Stalins USSR Flashcards
How did Stalin succeed?
Stalin Takes Power;
Secretary
Stalin was made General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1922. Everybody thought it was a dull, unimportant job. Stalin used it to get his supporters into important positions.
How did Stalin succeed?
Stalin Takes Power;
Trotsky was unpopular
Trotsky was brilliant, but nobody liked him: they thought he was too big-headed.
Secretary Stalin told him the wrong date for Lenin’s funeral, so he missed it – this made him more unpopular.
Trotsky also wanted to try to cause a world revolution; many Russians feared that this would ruin Russia.
How did Stalin succeed?
Stalin Takes Power;
Politically ruthless
The Politburo was divided into two halves.
- The Leftists (Zinoviev and Kamenev) wanted world revolution, and to abolish the NEP, but they hated Trotsky because they thought he was too ambitious.
- The Rightists (Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky) wanted to continue the NEP until the USSR was stronger.
Stalin played one side against the other to take power:
- First, he allied with Zinoviev and Kamenev to cover up Lenin’s Will and to get Trotsky dismissed (1925). Trotsky went into exile (1928).
- Then, he advocated ‘Socialism in one country’ (he said that the USSR should first become strong, then try to bring world revolution) and allied with the Rightists to get Zinoviev and Kamenev dismissed (1927). Stalin put his supporters into the Politburo.
- Finally, he argued that the NEP was uncommunist, and got Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky dismissed (1929)
Reasons for the Terror
Why Unnecessary Purges?
- Whole Country
Stalin believed that Russia had to be united – with him as leader – if it was to be strong. - Urgency
Stalin believed Russia had 10 years to catch up with the western world before Germany invaded. - Paranoia
Stalin became increasingly paranoid (seeing plots everywhere) and power-mad (he demanded continuous praise and applause). In 1935, his wife killed herself.
The Apparatus of Terror
(Stalin Takes Total Control)
Secret Police
The CHEKA became the OGPU (1922), then the NKVD (1934).
The Apparatus of Terror
(Stalin Takes Total Control)
The First Purges, 1930-33
Including anybody who opposed industrialisation, and the kulaks who opposed collectivisation.
The Apparatus of Terror
(Stalin Takes Total Control)
The Great Purges, 1934-39
Political Opponents
1934: Kirov, a rival to Stalin, was murdered. Although he probably ordered the assassination, Stalin used it as a chance to arrest thousands of his opponents.1934–1939, Stalin’s political opponents were put on ‘Show trials’, where they pleaded guilty to impossible charges of treason (e.g. Zinoviev and Kamenev 1936/ Bukharin, Tomsky & Rykov 1938).
The Army
In 1937, the Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army and 7 leading generals were shot. In 1938–39, all the admirals and half the Army’s officers were executed or imprisoned.
The Church
Religious leaders imprisoned; churches closed down.
Ethnic groups
Stalin enforced ‘Russification’ of all the Soviet Union.
Ordinary people
Were denounced/ arrested/ sent to the Gulag (the system of labour camps). 20 million Russians were sent to the camps, where perhaps half of them died. People lived in fear. ‘Apparatchiks’ (party members loyal to Stalin) got all the new flats, jobs, holidays etc.
The Apparatus of Terror
(Stalin Takes Total Control):
Cult of Stalin
Censorship of anything that might reflect badly on Stalin
Propaganda everywhere - pictures, statues, continuous praise and applause
Places named after him
Mothers taught their children that Stalin was ‘the wisest man of the age’
History books and photographs were changed to make him the hero of the Revolution, and obliterate the names of purged people (e.g. Trotsky).
Results of the Terror
Results Of The Terror – Insane Stalin Grabs All Power
Russification – Russia came to dominate the whole USSR.
Orthodox Church attacked
Twenty million arrested – perhaps half died.
Terror – People lived in fear of the Secret Police.
Industry – grew (the Terror provided free slave labour), but technology and science were held back by loss of top engineers and scientists.
Stalin Cult
Gulag
Army and navy weakened by purges of leading officers
Purges – political opponents eliminated.
Why did Stalin do it?
Six Factors Now To Collectivise Kolkhoz
- Soviet agriculture was backward
Old-fashioned/ inefficient/ no machinery/ too small/ subsistence (only grew enough for themselves). - Food was needed for workers in the towns
Essential if the Five-Year Plans were to succeed - NEP was not working
By 1928, the USSR was 20 million tons of grain short to feed the towns. - Town-workers were needed
If the USSR was to become modern/ industrial, peasants needed to migrate to work in the towns. - Cash Crops were needed
If the USSR was to industrialise, peasants needed to grow cash crops (eg grain) which could be exported to raise money to buy foreign machinery and expertise. - Kulaks opposed Communism
The Kulaks opposed Communism – they liked their private wealth. They hid food from the government collectors. Also they were influential, and led peasant opinion. Stalin wanted to destroy them.
What was collectivisation?
- Collectivisation meant peasants would put their farms together to form a large collective farm (kolkhoz)
- They would pool all their animals and equipment
- The kolkhoz would be controlled by the government officials
- The state would provide Motor Tractor Stations (MTS)
- 90% of what was produced would be sold to the state at a fixed (low) price, any profits would be shared out
- The remaining 10% was to feed the kolkhoz
- Peasants could keep a small area of land for their personal use
How did most peasants react to collectivisation?
Most were reluctant to join collectives
-They were suspicious of the government and disliked the speed of collectivisation
-They were unhappy that farms would be run by Communist officials
-They struggled to understand why they had to grow crops for industry rather than grain for themselves
-They did not want to abandon their traditional way of life
SO….
-Collectivisation had to be forced on the peasants
Social impact of collectivisation
- The kulaks had the most to lose and refused outright to hand over their land / produce
- They were arrested and either shot or sent off to labour camps or forced onto poor quality land and left to starve
- Kulaks responded by burning their crops and slaughtering their animals so the Communists could not have them
- Peasants who refused to join collectives were labelled as kulaks and either shot or sent off to labour camps
- The government used propaganda to turn people against the kulaks
- Requisition parties were sent in to seize the food leaving the peasants to starve
- Food production collapsed and there was a famine 1932 –1933 in which around 13 million died
- At the same time exports of grain increased
Successes of collectivisation
Quite Modern Government Tries Collectivisation
- Quarter of a million kolkhoz
99% of Russia had been collectivized . . . - More modern
New methods/ tractors/ fertilisers/ large-scale/ new attitudes (trying to produce as much as possible) - Grain
By 1937, 97 million tonnes were produced PLUS cash crops for export. - Town workers
17 million peasants left the countryside to work in the towns, 1928–37 - Communists control completely
Officials ran farming. Peasants obeyed the Party, through enthusiasm or fear. Stalin had all power.
Failures of collectivisation
Sad Foolish Kulaks
- Show collectives had to be used
- Famine
In 1932–33; millions died. - Kulaks
Were eliminated.
Reasons for industralisation and the 5 year plans
- Many regions of the USSR were backward. Stalin said that to be backward was to be defeated and enslaved. ‘But if you are powerful, people must beware of you’
- Stalin believed (with Lenin) that the USSR should ‘overtake and outstrip the capitalist countries’. He believed in ‘Socialism in one country’ – the USSR would become strong enough to survive, then would take over the rest of the world.
- He believed Germany would invade. In 1931, he prophesied: ‘We make good the difference in 10 years or they crush us’.
- The 5-year plans were very useful propaganda – for Communism and for Stalin.
How was industry modernised?
Through the Five Year Plans
- GOSPLAN: The state planning organisation drew up targets for production in heavy industry
- Each region was given targets
- Each region set targets for the mines, factories within the region
- The manager of each mine, factory etc. set targets for each foreman
- The foreman set targets for each shift and even for each worker
The First Five Year Plan (October 1928 – December 1932)
- Heavy industries like coal, iron, steel, oil were expected to triple their output
- Light industry – consumer goods – had to double their output
- Electricity production and supply had to increase by 6 times
The Second Five Year Plan (1933 –1937)
- Showed more concern with the improvement of efficiency and quality
- More attention to consumer goods
The Third Five Year Plan (started 1938 – interrupted by the German invasion in 1941)
-More attention to military production
The Stakhanovite movement
- Alexei Stakhanovite became famous during the second 5 year plan, he was a coal miner
- In one 6 hour shift he mined 102 tonnes of coal - gosplan encouraged other workers to copy him
- Stakhanovite groups were set up all over the country- regular competitions to see who could hit the highest production targets
- Stakhanovite workers were sent into factories to explain new techniques and encourage production, in a move to mass production]
- Workers who followed the Stakhanovite example got better housing, better ration and rewards
Successes of the five year plans
The USSR was turned into a modern state (which was able to resist Hitler’s invasion).
- There was genuine Communist enthusiasm among the young ‘Pioneers’.
- There were huge achievements in the following areas:
- New cities like Magnitogorsk
- Achievement such as dams/ hydroelectric power, Dneiper Dam
- Transport & communications improved , the Moscow Underground
- Massive increases in production of electricity, coal, steel,oil and iron
- No unemployment - the rest of the world was in the great depression but there was a shortage of workers in USSR
- Education programmes
Example of iron production
Iron production increased from 4 tonnes in 1928 to 18.3 in 1940
Failures/ criticisms of the five year plans
- Many workers were not properly trained
- Harsh discipline (sacked if late), workers cannot leave jobs, internal passport system
- slave labour and labour camps (for those who made mistakes)
- Accidents and deaths (100,000 workers died building the Belomor Canal)
- Targets not met - too high
