Stalin
KEY TIP...
There has been a question on Stalin
EVERY YEAR.
GET HIM LEARNED!!!
Struggle for power with Trotsky; elimination of other rivals in the
1920s; purges in the
1930s; the 1936 Constitution.
Propaganda and
censorship;
Collectivisation of
agriculture;
Five Year Plans and
growth of industry; economic effects.
Make sure you have detailed factual knowledge about AND HAVE
THOUGHT ABOUT the following issues and topics:
HOW FAR DID STALIN SET UP A PERSONAL DICTATORSHIP?
1. The STORY of Stalin's
seizure of power.
2. The STORY of Stalin's
Purges.
3. How did Stalin keep power?
TO WHAT EXTENT DID STALIN MAKE THE USSR A GREAT ECONOMIC
POWER?
4. Collectivisaton
5. The 5-Year Plans.
and that you are able to explain:
HOW FAR DID STALIN SET UP A PERSONAL DICTATORSHIP?
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Background |
Trotsky was leader of
the Cheka and the Red Guards, although he was arrogant and unpopular.
Trotsky was
a great political thinker, although many Russians feared his idea of
immediately starting world revolution would ruin Russia.
Stalin was a leading
Bolshevik in the 1917 revolution, although not as important as he later
made out.
He looked after Lenin in
his final illness, although Lenin in his Testament said that he
was too power-mad to be trusted as leader.
In
1922 Stalin became General Secretary of the
Communist Party - he used this position to build up contacts and push
his supporters into positions of power.
In
1922 he also became Commissar of
Nationalities.
This gave him control over all the non-Russian peoples
of the USSR.
Stalin believed in the much safer
policy of 'Communism in one country' - i.e. establish
the revolution in Russia before trying to spread it to
other countries
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Meat |
In 1924 Lenin died.
First,
Stalin allied with the 'leftists' (Zinoviev and Kamenev) to cover up Lenins Will and to get Trotsky
dismissed (1925). Trotsky went into exile (1928).
Then, he allied with the 'rightists'
(Bukharin, Rykov and
Tomsky) 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).
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End |
Stalin's agents pursued
Trotsky to Mexico, where they assassinated him.
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Background |
(Why Unnecessary Purges)
Whole
country - Stalin believed that the country had to be united and strictly
controlled if it was going to be strong.
Urgency
-
Stalin
believed Russia had 10 years to catch up with the western world before
Germany invaded.
Paranoia
- Stalin was power-made and murderously paranoid (he imagined plots
everywhere)
|
|
Meat |
First Purges, 193033 -
anybody who opposed industrialisation, and the kulaks who opposed
collectivisation.
In 1934
Kirov, a rival to
Stalin, was murdered. Stalin used it as a chance to begin the
Great Purges (193439).
Victims
included:
a
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).
b
Army
-
all the admirals and half the Armys officers were executed
or imprisoned.
c
Church
-
Religious leaders
imprisoned; churches closed down.
d Ethnic
groups
-
Stalin enforced
Russification of all the Soviet Union.
e Ordinary
people
-
were denounced/ arrested/
sent to the Gulag (the system of labour camps). 20 million Russians (inc.
7 million kulkas) were
sent to the camps, where perhaps 10 million died. |
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End |
(Results
Of The Terror Insane Stalin Grabs All Power)
1.
Russification
Russia came to
dominate the whole USSR.
2.
Orthodox
Church attacked
3.
Twenty
million arrested
perhaps half died.
4.
Terror
People
lived in fear of the Secret Police.
5.
Industry
the
Terror provided free slave labour, but technology and science
were held back by loss of top engineers and scientists.
6.
Stalin
Cult
7.
Gulag
8.
Army
and navy weakened by
purges of leading officers
9.
Purges
political opponents eliminated
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(SPROAC)
IF YOU ARE ASKED THIS, MAKE
SURE YOU GIVE SOME
FACTS AS WELL.
1.
Secret Police
-
The
CHEKA became the OGPU (1922), then the NKVD (1934).
2.
Purges
of political opponents/ army/ church
3.
Russification
- Russian language & traditions enforced throughout the Soviet Union
4.
Ordinary
people
lived in fear -
20 million Russians were sent to the camps, where perhaps half of them
died
5.
Apparatchiks
(party members loyal to Stalin) got all the new flats, jobs, holidays
= a kind of bribery
6.
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).
TO WHAT EXTENT DID STALIN MAKE THE USSR A GREAT
ECONOMIC POWER?
|
Background |
(Six
Factors Now To Collectivise Kolkhoz)
Soviet agriculture
was
old-fashioned/ inefficient/ no machinery/ too small/ subsistence (only
grew enough for themselves).
Food
shortages in the towns
NEP
was not working
-
by 1928,
the USSR was 20 million tons of grain short to feed the towns.
Town-workers
needed
- industry needed
peasants
to migrate to work in the towns.
Cash
Crops needed
(eg grain)
which could be exported to raise money to buy foreign machinery and
expertise.
Kulaks hid food from the government collectors.
Also they were influential, and led peasant opinion.
Stalin wanted to destroy them.
|
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Meat |
1927
attempt at
voluntary collectivisation
fails, so...
1929
Stalin announced compulsory collectivisation. The
peasants burned their crops & barns, and killed their animals, so...
1930
Famine - Stalin paused collectivisation and said the peasants
could own a small plot of land.
1931
Collectivisation re-started. By 1932 two-thirds
of the villages had been collectivised. More resistance, leading
to...
19323 Famine, esp. in Ukraine (where 5 million died).
Stalin declared war on, the Kulaks shot/ sent to gulag in Siberia.
1934
All 7 million kulaks eliminated.
1939
99% of land collectivised; 90% peasants live on one of
250,000
kolkhoz or 4,000 state farms. Farming run by government
officials.
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End |
FOR:
(Quite
Modern Government Tries Collectivisation)
Quarter
of a million kolkhoz -
99% of land collectivised;
90% peasants live on one of 250,000
kolkhoz or 4,000 state farms.
Modern
- 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 migrated to work in the towns.
Complete
control - Officials
ran farming. Peasants obeyed the Party.
Stalin had all power.
AGAINST
(Sad
Foolish Kulaks)
Stock
- numbers fell 1928-38 (cattle 70-50m/ sheep 150-50m)
Famine,
esp. in Ukraine (where 5 million died).
Kulaks -
shot/ sent to gulag in Siberia.
By 1934
all
7 million kulaks eliminated.
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Background |
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 in Socialism in one country the USSR
needed to
become strong enough to survive, then take over the world.
Stalin
believed that Germany was stronger than
Russia and 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.
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Meat |
There
were two Five Year
Plans
192833 and 19321937.
Plans were drawn up by GOSPLAN (state planning organisation),
which set targets for every
region,
industry, mine, factory and worker.
Foreign experts & engineers were called in
Workers were bombarded with propaganda
-
Alexei Stakhanov (who cut 102 tons of coal in one shift)
was held up as an example. Good workers could become 'Stakhanovites'
and win a medal.
Workers were fined if they did not meet their targets
- people accused of undermining production were sent to the gulag.
(After the First 5-year plan revealed a shortage of workers)
mothers
were attracted by providing new crθches and day-care centres.
Women
went to university and became doctors and scientists.
For big engineering projects such as dams or canals, slave labour
(such as political opponents, kulaks or Jews) was used.
There was a concentration on heavy industry at the expense of
consumer goods or good housing.
Stalin attacked the Muslim faith because he thought it was holding
back industrialisation.
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End |
FOR:
The USSR was turned into a modern state (which was able to
stop Hitler in WWII).
There was genuine Communist enthusiasm among the young
Pioneers.
There
were huge achievements:
new
cities
- eg Magnitogorsk
dams/
hydroelectric power - Dneiper Dam
transport
& communications
- Belomor Canal,
Turkestan-Siberian Railroad
the
Moscow Underground
electricity
- production rose 1927-37 from 5-36 billion kilowatts
coal
-
production rose 1927-37 from 35-128 million tons
steel
-
production rose 1927-37 from 4-18 million tons
significant increase in
farm
machinery,
fertilizers, plastic,
doctors
& medicine and
education
no
unemployment
AGAINST
Poor organisation, inefficiency, duplication, waste
and pollution.
Appalling human cost:
discipline
(sacked if late)
secret
police
slave
labour
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Revision Diary