Stalin's power over Party and state

Question 1

Stalin created a new form of government based on his total power over the Party and state.

What was his totalitarianism?

Answer 1

(Many historians argue that he constructed a new kind of dictatorship- based on:

• complete economic control 💶
• use of widespread political terror to eliminate his opponents ⚒
• complete control over the media 📺
• use of extensive propaganda— win the hearts and minds of his people 💽

Had different aims from previous dictatorships:
TSAR etc: content with the absence of opposition
HIM: heartfelt enthusiasm from his people (commitment>obedience)

Question 2

Stalin inherited the communist Party and the soviet state from Lenin.

How did Lenin leave them?

How did this leave Stalin?

Answer 2

He created both BUT failed to define their relationship

Stalin used this vagueness of relationship to his advantage: encouraged competition between them.

Question 3

Explain Stalin’s use of rivalry.

Answer 3

Encouraging competition between party and state officials: senior officials in the soviet government competed with EACH OTHER, not with Stalin.

He promoted rivals to similar positions in party and state:

Eg. Zhdanov was Beria key rival, placed in charge of Party supervisor of Beria’s political police.

Question 4

Explain how Stalin shifted power bases

Answer 4

Shifted power from the Party to the state:

1) 1938– Politburo was the most senior committee in government
2) by 1942– the State Defence Committee was the most powerful committee in government
3) after WWII- the Council of Ministers (another committee in the state) became more powerful

Question 5

Why did stalin shift the centre of power within the government?

Answer 5

He was able to ensure that none of the senior committees grew to rival him.

Also, he was the only person involved with all of these top committees.

So, he was the only leader with an overview of the entire government.

Question 6

How did the continued use of terror allow Stalin to hold on to power?

Answer 6

Purged hundreds of party and state officials in his last years to inspire fear in thousands more:

• LENINGRAD AFFAIR 1949– purge of Leningrad Party: Stalin concerned that Zhdanov had created an independent power base here— following his death, about 100 of his supporters were shot, 2,000 arrested and dismissed
• persecution to test the loyalty of his senior ministers. Eg. 1949: ordered the imprisonment of the wife of Molotov (in Politburo since 1926, one of Stalin’s closest allies). Molotov demonstrated his loyalty by doing nothing to win his wife’s freedom.

Question 7

What was Stalin’s legacy?

Answer 7

Died in 1953

Soviet state and the Party had been completely subordinated to Stalin

Neither Party nor state had any independent authority