Stalin quotes and historical interpretations Flashcards
The NEP could not work in the long run and technological backwardness and unstable nature of the internal and world markets couldn’t have brought the USSR forward.
Western historians including E. H. Carr
‘We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it or we shall be crushed.’
A speech from Stalin 1931
A kulak is ‘the accursed enemy of collectivisation’
Stalin in 1929
‘The peasants are holding their grain back’
Secret politburo discussions, January 1928
Historical view about the terror: it was an integral part of the Soviet system
It was born in terror eg. Civil war to seize power in 1917, and Lenin had labour camps secret police (cheka)
Historical view about the terror: terror was a necessary part of the economic change
Eg. For unwilling groups such as liquidising the kulaks
Who said about the first FYP ‘Heavy industry expanded at an accelerating rate’
Historian R. Davies
Which group of people think the NEP was too restrictive and didn’t allow the Soviet economy to breathe or expand
Russian economists
Who said under the NEP a moderate rate of expansion of both industry and agriculture could continue
R. Davies
‘The worst period of Russia’s own crisis coincided with crashes and bankruptcies in the ‘capitalist’ world, and at least Russia’s troubles could be seen as growing pains’
A. Nove
‘The cleansings were unavoidable and their results, on the whole, were beneficial’
Stalin ending the purges in a speech in 1939
‘Better that ten innocent people should suffer than one spy get away’
Yezhov on how random the terror was in operating
‘No area of Soviet life escaped being purged. Under Stalin terror was elevated to a method of government’
M. Lynch
‘The terrible purges weakened but did not disrupt the combination. Gaps were rapidly filled by new recruits indebted to the regime’
M. Fainsod
‘Stalin was the natural successor to Lenin because the party had become so bureaucratised’
Richard Pipes
Who believes Stalin’s rise to power was down to his own personal qualities
The Liberal School
Stalin demonstrated the ‘necessary grit, determination, manipulative skills and ruthlessness to attain power through his own means’
Conquest (from the liberal school)
Believed Stalin’s rise to power was more attributed to party structure where the position of the General Secretary came to be all important
Western historians, structuralists such as E. H. Carr
‘Lenin did not merely inspire revolutionary terror, he was also the first to make it into a state institution’
Volkogonov
Said the terror was due to Stalin’s ‘lust for power, boundless ambition’
Medvedev
The purges were made scapegoats for the real failings
Nove
There was popular support for Stalin’s policies including class warfare and de-Kulakisation
Revisionist historians
There was great enthusiasm for the programme of rapid industrialisation among the workers
Revisionist historians
The worst period in Russia’s own crisis coincided with crashes and bankruptcies in the ‘capitalist’ world, and at least Russia’s troubles could be seen as growing pains
Nove
Stalin’s policies were a product of the time and place
E. H. Carr
Successfully tackled such formidable tasks as the laying of the material and technical foundations of Socialism
Y. Kukushkin
There was a certain logic to Stalin eg FYP given the backwardness of Russia
Nove
Stalin’s methods resulted in significant gains in industrial production in a short space of time, even though ‘impossible’ targets could not be met.
Economists, including H. Hunter
Who disagrees with economists, that Bukharin’s longer term economic development could have had many of the successes without the terrible by-products of Stalinism
R. Tucker
There was widespread support in the USSR for the campaign against kulaks
A. Getty
Interpretation about the terror: although Stalin was at the centre of power, certain individuals such as Molotov who held an important position was prepared to argue policy with him
A. Getty
