Stalinism, Politics And Control (1929-41) Flashcards
The ‘Great Purge’ of the Red Army:
- between 1937-9, over 30,000 army leaders were sacked
- reason given was a military fascist plot supposedly with Germany and Japan
- 74 military officials were shot for refusing to approve the execution of their colleagues
- Stalin’s purge destroyed the Red Army’s command at a time of threat from Nazi Germany
Impact of terror and purges:
- according to KGB figures, 650,000 people were executed in 1937-8
- prisoner population increased by 1 million between 1937-8
- 850,000 party members were expelled between 1936-8. By 1939, less than 10% of the Party had joined before 1920
- military purges meant the loss of around 23,000 experienced officers
Impact of Stalinism on the Church:
- religious schools were shut down and teaching of the religious creeds was forbidden. By 1941, nearly 40,000 churches had been destroyed
- Sunday was abolished as a day of rest
Cooperation with Germany (1929-33):
- German expertise helped industrialisation in the USSR
- USSR benefited from Germany military training, German benefited from access to areas which they could carry out military developments banned under the Versailles Treaty
- Germany was the USSR’s biggest export market
- in 1931, Germany and the USSR negotiated the continuation of the Berlin Treaty
Soviet entry into the League of Nations:
Benefits for the West: strengthened the collective security against aggression from Germany or Japan
Benefits for the USSR: offered the potential for international cooperation against the anti communist Hitler
Gave the USSR the opportunity to influence the actions of Britain and France
Pacts with France and Czechoslovakia:
Stalin sought new alliances with other countries threatened by German aggression
- non-aggression pact with France (Nov 1932)
- non-aggression pact with Poland (Dec 1932)
- mutual assistance pacts with France and Czechoslovakia (may 1935)
Comintern’s policy switch:
- complete reversal in the Comintern’s policy
- instead of targeting democratic socialists, foreign communist parties were encouraged to form ‘popular fronts’ with the socialists in order to fight facism
Soviet intervention in the Spanish Civil War (1936):
- Stalin decided to intervene in the war and support socialist Republic against fascist supported nationalists
- Stalin moved to a strategy to wear down German and Italian forces
- Stalin was disappointed by the weak response to the Civil War from France and Britain
- Soviet intervention exacerbated fear and dislike of Soviet communism in the West, weakening the prospects of future collaboration
Western appeasement and the Munich conference:
- at the Munich conference (sept 1938), Germany, France, Britain and Italy discussed how to deal with Germany’s claims to the Sudetenland
- however, Czechoslovakia and the USSR were left out of the conference
- this approach sent a clear signal to the USSR that it should not expect any strong opposition from the West to stop further German aggression, or expect the West to join Soviet Russia in an anti-hitler alliance
Soviet response to Japanese aggression:
- Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the rest of China in 1937 was a significant threat to the USSR
- Japan and Germany signed the anti-comintern pact in 1936. This threatened joint action against Comintern interference in their countries
- minor border confrontations between Japan and the USSR became a major war in 1939
The nazi-soviet pact:
- signed 23rd August 1939
- Germany and USSR would respect each other’s territory, increase trade and settle disputes peacefully
- secret part of the pact divided eastern Europe into a German sphere and a soviet sphere
- even after the nazi Soviet pact, Stalin kept a dialogue with western democracies and the USSR continued anti-nazi propaganda campaigns
Reasons for the Nazi-soviet pact:
- Breathing space to prepare for war
- the destruction of Poland (which had been strongly anti-soviet)
- territorial gains in the West
- the USSR could stay neutral as it’s capitalist enemies wore themselves out
- avoidance of wars on two fronts
‘family code’ June 1936:
- made abortion illegal
- banned contraception
- gave tax breaks to mothers with six or more children
- made adultery a criminal offense
Impact of the great retreat:
- number of abortions dropped from 1.9m in 1935 to 570,000 in 1937 but began to rise again
- the birth rate fell in 1938 and never reached pre-revolutionary levels
- number of women working in factories and collective farms increased. In 1928, there were 3m working and in 1940 this has increased to 13m
- encouraging traditional marriage meant that in 1937, 91% of men and 82% of women were married in their 30s
Impact of Stalinism on young people:
- selective secondary schools had a rigid academic curriculum, which promoted nationalism and military training
- USSR wide focus on improving literacy. From 65% of people being literate before 1917 to 94%
