Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Stalin's Russia
- Strugg;e for power 1924 - 29
- Contenders for Power
- Stalin: He played a minor role in the Russian Revolution
and the Civil War. Due to a peasant upbringing he
understood the way of a normal Russian. He was loyal
to Lenin until when Lenin was ill when he challenged
him and in Lenin's Testiment Lenin said Stalin should be
removed from the party
- Trotsky: He had planned and led the October
Revolution and the Civil War. He was a theorist and
inspired loyalty however he had a much extremer view
on the future of Russia. Lenin's Testiment paised
Trotsky "an outstanding member" however Lenin saw
his views too extreme and called him arrogant
- Bukharin: He was the youngest contender and was a
key figure during the Revolution and the Civil War. He
was loyal to Lenin and liked NEP but disagreed with
signing for pease with Germany (one of Lenin's main
aims). He was loved by the whole party and in Lenin's
Testiment he said Bukharin was the "favourite of the
whole party"
- Kamenev and Zinoviev: They were Lenin's closest
friends and among the first to join the Bolshevik
party. They publically critised Lenin's plans for the
October Revolution and chose not to fight in the Civil
War and instead hid in a Hotel
- Powerbases
- Stalin: General Secretary. Controlled the Politburo
agenda. Selected delegates for the Party Congress.
Controlled promotions and appointments within the
party. This meant he could: Influence what was
discussed at meetings, fill the party with his
supporters, reward those who were loyal to him
- Trotsky: Head of the Red Army. This meant he
could: be seen as a threat because he could use the
army to take over, gain the loyalty of those who
were in the army and the party, however there
were little like this
- Bukharin: Head of Media. This meant he could:
publish his own views and criticise views of others
- Kamenev: Head of the Petrograd Party. This meant
he could: gain the loyalty of all those under him
- Zinoviev: Head of the Moscow Party. This meant he
could: gain the loyalty of those under him
- Industrialisation debate
- Left wing vs Right wing
- Dectatorship
- High taxes in
the peasants.
Encourage the
peasants to join
collective farms.
RAPID
industrialisation
- NEP
- Low taxes on
the peasants.
Allow them to
own land and
use a free
market. SLOW
industialisation
- In the early 1920s popularity for
NEP was high but as figures
lowered so did popularity
- Foreign Policy
- Left wing vs Right wing
- Permanent Rev
- No society can
last on its own.
Other countries
need Russia's
help to
revolutionise.
Aggressive
policy
- One Country
- In Russia alone.
Russia will lead
the rest of the
world in time.
There is no
need to start
revolutions.
Calm policy
- Revolution in one country was more
popular because: it appealed to
nationalism, permanent revolution
suggested that Russia wasn't strong,
permenant revolution would lead to
war which didn't want
- Making and Breaking alliances
- Triumvirate vs Left Opposition: Kamenev,
Zinoviev and Stalin teamed up to prevent
Trotsky from taking power. They successfully
defended NEP against Trotsky's left wing
views and Trotsky was defeated
- Duumvirate vs United Opposition: Bukharin
and Stalin teamed up against Trotsky,
Kamenev and Zinoviev. Stalin and Bukharin
promoted NEP and Revolution in one country
and defeated the united opposition
- Stalin vs Right Opposition: Stalin abandoned
NEP when it began to fail and went up aginst
Bukharin. Bukharin stayed with NEP and as it
failed to did he and Stalin won
- Devious Tatics
- Lenin's Funeral: Stalin made it seem as he
was the rightful heir to Lenin and told
Trotsky the wrong date for the funeral so
he didn't turn up
- Lenin's Testament: Stalin convinsed
Kamenev and Zinoviev to help him keep
the testament a secret as they were also
critised
- Bukharin's Medical: Stalin used his
influence to prevent Bukharin from
attending meetings like when he
grounded a plane twice to give Bukharin
medical checks
- Faction Fighting: Stalin used Lenin's ban
of factions against his enemies to
discredit them and make them seem as if
they were bretraying Lenin
- Collectivisation and Industialisation
- Causes of Modernisation
- Economic: NEP had lead to a fall in
agricultural production leading to the
Grain Procurement Crisis. Stalin argued
that the free market needed to be
replaced by economic planning to
increase economic growth
- Ideological: The communists were always
against the free market and Stalin moving
to the central planning was more to the
ideals of socialists. NEP favoured the
peasants over the working class where as
Stalin wanted to create a system to
benefit the workers more
- Political: Stalin forced the Central
committee to choose him or Bukharin
and they chose him making him leader
and he wanted to consolidate this
position
- Fear for war: German industry was far
superior to Russia's and Stalin feared
they were preparing for war
- Consequences
- 1928: Rationing introduced
and requisitioning introduced
- 1929: Compulsory
collectivisation introduced.
Kulaks were rounded up and
exiled
- 1929: 27,000 volunteers
sent to the countryside to
assist in dekulakisation
- 1930: Stalin halted
compulsory collectivisation
blaming the chaos on party
members "dizzy with
success". Farmers returned
to their own farms
- 1931: Forced collectivisation
began again slower
- 1941: All farms in Russia
were collectivised
- Famine: Kulaks were the most successful farmers. 18
million horses and 10 million sheep and goats were
killed in protest. The targets were too high and so they
were not met. more grain was exported to raise
money for industrialisation
- Effects on rural areas: Exiled 10 million Kulaks 10% of
in each village. Harvest in 1933 was 10 million times
less than 1926. The farms were mechanised
- Effects on Urban areas: Standard of living fell sharply.
1932, the protein workers consume decreased by 66%.
Population in cities trebled between 1930 and 1940
- 1st Five year plan
- Successes
- Russia's economy grew 14% per year
- Mass ubanisation. the Bouregois specialists
were replaced by 150,000 red specialists.
Russia was encouraging workers to go to
university
- Failures
- The targets were too high and the
facotries produced for quantity not quality
and figures were lied about
- The living conditions were awfull and
Stalin introduced the 7 day working week
woth longer hours
- The scarcity of consumer goods meant
that there was a formation of a black
market
- Slaves were used: 40,000 to biuld magnitogorsk
- 2nd Five year plan
- Successes
- The Moscow Metro was opened in
1935 and the Volga Canal in 1937
- Bread rationing stopped in 1934
and consumer goods doubled
- The Stakhanovite movement
increased labour productivity
- Steel output trebled and coal doubled
- Spending on Rearmament rose
from 4% to 17% of GDP
- Failures
- Many new houses lacked running
water and basic sanitaion 650,000
in moscow hadno access to a bath
house
- Russians had bad diets and clothes
were difficult to obtain
- Senior members of society were
given higher standards of living
than others
- Still many products were useless
due to too high targets
- 3rd Five year plan
- Successes
- Total investment in rearmament
doubled new aircraft factories
- Coal - 128-166 million tonnes
- Crude Oil - 29-31 million tonnes
- Internal passports were
introduced to stop quick sand crisis
- Failures
- Purges removed most experienced
economic planners and managers
- This lead to the production of
steel stagnating
- Food rationing introduced and
consumer good inpossible to buy
- Great Retreat: Family and Education
- The working class was one big
family and stalin was the
father. Men were demonised if
they left their wives and family
- Komsomol was the youth
organisation that encouraged
hardworking and obedient
children who loved their
family and Stalin
- Stalin introduced a new
curriculum in schools. The aim
of schools were to produce hard
working workers to contribute
the five year plans and also
taught a take on Russian history
where the Communists were
the savoirs of the Russian
people
- All problems with grades
were blamed on the teachers
but they were rewarded for
meeting targets for good
grades. The text books given
for the new ciriculum were
very bad but still the blame
would reside in the teacher
- Great Retreat: Women
- 41% of those working in industry
were women and educational
oppotunities were improved
greatly. 80% of collective farm
workers were women
- The Women was expected to leave
thier jobs when they get married
and become a full time house wife
- Homosexuality and adultery were
criminalised and contraception and
abortions were banned. They were
schemes set up to promote the
creation of big families by givning
money to women who had more
than 6 children
- Marrige was emphisied and divorce
was more complex and more and
more expensive, by 1937 91% of
men and 82% of women in their
thirties were married
- Persecution and Control
- Causes
- NKVD used to be agsinst political enemies but
Stalin turned it against the Communist Party
- Stalin was affraid of people loyal to his old
enemies. The Red army had been Trotsky's
and most were loyal to him. Moscow and
Leningrad were powerbases for Kamenev and
Zinoviev. Yagoda the head of the NKVD had
sided with Bukharin
- Stalin needed scapegoats to blame the
failure of the 5 year plans on (wreckers).
Stalin needed slaves to build big projects like
Magnitogorsk
- Kirov recieved more votes than Stalin in
the Congress of Victors 1934 and many
urged him to stand against Stalin proving
that the Communist party wanted a new
leader
- Kirov was then murdered in 1934 which
Stalin blamed on K and Z. This was the
trigger for the Terror
- Show Trials
- Trial of the 16: K and Z were charged with the murder of
Kirov and compiring with Trotsky to return Capitalism to
Russia. They confessed thinking that Stalin would pardon
them but they were executed
- Trial of the 17: Trotsky and his supporters were charged
with the same crimes and all killed by Trotsky was in
Mexico and so the his punishment could not be carried out
- Trial of the 21: Buka=harin and Yugoda were charged
with the same crimes but Bukharin was also charged
with the murder of Lenin. His wife and child were going
to be killed if he didn't confess which he did and so they
were all killed
- Over the next 18 months over 34,000 people were
purged from the Red army
- They removed Stalin's rivals, the people who knew the
truth about Lenin's Testiment, removed all Lenin had
appointed leaving all those Stalin had and proved to
people that Stalin was the ruler of Russia that can be
trusted
- Yezhovshchina
- In 1937 at a Cental Commitee meeting
they agreed on a new Doctrine to justify
the Terror and in 3 months 70% of those
who had voted for it were dead
- Yezhov created a conveyor belt system
where people were tortured around the
clock and he set targets for the Terror to
speed it up. He also killed 23,000
members of the NKVD and replaced them
with more loyal ones
- Inspired by the show trials workers
would put the factory owners on trial
and hand them over to the NKVD. In
Kazan people were arrested for living
luxuriously on public funds and the NKVD
arrested 330,000 party members who
were against the Terror
- Finally the last 2 killed were Yezhov himself
and Trotsky who was hunted down by Beria
(new NKVD leader)
- Terror
- Economic
- Kirov and co. out of the Party meant Stalin could carry out
the 5 year plans as he wanted. Managers lied about
production to escape the NKVD but those who were killed
effected efficientcy of industry
- Political
- Removal of all Political opponents and created
scapegoats for the 5 year plans. Top communist
refraned from making decitions so they weren't purged
so Stalin was unchallenged and young Communists loyal
to Stalin were promoted as their boses were killed
- Social
- 10% of males in Russia were killed and 95% of those
were husbands and fathers, children whom parents were
killed were humiliated. To escape the purge people:
Become members of the working class, married
members of the working class, bribed officals to create
them a new working class identity. People got boses
purged to take their jobs and neighbours purged to take
their much nicer house
- Cult of Personality
- History: Changed so that Stalin's role in the
Revolutions and the Civil war was
exageragated and he was percieved to be by
Lenin's side the whole time. Short Course and
Joseph Stalin: Biography were writtern
- Art: Stalin was made out to be Lenin's
pupil and the Lenin of today. Stalin was
made out to be Lenin's equal and the
official idiology of Russia went from
Marxism-Leninism to
Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism
- Stalin's birthday become a national
holiday and the cult of Lenin (based on
Lenin's tomb in Moscow) replaced normal
Christrian symbolism
- Socialist Realism
- Show the achievements of Stalin's Russia and
show Russians what is to come in the future and
that they should sacrifice everything to get there
- Painting: Promotion of dekulakisation, the
training and recruitment for Magnitogorsk and
how Stalin is the father to all
- Literature: happy stories about the good of
Russia and Russia's history and how much
Russian's sacrificed to become such a
wonderful place
- Archtiecture: Moscow Metro, Tallest building in
the world that was never built and a great
Communist Star
- Second World War
- Coming of the War
- Nazi-Soviet Pact: Stalin agreed a
non-aggression pact with Hitler in 1939
meaning Stalin could expand his empire.
This brought Russia time
- June 1941 Operation Barbarossa:
Germany lauched a rapid attack on
Russia aiming for Moscow
- September 1941 Operation Typhoon:
Germans reached Moscow and Leningrad
but the Red Army were repeling them
- August 1942 - February 1943 Battle of
Stalingrad: 1.9 million people killed by
Russian troops pushed Germans away
- September 1942 Operation Uranus:
Massive Russian counter attack by the
end of 1943 all Germans out of Russia
- January 1944 Ten Great Victories: Russia
captured significant territory in Eastern
Europe
- April 1945 Battle of Berlin: Russians
reached Berlin and conquered it ending
the war in Europe
- Russia's Red Army had been purged
weakening it. The Third 5 Year Plan
left the economy in ruins but military
spending increased to 70.9 million
roubles. Russia had the best spy
network in the world but Stalin didn't
trust them so much good information
was ignored
- Cost of the War
- Human
- 10% of the Russian population or 20 million
people died in the war and an extra 10
million due to German prisoners of war
camps
- About 85 million Russians were under
German control at some point. Some tried
to return to Russia some wanted to stay
to get away from Communism
- Women worked in the Home Front and
the only recorded day off was the 9th
May 1945
- Economic
- Wiped out all progress made the first 2 5
year plans
- 32,000 factories and 60,000km of
rail destoryed
- Consription lead to less production
leading to rationing
- Victory: Russia at war
- 56% of the Russian income was to be devoted
to the war more than any other country
- Stalin named it the "Great Patriotic War"
because patriotism was very high and Stalin
wanted to use it
- Communism was against religion but to
motivate the Russian people Stalin made a
deal with the Church. They called Stalin "God's
chosen one" and that the war was a holy war
- At the begining of the war the NKVD drew up
lists of people in Russia who would help the
Germans and either deported them or just
executed them
- Victory: Campaigns
and Support
- Military Campaigns
- Hitler had a divided army and a war on 2 fronts
- He chose to lay siege to Moscow than take it
giving the Russians time
- Instead of taking Moscow against Hitler sent
troops to Stalingrad
- Allied Support
- The Grand Alliance opened up 2 more fronts
the south in Africa and the west in France
- Lend - Lease provided 12% of plains, 10% of
Tanks, 95% of trains, 66% of jeeps and 17% of
the Calorie intake SPAMMMMM
- Superpower
- Russia gained a sphere of influence and
controlled nearly half of Europe. These states
were now Communist and would help Russian
in future wars
- The 4th and 5th 5 year plans made Russia
have the fastest growing economy in the
world and had outputs twice that before the
war. Russia was also arming still in case of
any future war
- Russia had the biggest army in the world and also
were developping nuclear weapons to compete
with America. They were also developing missiles
that would help later in the space race