The USSR under Stalin, 1924 to 1941 Essay Example Essay Example

The USSR under Stalin, 1924 to 1941 Essay Example Paper The USSR under Stalin, 1924 to 1941 Essay Introduction Stalin’s strengths- â€Å"comrade card index†- Held influential posts: Commissar for Nationalities; Orgburo; Politburo; from 1922 General Secretary- General Sec: power base, promoting + demoting- Party membership 801,000 (1925) =; 1.5mil (1929)- Decision making centralized Rivals weaknesses- No one rivaled influence- Trotsky, Bukharin, Kamanev, Zinoviev all underestimated Stalin: ‘great blur’- Kamanev + Zinoviev: hesitation in October revolution- Trotsky: Menshevik, arrogance, Jew, lack of power (no desire/effort) Round 1 – Trotsky- Lenin dies 1924- Stalin at funeral (chief mourner)/ Trotsky not- ‘Lenin legacy’ ‘heir’- Cult hero worship- 1924 – allies w Kamanev ; Zinoviev to prevent Trotsky becoming leader- Combined support overcomes Trotsky ; Political Testament- 1925 – Trotsky forced to resign as Commissar for War Round 2 – Left (1925-27)- 1926 Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamanev – ‘United Opposit ion’- Resistance to Stalin from left of Party- Not so united – previous opposition- ‘Permanent Revolution’ versus Stalin’s ‘Socialism in One Country’- Attacked NEP – supported rapid industrialization collectivization (pushing economy forward)- 1926 – ‘left’ defeated in Central Committee = met in secret then accused of forming factions – expelled from Politburo- Stalin packs hierarchy with supporters Round 3 – Right(1928-29)- 1928: Stalin proposes replacing NEP w rapid industrialization collectivization- Right opposed – wanted NEP (but industrial growth languishing, problems securing grain to feed cities, not allowing USSR to move forwards: industrial power)- Right: Tomsky, Rykov Bukharin- Party support for Stalin- April 1929, 16th Party Congress voted in favor of 1st Five-Year Plan Collectivization announced in December= Collectivization, agricultural policies Stalin’s aims and motives- increase State control over grain harvest- Collectivization his answer to grain procurement crisis 1927-28- Prices low: peasant little incentive to part with harvest- 1929: forced importation, bread rationing- 1927: War Communism + forced grain requisitioning: â€Å"Urals-Siberia Method’- Collectivization: Stalin sees as essential for rapid industrialization.- For (supposedly): feed cities, yield surplus workers, surplus for export = capital, NEP: delivering only 2 million tons of grain for export (1927), more efficient- Concentrating peasants, collectives, OGPU = greater Party control- Constructing socialist economy Reality- 120million people involved- State controlled collective farms established- Kulak class: policy of liquidation, Dec 1929 (applied to any peasant resisting collectivization)- 1930 forced collectivization: 14million collectivized households- Active resistance: OGPU (resistors: shot, deported or arrested) quelled- With industrialization, jobs incr ease, urban pop. increase: Communist Party success- Resistance: slaughtering livestock (1/2 USSR cattle and horses, 65% of sheep lost) lengthy recovery- ‘Dizzy with Success’: Stalin claims brutality of Collectivization was out of central control- End to compulsion: voluntary- Concessions: small private plots, animals- However, pressure to collectivize was steadily reapplied Results- 1935: 90% USSR rural land collectivized- However, most peasants living conditions had not changed- had no significantly increased agricultural productivity: grain harvest fell early/mid 1930’s- No incentive for peasantry: seemed like return to serfdom- State procurements rose: peasants yielded 39% in 1933- 1933-34 famine: preventable if regime hadn’t continued to export vast quantities of grain through terrible famine (5mill died in Ukraine alone)- Food rationing 1929-1935- Disaster: no incentive for peasants, large imports, famine= Five-Year Plans Aims- catch up with industria lized West; modernize Soviet industry to prevent invasion of hostile capitalist powers (Stalin)- NEP: doubted by party officials, ideologically ‘wrong’,- Trotsky had originally been pro dissolving NEP. 1928: Party favored a more socialist economic policy Reality- 1st 1928-32; 2nd 1933-37; 3rd 1938-41- Gosplan: 1927 proposed ambitious Five-Year Plan. Emphasis on heavy industry- NEP ended; factory private ownership outlawed- State: total control over urban workforce; internal passports- Workforce: peasants forced of land; women recruited- Urban population 27-57 million (1928-41)- Money: exported grain buys western machinery; taxes raised; living standards depressed- Factories; isolated locations in fear of invasion; rich in mineral resources: Magnitogorsk, etc- Propaganda and bonus pay employed to inspire work rate and productivity: Stakhanov- Failure to meet target: Gulag Results- Successful in expanding output, official Soviet figures grossly inflated: but 7-14% growth- Developed industry allowed USSR to outlast and outbuild Germany in war of attrition: Five-Year Plans were a major cause of Nazi Germany’s defeat- Major redistribution of population- Increase in literacy rates (education=educated workforce) However.- Plans: not completed; affected by purges; disrupted by war- Targets quantitative not qualitative: produce poor- International prestige = Moscow Metro, Belomor Canal: little value- Fear of punishment affects workload and quality- Living standards fell; wages fell; overcrowding in towns; little consumer goods- caught up with west?= Nature of Soviet State and Cult of PersonalityBackground The State- closing of Constituent Assembly Jan 1918 = initiation of single party rule- outlawed other parties; expelled members; Secret Police (Cheka) = OGPU =NKVD.- Monopolization of State institutions by Communist Party: Sovnarkom (Lenin and ministers) Oct 1917. The Party- 1919 Politburo: initially only Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky, Kamanev, Zinoviev ( more power then Sovnarkom)- Stalin: unequalled power in party- Politburo Central Committee Party Congress- 1921 Split in Party: Workers Opposition (for trade unions) and Democratic Centralists (democracy)- Lenin 10th Party Congress banned factionalism (survive Kronstadt Rebellion, etc). Ban never lifted (silence rivals) 1924 Constitution- Set up USSR: federation of 4 Republics, and 16 autonomous republics (less governing power than the republics)- Union Government in Moscow controlled important matters: e.g. economic and foreign policy Soviet State under Stalin- Power in Party = Lenin: Sovnarkom, Stalin: Politburo (increased Party control over State institutions + personal power)- Towards ruthless dictatorship: NKVD enlarged; prison camps expanded Stalin Constitution 1936- 1936-77 â€Å"Stalin Constitution†- USSR Democratic on paper: increased no. of republics (11) but Moscow still with ultimate power- Supreme Soviet legislative body created. â€Å"Democratic†: secre t ballot elections; 18+ years vote. However: one candidate for each region; no choice.- Supreme Soviet: Soviet of the Union and Soviet of the Nationalities: only met few times each year; no power; merely gave approval- Public relations exercise: â€Å"Democratic†- introduced during height of Purges and Show Trials= Extent of Stalin’s power Stalin’s control over Party- All rivals eliminated: purges, show trials- dominated all committees: Politburo and Orgburo- run Party = run government = run country What was extent of his power?Traditional View- Creator of efficient dictatorship- Lenin destroying old political system allowed for Stalin to create a more totalitarian system and greater personal power (Stalin) than either Mussolini or HitlerRevisionist Views- Extent of efficiency- â€Å"dizzy with success†= Cult of Personality- 50th birthday 1929: Party newspaper, Pravda, thousands of greeting for Stalin- Lenin’s devoted disciple- Artists, writers exp ected to promote image of his genius: distort history= Purges – impact on society Background- had occurred before 1930: less- 1921: first purge, 25% Party expelled- 1936-39: unprecedented purge of Party- Gulags Kirov’s murder, 1934- Kirov, Leningrad Communist Party boss: murdered Dec 1934- Stalin’s involvement? Pretext to the Terror?- NKVD given extensive powers to deal with terrorists: investigations by completed within 10 days and that there be no lawyers at terrorist trials.- 1934-35 fall in arrests (positives in five-year plans) Show Trials1936- first major: Kamanev, Zinoviev and 14 other leading â€Å"old Bolsheviks† convicted of treason and executed = accused of Kirov’s murder- Confessions- Sept. NKVD boss Yagoda arrested, replaced by Yezhov: Great Purge/Yezhovschina1937- 353,000 executed- August: Politburo legalized torture- Second major show trial: â€Å"the Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Centre† tried for conspiring with Nazi Germany = 17 l eading Communists tried and executed- April-May leading Generals arrested- By end of 1938 two thirds of Red Army’s senior officers had been arrested and shot.1938- Third major show trial: 18, including Bukharin and Rykov1939- Yezkov arrested and replaced by Beria: end of mass arrests- Millions remained in Gulags- 1940: Trotsky murdered in Mexico by Stalinist agent Why did they happen (diff. interpretations)- â€Å"opponents†- impose authority and suppressing opposition to policies- War scares created a climate of fear and suspicion- â€Å"dizzy with success†= Impact of the Purges- 2.8 million party members in 1934, about 1million expelled by 1939- 8-9million arrests; 3million in Gulags- Red Army’s leadership purged and therefore inexperienced at start of war with Germany 1941: fatal- Arrests of engineers, managers: undermined Second and Third Five-Year Plans= Foreign relations Background to Stalin’s Foreign Policy- Little foreign support after Bols hevik victory 1917 Stalin looks for allies- Hitler: anti-communist- tried to secure USSR with allies in West How did Stalin try to make the USSR more secure- 1934: joined League of Nations- 1935: signed treaties w France Czechoslovakia – promising support- Comintern- 1936-39: gave military aid to Republicans in Spain (but Franco won Civil War)- After 1938 Munich Conference (Stalin not invited) Sudetenland handed over to Germany (part of Czechoslovakia) Stalin concluded Non-Aggression Pact w Germany= Nazi Soviet Pact Why?- Time for rearmament program- Hopeful: Germany in long exhausting war w France Britain- Extend USSR territory influence over Eastern Europe What?- Secretly divide Poland- Germany gave USSR help to conquer Bessarabia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia Finland Results- September 1939: Germany invaded Poland, USSR invades eastern Poland – Poland surrendered end of October. Britain France declare war on Germany September- Winter 1939-40: Estonia, Latvia Li thuania occupied by Red Army: USSR demanded land in Finland = war. USSR expelled from League of Nations End- June 1941: Germany invades USSR = Operation Barbarossa- had tried desperately to maintain peace: arms to Germany, ignored intelligence reports of immanent invasion USSR Far East 1938-41- 1938/39: armed clashes between Japan USSR in Outer Mongolia- April 1941: Japanese sign Non-Aggression Pact w Russia- Stalin avoids war on two fronts The USSR under Stalin, 1924 to 1941 Essay Thank you for reading this Sample!