of the Second Five Year Plan?
Develop heavy industry
New emphasis on light industry
Develop communications between factory institutions and cities
87
How successful was the Second Five Year Plan?
Had three good years (1934-36)
New institutions opened - Moscow Metro, Volga Canal
Still output trebled
Coal production doubled
By 1937 Soviet Union self-sufficient in metal goods
However...
Emphasised quantity over quality
88
When were the Three Good Years?
In the Second Five Year Plan - 1934-36
89
How much did electric production increase in the First Plan?
Trebled
90
How much did steel and coal production increase in the Second Plan?
Steel trebled
| Coal production doubled
91
When was the Third Five Year Plan?
1938-1942
92
What was the aim of the Third Five Year Plan?
Rapid rearmament with the fear of war
| Heavy industry increase
93
How successful was the Third Five Year Plan?
Spending on rearmament doubled which caused heavy industry to suffer
Stalin’s purges has caused a shortage of managers and specialists
Plan fell short because of German invasion
94
How were the Five Year Plans implemented?
Central planning - a command economy that used pressure to active aims
Failure to meet targets was a criminal offence
Bonuses were paid to those who exceeded targets
95
What was the Ural Siberian Method?
The forcible seizure of grain and the closing of markets - 1928
96
What were the main features of Stalin’s collectivisation?
Dekulakisation - “annihilate the kulak as a class”
| Mechanical modernisation - machine tractor stations
97
What the number of farms decrease to after collectivisation?
From 25 million small peasant farms to 200,000 large collectives - kolkhozy
98
What did Stalin say about Kulaks?
“Eliminate then as a class...they are sworn enemies of the collective farm movement”
99
How did dekulakisation fit with Marxism?
Eliminated the “exploiting class” from manipulating the state for their own benefit
100
Who was the actual process of collectivisation carried out by?
The Red Army and secret police troops
101
Who were the Twenty-Five Thousanders?
The first 25,000 soldiers to carry out collectivisation - they wanted revenge on the grain hoarding kulak and violently confiscated property - they were met with resistance and there was an outbreak of violent chaos
Stalin claimed they were “drunk with success”
102
How was the reset of collectivisation in 1931 more successful?
The campaign was more controlled
| Peasants were given more incentives to work - small private plots on the collectives and they could keep livestock
103
How many people did collectivisation affect?
8-9 million people
104
How many Kulaks were deported between 1929 and 1932?
450,000
105
Who benefited from collectivisation?
Young people from worker and peasant backgrounds moved up in society due to the new class structure
106
What did the Trotskyite Pyatakov say about the economic changes?
“The heroic period of our socialist construction has arrived”
107
How much did grain procurements increase by between 1928 and 1933?
Doubled from 10.8 mil tonnes to 22.6 mil tonnes
108
What result of collectivisation did Stalin hide?
That total grain production did not increase at all
109
Why did grain production not increase during collectivisation?
The kulak class who was the most productive were eliminated
Many peasants were demoralised due to forceful and violent seizures
Collective farmers were not paid wages
Peasants worked harder on their own plots as it produced a greater profit
Famine of 1932-33
110
How many people died in the famine of 1932-33?
5-8 million
111
Who was Stepan Podlubnyi?
A young man living in Moscow in the 1930s who worked in the Komsomol and wrote a diary of the Soviet working man
112
What did Stepan Podlubnyi say about those who died in the famine as an example of Soviet ideology?
“And those who die of hunger, let them die. If they can’t defend themselves again death from starvation it means they are weak willed and what can they give to society?”
113
When was the Mir abolished and what was it replaced by?
Abolished in 1930 and replaced by the Kolkhoz
114
How many people emigrated to the cities due to collectivisation?
12 million
115
What did Stalin say industrialisation should change Russia into?
From a country “that imports machines and equipment into a country that produces machines and equipment”
116
What were the political motives to rapid industrialisation?
To be self sufficient and prepared for attack from capitalist nations
To increase the worker population as it was the main ally of the communists
At the time of planning the industrial plans Bukharin was a threat and his rapid industrialisation would sideline the right wing man
117
How did Lenin create a classless society?
```
Removed the NEP which hated the prospering of bourgeois classes
Collectivisation was class warfare against the Kulaks
Attempted to created an image of the “socialist man” through propaganda
```
118
How Stalin ensure proletarianisation?
Collectivisation forced 12 million people to the cities
From 1931 worker incentives were introduced
Rapid industrialisation
119
How did the lives of the proletariat change under Stalin?
Seven day working week introduced
Longer working hours
Harsher punishments
Living conditions in towns were cramped and disease ridden
120
What was the Stakhanovite movement?
A propaganda campaign - miner Aleksei Stakhanovite produced coal at 14 times the usual rate - he was hailed as an example of human productivity and influenced “socialist competition”
121
What incentives were given to those workers who achieved more?
Wage differentials, bonuses, opportunity for better housing
122
Why did Stalin revert soviet policy of women so it orientated on the family?
There was a huge population decrease due to purges and living conditions - a larger population was needed for a larger workforce
123
What image of the family did Stalin promote?
The ideal man was a family man and women were orientated in child bearing and housecare
124
How did Stalin reverse Lenin’s policy of the soviet woman and family?
Attacked divorce and abortion - promoted marriage
Large fees detected divorce
Adult art criminalised
Contraception banned
Financial incentives offered to large families
125
How much did the female industrial workforce increase from 1928 to 1940?
Rose from 3 million to 13 million
126
How much of the industrial workforce was female?
43%
127
What changes did Stalin make to education and why?
Because of industrialisation education became more practical based and universities were placed under the Veshenka
Teachers were encouraged to get the highest levels from student
Military training introduced to schools later
128
How much had literary rates improved by 1941 in the towns and countryside?
94% now literate in towns and 86% in countryside
129
What was the Komsomol?
The youth league within the communist party - gained significance after 1926
130
What was the youth newspaper called?
Komsomolskaya Pravda
131
What did the Komsomol teach young communist?
Soviet principals - emphasised social work, sports and practice work - discouraged smoking, drinking and religion
132
How many Churches and Mosques had been closed or converted by 1941?
40,000 Churches and 25,000 Mosques
133
How did Stalin oppress national minorities and why?
To achieve the mass of the soviet man centralisation occurred - deportation of non-Russians (anti Semitism)
Learning Russian compulsory in 1938
134
What was Petrograd renamed to?
Leningrad
135
How did Stalin view art?
As propaganda - “art for its own sake” has no place
136
When was the Union of Soviet writers established?
1932
137
What was the Union of Soviet Writers?
All writers had to belong to the Union - it controlled what was created and who created it - it deemed individual expression without “socialist realism” politically suspect
138
What was the “social realist” culture artists and writers had to adhere to?
Representations of Soviet life were visionary - not set in the present - were images of the prosperous future the “socialist reality” could provide
139
What was the Palace of Soviets?
A structure attempting to be the tallest in the world as an example of Soviet innovation
140
When were internal passports reintroduced?
1932
141
What society had Stalin created through the purges and through class warfare?
A hierarchal society dominated by privileged elite who organised the party and those in the Nomenklatura
The state had not withered but increased in intensity of power
142
How prepared was the Soviet Union for War in 1941?
Defence spending had increased to 32.6%
However
The purges of the Red Army removed senior officers
Industrialisation focused on quantity not quality so Army effectiveness was low
Soviet psychology was inept as well
143
What was the German offensive of 1941 known as?
Operation Barborossa
144
When did Operation Barborossa launch?
22 June 1941
145
What did Molotov say when announcing the invasion?
“Our cause is just, the enemy will be smashed, victor will be ours”
146
What was the military command called and when was it set up?
Stavka - 23 June
147
What was the overruling body set up during wartime Russia?
The State Defence Committee thag has absolute authority over party and state organisations
148
When did Stalin reassume his leadership roles in the wartime government?
Became Head of Government and leader of Stavka and GKO on 1 July
149
What was the nickname for Stalin’s position during war?
The Supreme war leader
150
Who was Georgi Zhukov?
Stalin’s most capable war official who led the defence of Moscow in Nov 1941
151
Who welcomed the German invasion?
National minorities who welcomed the German presence as freedom from the Bolshevik oppression
152
What was Order 227?
“Not One Step Backwards” - issues July 1942 - any soldier who retreated would be shot on sight
153
How many were killed under Order 227?
150,000
154
How did Stalin change the party to appease army officers?
Downgraded the role of political commissar and promoted military ones
Brought back badges of rank
Politically educated troops
155
During the war, how much did party membership increase?
3.6 mil new members
156
How many people in the armed forces during the war were communists?
1/4
157
What was the Scorched Earth policy?
As the Russian front was moved west, the army left the land “scorched” so it was rendered useless to he Germans who had the aim of seizing Russian farmland
158
What were the economic impacts of the territory Germany had acquired in the war?
63% of the country’s coal taken
68% of its iron
41% of its arable land
159
What economic measures did Stalin take during the war?
Scorched Earth Policy
Factories moved from western to eastern territories
Railways redirected to front lines People’s Commissars employed to supervise specific industries
160
How much did the military spending budget increase during the war?
29% to 57%
161
How far did foreign aid help the wartime effort?
US and UK supplied essential war materials
Military equipment shipped from west (17.4 million tonnes)
11 billion dollars of aid from US (Lend Lease scheme)
162
What was the Lend Lease scheme?
11 billion dollars of aid provided to the USSR by the US
163
How many farms were left operational after Scorched Earth?
1/3
164
What was the Rapallo Treaty?
The Treaty signed with Germany in 1922 where Russia would supply them with grain and they would supply Russia with machinary
165
What was the extension of the Rapallo Treaty?
Germany and Russia promised not to take part in any hostile military or economic action against the other and to remain neutral if the other state was attacked
166
Who was the in charge of foreign affairs and was an example of Stalin not purging?
Maxim Litvinov - survived the purges and terror as the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs despite being Jewish and old Bolshevik
167
What did the law of Dec 1941 say about workers?
That all I drafted workers had to join the effort - men aged 16 to 55 and women aged 16 to 45
168
How did workers lives become harder during the war?
Overtime obligatory
Holidays suspended
Working day increased to 12 hours
Factories under martial law making it more disciplined
169
How many soldiers were killed during the war effort?
8.6 million soldiers
170
How many soviet citizens died from starvation in the war?
25 million
171
By how much to gulag labourer deaths increase due to the war?
25%
172
What patriotic quote was posted in the Pravda?
“We must not say good morning or goodnight. In the morning we must say kill the Germans and at night we must say kill the Germans”
173
How were churches and religion treated during the war?
Respite in persecution -
Churches reopened
Clergy released from camps
Church used to lift morale
174
How did the family change during the war?
Focus on the family -
Measures taken to stop falling birth rate and rising death rate:
Taxes against those with less than two kids
Divorce opposed
175
How many women made up the soviet workforce during the war?
Half in industry and 4/5 in agriculture
176
How many women fought during the war?
Half a million
