Russia and StalinMan of Steel

The Beginning of the Soviet Project

• The Bolsheviks had consolidated power by early 1920’s.– Party membership did not exceeded 1% of the population

– Some opposition still remained.

– They viewed their revolution as internationally significant

War Communism• Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) organized the Red Army to

suppress both internal and foreign opposition.– White Russian opposition could not get properly organized.

• The nation was run by Lenin from the top, undemocratically.– The government ran the banks, the transport system and

heavy industry.– All opposition was repressed.

• War Communism generated opposition.– Peasants resisted the requisition of grain– Strikes in 1920 and 1921– Baltic fleet mutiny in March 1921.

Russian revolutionaries and leaders Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, and Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin at the Congress of

the Russian Communist Party. (March 23, 1919)

The New Economic Plan (NEP)

• Outlined by Lenin in March 1921–Private industry would be tolerated except for in:• Banking•Heavy Industry• Transportation • International Commerce

–Peasant farming for profit was legalized.–The countryside stabilized.

The Soviet Model• Third International (Comintern) held in Moscow

• Established Soviet Union as model for revolutionary Marxism

• Devised 21 rules for nations wanting to engage in Marxist revolution - required acknowledgement of Soviet leadership - use of name “Communist Party”

• Sought to end democratic socialism

• Created fear - drove some to right wing regimes.

The Stalin/Trotsky Rivalry• After Lenin’s stroke in 1922

and his subsequent death in 1924, a power vacuum was left.

• Two factions emerged

– Trotsky Faction

– Joseph Stalin (1879-1953), general secretary of the party, Faction.

• Lenin had criticized both before his death, but especially Stalin.

• 1878 –1953

• Joseph Dzhugashvili

• Gori, Georgia

• Peasant – Father Bootmaker

• 1899 expelled from Seminary School

• 1902 imprisoned – exiled to Siberia

• 1904 – Escaped Siberia

• 1905 met Lenin

• 1911 editor of Pravda

• 1917 – Commissar of Nationalities

• General Secretary of the Communist Party (1922)

Trotsky’s Position

• Urged rapid industrialization financed by state control of farm production.

• Collectivization of agriculture

• The Soviet Union should encourage worldwide Socialist revolution

Stalin’s Rise• His position of general secretary allowed him to amass

bureaucratic and administrative power.

• Manipulated intraparty rivalries

– Backed Nikolai Bukharin (1888-1938) in his battle with Trotsky over rapid industrialization

– Also opposed Trotsky’s position on worldwide revolution

• He was thus able to eventually have Trotsky humiliated and exiled by 1929.

Russia: Rapid Industrialization• the slowing down of economic production, leads Soviet

Communist leader Joseph Stalin to abandon Lenin’s New Economic Policy (NEP) and reject free market operations

• series of Five-Year Plans would rapidly increase government run heavy industries

• The State Planning Commission or Gosplan oversaw every aspect the economy

• economy grows 400% between 1928 and 1940

“WE ARE FIFTY OR ONE HUNDRED YEARS BEHIND

THE ADVANCE COUNTRIES. WE MUST MAKE GOOD THIS DISTANCE IN TEN YEARS”

- Stalin

• Economic Growth – Heavy Industry• 111% coal, 200% iron, 335% electric production

• 25 million migrated to cities

• Hired Foreign Engineers

• Unemployment unknown

• Women worked in factories

• 1928-1937- Production of capital goods and armaments • Quadrupled production of heavy machinery • Doubled oil production• Weapons increase tenfold or more• Real wages declined 43% b/w 1928-1940• Housing and consumer goods declined• Human cost?

Collectivization • Stalin forces Russian peasants to give up their private farms

and work collectively on farms owned by the state – collectives

• Stalin felt this policy would end the hoarding of grain and produce enough domestic food and for foreign export

• “dekulakization” – the removal of any peasants, especially those who were well off, who resisted collectivization

• millions of peasants are killed, imprisoned, exiled to Siberia or starve to death

• religious leaders of many faiths are attacked and their places of worship closed

• by 1937, 90% of the country’s grain is collectivized• 10 million people died

Consumer Shortages in the Russian Cities

• shortages of the basics – housing, food, and clothing

• cities lacked proper transportation, sewer systems, paved streets and lighting

• crime and disease widespread

• Secret Police (NKDV), Purge Trials (1936-1939) – accused of disloyalty – enemies

• 1937-1938 – “Great Terror”

• Shot 1500 people a day

• Eliminate opposition - - high Soviet leaders, civilian party members, major party leaders, army officers, diplomats, intellectuals, Old Bolsheviks

The Purges• Stalin, starting in 1933, gets rid of his enemies and opponents, both

real and imagined in the Great Purges• the assassination of party chief Sergei Kirov leads to the first purges– Kirov’s death still a mystery – Killed either by party opponents or perhaps by Stalin himself

• Ex-high Soviet leader Bukharin along with other members of the Politburo are executed

• millions of people (family members of government leaders, ordinary Soviet citizens, members of the military) are either executed or sent to labor camps

• Stalin’s thirst for power and his paranoia caused the purges• Communist Party moves away from the philosophies of Lenin and

other early Communist leaders

• Soviet system of forced labor camps• Origins 1917 Revolution • Height during the reign of Stalin• White Sea-Baltic Sea Canal (1931-33) – 141 mile canal• 100,000 prisoners – pickaxes, shovels, wheel barrels created

in just 20 months – SUCCESS?• Kolyma - harshest of all the camps “means death”• Arctic region – harsh temperatures, insufficient rations, sleep,

and clothing – 12-16 hour work day

• More people passed through the GULAG than the Nazi concentration camps; yet, the GULAG is still not nearly as well know. WHY?

• Nazi camps used to “exterminate”• GULAG – weapon of ongoing political control over one

country• “trials” – 5 minutes – sentences 8-10 years• Article 58 – (1928) – anti-Soviet activity• 25% “political prisoners”• Mining, rail construction, arms & chemical factories,

electricity plants, fish canning, airport, apartment, and sewage construction

• Single leader

• Revolutionary transformation

• Treated as a benevolent "guide" for the nation

• Transformation to a better future cannot occur without him

• Superman

• Propaganda

• Hero Worship – “Uncle Joe”

“Ideas are far more powerful than guns. We don't allow our enemies to have guns, why should we allow them to have ideas?” - STALIN

20+ Million Deaths = Starvation, Forced Labor Camps, Purges

• “What role did Stalin play in the history of our country?”

• POSITIVE 53%

• NEGATIVE 33%

• Had difficulty answering the question 14%

BBC World News Service