The USSR under Stalin 1924-1939

Question 1

Powerstruggle - Trotsky at the start

Answer 1

Trotsky in the lead, liekf by people, head of red army, but rest of Politburo thought he was too arrogant. Head of red army+country=too much power.

Question 2

Lenins description of Trotsky

Answer 2

“Perhaps the most capable man in the Central committee”

Question 3

Troika

Answer 3

Stalin + Zinoviev + Kamanev to ice out Trotsky. Agreed to hide the Testament and it’s criticisms. Stalin organised and orated Lenin’s funeral

Question 4

Trotsky Politics

Answer 4

Thought the USSR wouldn’t be safe until other countries became communist. “Permanent Revolution” to spread communism abroad. USSR population: sick of war, hated the idea. Trotsky lost control of red army + removed from Politburo next year

Question 5

Socialism in one country

Answer 5

Stalin wanted to strengthen communism at home. This won the support of Bukharin (Pravda) but Trotsky, Zinoviev + Kamanev thought it was against Marxism

Question 6

Stalin becomes leader

Answer 6

Post-Troika, Stalin sides with Rykhov +Bukharin. Stalin was pro NEP and wanted to focus on industry. Trotsky + Zinoviev organised demonstration on Oct Rev’s 10th anniversary, expelled. Stalin switched to collectivisation

Question 7

Colectivisation - background

Answer 7

Russia had regular food shortages => get rid of unproductive pesant farms =>state owned. Villages that formed collectives promised new schools+ health centres. Less than 10% of farms collectivised by 1929

Question 8

Kolkhoz collectivisation

Answer 8

“Voluntary”
Ran by community, but state production targets + prices.

Question 9

Sovkhozy collectivisation

Answer 9

Involuntary
Confiscated land, state run, everything state owned

Question 10

Colectivisation - Stalin uses force

Answer 10

Land forcibly taken, kulaks (farmer w 8+ acres) were angry. Stalin ordered kulaks be eradicated “enemy of the worker”. Red army destroyed villages + Cheka killed resistors. Mar 1930 58% joined

Question 11

Colectivisation outcome

Answer 11

Enormous peasant suffering
Destruction of crops + live stock+ weather=famine
10 mill dead total
Worst in Ukraine 5 mill dead, Holdomor (extermination by hunger)

Question 12

5 year plans - 1

Answer 12

Replaced NEP
targets oil, steel, coal + electricity. End of plan electricity x3, coal x2

Question 13

5 year plan 2

Answer 13

more heavy industry + consumer goods, railway + arms

Question 14

5 year plan 3

Answer 14

Nazi invasion, gov spending ⅓ arms. 2nd most industrialised country

Question 15

5 year plan outcome

Answer 15

Unemployment almost gone. 90% literacy rate, but absent = fired, broken equiptment /missed quotas = sabatours. Output figures iffy because of this.

Question 16

Gulag life expectancy

Answer 16

Around 2 years

Question 17

Internal passports

Answer 17

Internal passports prevented workers from leaving areas of greatest need

Question 18

Industrial workers had

Answer 18

Accomodation, healthcare + education, but it was taken away if unproductive

Question 19

Propaganda

Answer 19

Organisations like “Young Communists” + Komosol” established. Teachers had to teach Marxist economics
Textbooks rewritten to glorify Stalin + remove those killed in Purges. Pravda Pro-Stalin, Strict censorship of artist + writers, had to produce propaganda images or be sent to gulags
City renamed Stalingrad

Question 20

Child brainwashing quote

Answer 20

“We must make the young into a generation of communists. Children, soft like wax are very malleable and should be made into good communists”

Question 21

Foreign policy

Answer 21

Formed alliances with France + Czechoslovakia. Didn’t trust the democracies because they failed to help Spain + failed to prevent Germany’s occupation of Rhineland, the Anschluss or seizure of Switzerland. Seemed unreliable -> Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact