History & the Novel

Russia & the Rise of Stalin:Key Timeline, 1918 - 1945

1918-20• Civil War in Russia• Introduction of Terror and

War Communism• Bolshevik victory

1920• Kronstadt Uprising – Red

Navy protest against Party Dictatorship

• Lenin’s introduction of NEP – effectively return of moderate liberalism and capitalism

1924 – 29

• Lenin’s death; Struggle for power begins

1929• Stalin emerges as sole leader• Collectivization Programme

begins - accompanied by ‘dekulakization’

• 5 year Plans for industry begins: aims to modernise Russia rapidly - but enormous human costs

1934-38

• Assassination of Kirov, Stalin’s friend and Leningrad Party Organiser - blamed on ‘enemies within’

• Mass terror and ‘show trials’ launched.

• All surviving original Bolsheviks executed

• Military elites purged • General population purged• New ‘Liberal’ Constitution

introduced• Cult of Stalin grows

1938-9

• Terror dies down (temporarily) as Secret Police blamed (& leaders purged)

• Stalin signs Nazi-Soviet Pact, keeps Russia out of war for first year – to great surprise of Britain

1940-45

• Nazis invade Russia• Russia participates in ‘Great

Patriotic War’• Terror continues on lesser scale

1945

•Cold war begins

•Eastern bloc created as Russia extends political and economic control in Eastern Europe

1953

•Stalin dies – while plotting further Terror

1953-56 •Leadership Struggle – Reformist Khrushchev emerges as victor