Stalins Defeat Of The Right

Question 1

What were the three main weaknesses of the right?

Answer 1

. Their economic arguments were not unsound but in the late 1920’s they appeared timid and unrealistic
. Their plea for a softer line with the peasants was unacceptable to the many hardliners surrounding Stalin, as a result the right lost support.
. Stalin was able to suggest that the right were guilty of underestimating the crisis facing the party and the Soviet Union.

Question 2

How did the grain crisis in the late 1920s help Stalin to defeat the right?

Answer 2

. The grain crisis of the late 1920s enabled Stalin to suggest that NEP was no longer of major benefit to the USSR and that the Kulaks were becoming wealthy off it.

. As a result of this Stalin was able to savage the right by claiming they were ignorant of the crisis the USSR was facing/ the fear of war and need for a strong economy.