Stalin chapter Flashcards
How did Stalin use Lenin’s death to rise to power?
- Stalin acted as Lenin’s intermediary during Lenin’s semi-retirement after a series of strokes. Stalin ensured that he was always by his side.
- Lenin was suspicious of Stalin’s character, calling him rude and borish. In his testament, he urged Stalin to be removed as secretary general from the politburo.
- However, Lenin’s testament was undisclosed as party members decided to ignore Lenin’s warnings, as Lenin had also spoken ill of the other members
- Stalin even ensured that he organised Lenin’s funeral to make it a grand affair. He even called himself the chief mourner to express his sorrow. He renamed Petrograd to Leningrad.
How did Trotsky’s weaknesses allow for Stalin’s rise?
- Trotsky was seen to be a greater threat than Stalin and thus was more feared by the politburo than Stalin as.
- This was because Trotsky was the head of the red army and led the red army to victory during the Russian civil war, thus he wielded quite a lot of power.
- Trotsky was also very arrogant and he clashed with the politburo a number of times, criticising certain policies. He was thus very unpopular within the politburo.
- Trotsky believed in permanent revolution, which was to promote revolution around the world. Stalin on the other hand believed in socialism in one country which was to strengthen communism in the Soviet Union before spreading revolution to other countries. The Russian populace were more appealed by Stalin’s ideology as they were war-weary after being at war since 1904 with Japan during the Russo-Japanese war
- Stalin also took advantage of Trotsky’s naïveté and tricked him from attending Lenin’s funeral by giving him the wrong date. This thus damaged Trotsky’s reputation as they felt that he was being disrespectful.
- Trotsky also only had a small base of support in which consisted of the Red army, intellects, youths, and students, while Stalin had the support of the peasants which made up the majority. This was because Stalin also used to be from a peasant background.
What did the introduction of collectivisation mean for Russia?
- While industrialisation was a success, the same could not be said of collectivisation. Many peasants, especially the kulaks, resisted Stalins attempt to seize their farmlands and livestock. They started to hide their produce, burn their own fields and kill their own livestock.
- Collectivisation was a policy that forced smaller farms to merge with larger collective farms and ownership of the farms was transferred to the state.
- Fixed working hours, wages and production output was fixed by the state and peasants were no allowed to sell food privately.
- Peasants who could not meet targets were punished severely or sent to the gulags. The NKVD would go around farms to check even in the dead of night. This became known as the infamous 2am knock.
- Through collectivisation, the Soviet Union aimed to ensure a secure food supply for factory workers to boost industrialisation. As a result, for the first time ever, rationing was no longer needed in cities. food was procured from the farms and given two the cities, cities were set at the expense of the countryside.
- In 1932 and 1934 the Great Famine ensued in the countryside, in particular in places like Ukraine. This was soon known to be as the Holodamor.
What was Stalin’s political impact through striking fear and terror (1932 to 1936)
- The secret police also known as the NKVD was used to catch people who were seen as opposing Stalin.
- Stalin also launched a series of show trials, which were trials of politicians who were falsely accused of crimes and then put to death or exiled subsequently.
- These show trials began with the murder of Kirov, in which Stalin used as a reason to purge the Politburo from any ‘disease’
- there were some Russians who did believe the show trials to be true and saw Stalin as indeed a great leader, who was cleansing the party. This act of removing ‘unwanted’ elements was also known as the purge.
- He would use this to execute his old rivals like Kamenev, Bukharin and Zinoviev.
- Other groups that were also removed included the red army where he purged up to 10% of them, almost roughly half of the army officers and generals had been executed or imprisoned. This would eventually affect WW2 as there was a load of leadership and resulted in the initial losses of the Soviet Union against Germany in 1940.
- By 1938. the entire population was in a state of terror and he only stopped his purges when it was clear industrialisation was affected with the elimination of intellectuals, skilled workers and officers.
How did Stalin utilise propaganda? (Social impact)
Propaganda was another way in which Stalin tried to win support.
Stalin tried to build a cult of personality by building monuments after him, naming places after him and also having paintings and pictures of him displayed everywhere in Russia. He even turned his childhood home into a shrine.
Stalin got red of religion, instead he became God. He also controlled the media tightly to portray him in a positive light at all times. Propaganda was also used in another way, such as to encourage Soviet workers to work harder. An example was the Stakhanovite movement, where a coal miner was used to inspire workers to work harder.
How did Stalin’s rule affect standards of living? (Social impact)
The standard of living decreased as due to to industrialisation, people moved to cities to work in factories. This resulted in overcrowding as there was a shortage of houses and many workers ended up living in slums with inadequate sanitation or facilities. Disease was rampant.
Workers were also made to work long hours for low wages to meet government targets
The famine results in a complete lack of resources and even food was lacking. Many peasants resorted to cannibalism to feed themselves.
How was industrialisation carried out and how did industrialisation affect Russia? (Economic impact)
Industrialisation was done through the introduction of 5 year plans. The first five year plan was focused on heavy industries like steel, coal and oil. The second five year plan focused on transport and communication. During these 5 year plans, modern machines were introduced to farms to increase food supply in cities and factories to boost industrialisation.
Stalin declared the first 5 year plan a success with workers like Alexei Stakhanov who mined fourteen times his daily quota. Rewards, recognition, and incentives were given to these stakhanovites to encourage and promote workers to work even harder. Propaganda was also used to encourage workers to work harder, while Stalin’s secret police, the NVKD, arrested those who opposed the state and sent these dissenters to gulags
The second five year plan also saw an increase in production, however not all production met their targets as the goals were overly ambitious. But transport and communication was improved
The third 5 year plan ended prematurely due to world war 2. This caused the five year plan to focus entirely on war. Stalin called this the total war policy.
Conclusion: Industrialisation was a great success as it made Russia one of the most industrialised countries in the world and this would set the stage for Russia to become a global superpower after surviving WW2.
One of Stalin’s greatest industrial achievements was the formation of industrial towns like Magnitogorsk.
How did Stalin manipulate his way to supreme leader?
Stalin manipulated the country, the party, and his rivals.
Firstly, he made a troika alliance with Kamenev and Zinoviev to get rid of Trotsky.
He then broke the troika alliance and allied himself with Bukharin and Rykov to discredit Kamenve and Zinoviev
Eventually, he would ally himself with the radical group to remove Bukharin and Rykove by expelling them under the crime of factionalism
He also made use of his position as secretary-general to control the flow of information. He would even appoint his supporters into positions of powers so as to ensure a steady pool of loyal followers.
By 1928, Stalin became Supreme leader.
