STALIN POLITICAL AUTHORITY 1941-53 Flashcards
18 . the state of Russia in wartime:
RUSSIA AT WAR: POLITICAL AUTHORITY AND OPPOSITION
The launch of Operation Barbarossa (the German invasion of the USSR), on the night of 21/22 June 1941, appeared to take Stalin by surprise. Although his military intelligence agents - as well as the British Government - had warned of an imminent attack, and the build-up of German forces near the Soviet border should have provided a warning, nevertheless Stalin seemed
shocked and confused when the attack actually came. Indeed, his initial reaction was to suggest that someone contact Hitler in Berlin because he suspected the troop advance to be a limited act of provocation.
18 . the state of Russia in wartime:
WARTIME LEADERSHIP
Stalin met his Politburo immediately and his first wartime order was to demand that the German air force be destroyed and the invading forces annihilated. However, he left the public announcement of hostilities to Molotov, possibly because he could not bring himself to make it.
Molotov was thus left to
inform the nation (through the loudspeakers set up on the main streets of Soviet cities) that a German invasion was underway.
The onset of war brought the need for a clearly defined structure of governmental and military authority. Whether Stalin was affected by depression or whether he deliberately took time to plan his strategies, this took over a week to establish.
18 . the state of Russia in wartime:
From July 1941, all authority, both political and military, rested with Stalin. His speech of 3 July was the first of many designed to establish his leadership and unite the nation, rekindling patriotism and mollifying those who had opposed his policies in the 1930s. Interestingly, in this and subsequent war speeches, Stalin appealed to
his peoples love of their country and played on the threat to their culture, rather than the threat to socialism. The people fought for Russia, not communism.
18 . the state of Russia in wartime:
Stalin’s authority was not questioned and his speeches and actions were crucial in bolstering morale. As the Germans came dangerously close to Moscow in October, Stalin ordered the evacuation of the government to Kuibyshev on the Volga. However, in a display of resistance, he insisted that the Red Square parade, held annually on the anniversary of the revolution, should take place as normal.
After the disastrous opening to the war, Stalin also understood the need to let his military commanders plan campaigns. The running of the war was increasingly left to the
General Staff, although if military leaders displayed incompetence they were removed, no matter how close they had once been to Stalin. Marshals Voroshilov and Budyenny for example, were replaced by men of talent brought back from gulags where they had been sent during the Terror. Stalin also came to rely heavily on Zhukov, who successfully defended Moscow in November 1941 and ultimately led the Soviet troops to Berlin in April 1945.
18 . the state of Russia in wartime:
POLITICAL IMPACT
Since the multinational nature of the Empire was seen as a potential threat to state security, Stalin took action to prevent political disintegration. As early as August 1941, he dissolved the
Volga German autonomous republic and sent its peoples (even those who had Communist Party membership) to the east.
18 . the state of Russia in wartime:
Elsewhere, he relied on the deportation of ‘suspect’ ethnic groups. The Karachai, the Kalmyks, the Chechens, the Ingushi, the Meskhetians and the Crimean Tartars, for example, were all deported away from their homelands.
Around
1.5 million people in total were forced to uproot. In what was, in many ways, an extension to the purges, they were often brutally treated and only two thirds survived the journey to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirgizia and Siberia.
18 . the state of Russia in wartime:
The war also brought a change to the composition of the Communist Party.
To win the war, Stalin had addressed former grievances of army officers, for example by downgrading the role of the political commissars attached to the army units and bringing back special badges of rank. He had also put an emphasis on the political education of the troops. The result was that increasing numbers of the military chose to join the Party.
During the war over 5 million candidate members and 3.6 million new members joined the Party. Of these, 3.9 million candidate members and 2.5 million members were members of the army and navy. By 1945, a quarter of those in the armed forces were communists and 20 per cent were members of Komsomol. So, whereas in June 1941, only 15 per cent of the military had been in the Party, they formed around half its membership by 1945.
Overall, the war helped to strengthen belief in the communist system.
18 . the state of Russia in wartime:
Although nationalism had been emphasised over the Marxist struggle in the course of campaigns, by May 1945, Stalin could declare that the war had shown the
superiority and resilience of the socialist system. It was a victory for communism over fascism and was thus hailed as a vindication of both Stalin and the Stalinist system.
24 . The political condition of the Soviet Union by 1964.
POLITICAL AUTHORITY AND GOVERNMENT TO 1953 - HIGH STALINISM
The years that followed the end of the Second World War are often referred to as the period of ‘High Stalinism. It was during these years that
Stalin’s authority over State and Party, as well as the cult of personality that had grown up around him, reached its pinnacle. Stalin’s leadership was undisputed. As the great hero of the Second World War, basking in the glory of success and presiding over a world superpower, he could rule more or less as he chose to while those around him competed for the privilege of fulfilling his will.
24 . The political condition of the Soviet Union by 1964.
World superpower
By the end of the war, the USSR had grown larger, with the annexation of new territory (as promised by the Nazi-Soviet Pact). Within the next four years it was to establish a series of
Soviet satellite states in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Eastern Germany.
24 . The political condition of the Soviet Union by 1964.
POLITICAL HIGH STALINISM
Stalin’s approach to post-war government was back to the future. Wartime developments worried Stalin. Increased Party membership under lax wartime rules had made the Party unwieldy and potentially unreliable, while the reputation of the Soviet military was left too high for his liking.
Wartime institutions were therefore
what happened to zhukov
dismantled and the GKO (State Defence Committee) was dissolved on 4 September 1945, its functions returning to the various commissariats. The military hierarchy was also downgraded. Stalin personally took the role of Minister of Defence and high-ranking officers were moved into inferior posts. The most notorious of these moves was the demotion of Marshal Zhukov, who was seen as a potential rival for popular adulation. He was sent to the military command at Odessa, losing his position on the Central Committee of the Party.
24 . The political condition of the Soviet Union by 1964.
Other major figures of the war years were played off, one against the other.
When Zhdanov returned to the Party Secretariat in Moscow and challenged the policy of Stalin’s closest war time aide, Malenkov (who favoured removing industrial plant from Germany to USSR), an investigation under Mikoyan was set up which
condemned Malenkov’s actions. Malenkov subsequently lost his position as Party Secretary and Zhdanov became Stalin’s closest adviser - launching the Zhdanovshchina.
24 . The political condition of the Soviet Union by 1964.
However, a further disagreement occurred over foreign policy, with Zhdanov and his supporters favouring the Berlin blockade of 1948 while Malenkov argued for a more moderate path. Malenkov was
By such manipulations,
reappointed to the Party Secretariat and Zhdanov’s supporters were demoted. Zhdanov himself died the same year
.
By such manipulations, Stalin’s personal dominance was assured. Although the Central Committee met in March 1946 and elected a new Politburo, Secretariat and Orgburo, which met regularly, Stalin continued to hold the reins of power in his position as Head of Government and Head of the Party.
24 . The political condition of the Soviet Union by 1964.
Stalin relied increasingly on his private secretariat to bypass both government and Party and exert direct central authority.
Not only did the Party no longer have any real supervisory role over the government, its regular institutions were also undermined in this period.
Party congresses, which should have met every three years, were
not held between 1939 and 1952, and only six full meetings of the Central Committee were convened during this time.
The Politburo was reduced to an advisory body, which awaited instruction on the official’ line from Stalin or his spokesman, and much of the decision-making took place in small ad hoc gatherings, between Stalin and those privileged enough to be in his inner circle.
24 . The political condition of the Soviet Union by 1964.
Recruitment to the Party fell back from the war years. Still, by 1952, it had nearly 7 million members, while Komsomol had around 16 million.
These new members were once again recruited from administrative ranks in industry, the government and education, rather than
from peasants and manual workers as had occurred in wartime. Indeed, a campaign had to be launched to raise the ideological level of the little-educated military recruits.
