Russia full deck

When did Lenin die

January 1924

Why was Lenin difficult to replace

He had been part of the Communist Party since its formation and had written many important documents, as well as responsible for the seize of power in October 1917. He also held many key jobs in the government.

Who were candidates for Lenin's position

Stalin, Kamenev, Trotsky, Bukharin and Zenoviev

What were the strengths of Stalin

He was Secretary General of the Communist Party, so he was in charge of jobs, so he could put his friends in powerful jobs. He also led the 'Lenin Enrolment' which was a drive to get more members after Lenin's death

What were Stalin's weaknesses

He was heavily criticised in Lenin's Testament, and had a reputation for being boring, rude and abrupt.

What were Trotsky's strengths and weaknesses

Strengths:
Brilliant speaker and had worked closely with Lenin. Editor of Pravda

Weaknesses:
Considered arrogant and people disliked him giving orders in peace time. He also disliked the NEP

What were Zinoviev + Kamenev's strengths and weaknesses

Strengths:
Worked well together and Z had a strong reputation as a speaker

Weaknesses:
Had opposed Lenin's plans for the October Revolution

What were Bukharin's strengths and weaknesses

Strengths:
Brilliant speaker + writer, and was popular in the Party. Also created very popular NEP

Weaknesses:
He lacked experience

Describe Stalin's process of elimination with his political enemies

1. He teamed Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin against Trotsky
2. He and Bukharin ally against Zinoviev, Kamenev and Trotsky
3. Stalin defeats Bukharin
4. Stalin has total control of the Communist Party and is leader of the Soviet Union

When does Stalin team Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin against Trotsky

1925

When does Stalin team Bukharin against Zinoviev, Kamenev and Trotsky

1927

When does Stalin defeat Bukharin

1928-29

Who were the 3 leftists (Ideological, War Communism)?

1. Trotsky
2. Kamenev
3. Zinoviev

Who were the 3 rights (Pragmatic, NEP)?

1. Bukharin
2. Rykov
3. Tomsky

What were Kamenev and Zinoviev's Weaknesses?

Their joint resignation following the October Revolution, was exploited by Stalin to make them appear as traitors.

What were Kamenev and Zinoviev's strengths?

Kamenev was Lenin's closest Bolshevik pre-1917 and most loyal advisor

Zinoviev was the closest to Lenin out of all contenders, and Leningrad gave him a strong powerbase.

What were Trotsky's weaknesses?

Trotsky failed to capitalise on his reputation and attack Stalin, he let his hubris out of his intelligence cloud his judgement and ability to create a power base.

What were Trotsky's strengths?

Trotsky was an intelligent person and highly skilled orator, importantly he was the leader of the Red Army, a position he had proved himself worthy of following the Kornilov Affair and Civil War.

What were Bukharin's weaknesses?

Bukharin didn't have a powerbase, he also made a tactical mistake in waiting too long to ally with Kamenev and Zinoviev, largely due to his ignorance in trusting his close friend Stalin.

What were Bukharin's strengths?

Bukharin was well-liked and respected, he was regarded as the party's best theoretician, as well as being an expert on economics and agriculture.

What were Stalin's weaknesses?

He played a minor role in the October Revolution, and his colleagues were aware of what Lenin said of him in his testament.

What were Stalin's strengths?

His position as General Secretary gave him a strong power base as he chose most of the Politburo, he strategically positioned himself within different political alliances, as well as placing himself close to Lenin when he was dying.

What were the 3 core leftist ideologies?

1. Permanent Revolution: Revolution was a constant international process.
2. War Communism: complete nationalisation and centralisation of economy.
3. Immediate Industrialisation: Bolsheviks should never divert from Marxist ideology, and industrialisation must commence immediately.

What were the 3 core right ideologies?

1. Socialism in One Country: Russia could 'go it alone' and turn the Soviet Union into a modern state.
2. NEP: A medium/long term capitalist necessity for Russia's economy, to strengthen it.
3. Industrialisation at a Snail's Pace: Industrialisation and modernisation of the soviet union depended on the peasantry to produce a food surplus to sell for industrial machinery.

What were Stalin's economic aims?

Transform the economy (industrialisation), the state would command the economy from above, and the Gosplan was the central planning committee which would organise economic planning - this meant that the state had total control.

Collectivisation

This was a process aimed at reforming Russian agriculture by merging smaller traditional farms into larger "collective" farms. These could be either Kolkhozy or Sovhozy.

1927-29

Grain Procurement Crisis which stemmed from poor harvests which forced the price of grain up. It was claimed that Kulaks started to withhold grain to further push up the price (there is some evidence for this accusation). Stalin used this as an excuses to revive the policy of grain requisitioning.

Twenty-five Thousanders

25,000 urban party activists who were trained up in cities to help revolutionise the countryside. They were sent to oversee collectivisation, and root out Kulaks, but they ended up enforcing it.

1 February 1930

A decree gave local party organisations the power to use "necessary force" against the Kulaks. Whole families (or even villages) were rounded up and deported, or sent to Gulags. Up to 10 million people were sent to labour camps or deported by the end of the Collectivisation process.

"Dizzy with success"

Stalin's 1930 article for the Pravda where he backtracked and claimed his officials had moved far too fast. He called for a return to the choice about farming (a temporary halt to collectivisation).

7-10 million people

This many people died as a result of collectivisation being resumed and being pushed harder than ever in 1932. Stalin's actions such as putting seed grain in storage in cities to keep away from hungry peasants, suggests that this famine was at least in part engineered as a way of preventing opposition.

16 million tonnes collected in 1929, compared with 22.6 million tonnes in 1933

As a result of collectivisation, the state collected the grain it needed to feed the population

Rose from 0.03 million tonnes in 1928 to over 5 million in 1931

As a result of collectivisation, exports of grain rose (this was used to pay for industrialisation equipment)

The number of horses halved from 1928-32.

As a result of collectivisation, Russia lost large portions of livestock:

1932-34

There was a significant famine which disrupted collectivisation. As a result many people died
Stalin imposed the death penalty for stealing grain (even if the grain was actually theirs)

peasants who ate their own seed corn were shot, along with those sent to guard it

and discussion of the grain crisis was banned (Stalin also publicly denied this existed)

93%

By 1937, this percent of peasants were part of Kolkhozy.

98%

By 1941, this percent of peasant households worked on collectives.

6-8 million people

This many people were deported between 1928-30

October 1928 - December 1932

First Five Year plan was to lay a foundation for future industrial development, and as a result, the economy began to grow at 14% yearly, and 150,000 newly trained, working class "red specialists" replaced the existing "bourgeois specialists". But there were concerns about large scale fraud, and workers living conditions dropped with the introduction of a 7 day week.

January 1933 - December 1937

Second Five Year Plan who's priorities evolved as it progressed. Targets were more realistic so it was claimed they were overfulfilled by 3%, and defense spending rose to 17% of total government expenditure in 1937. However, inequality was a central part of this new Soviet system, and standards of living were poor: shopping was a "survival skill" according to historian Fitzpatrick

January 1938 - June 1941

Third Five Year Plan: rearmament (9 aircraft factories built, and room for important innovations, but diverted funds from consumer goods), heavy industry (coal production leapt from 128 million tonnes in 1937 to 166 million tonnes in 1940, but production of steel stagnated and crude oil only rose marginally. Purges disrupted planning and the Russian industry) and increasing productivity and discipline (harsh new methods, but quicksand society and internal passports)

250,000

Magitogorsk was a city which demonstrated the successes and failures of the First Five-Year Plan. Stalin planned to build an entire city from scratch, based in an area of Russia rich in iron ore. This many workers were transported to the "magnetic mountain", and in 1929 a radical German architect was commissioned to design a utopian city with clean, modern accommodation.

20%

Magnitogorsk ended up producing this percent of iron ore in the USSR.

3.2 square metres

Average living space for the working class there was this per capita in 1935, in Magnitogorsk

102 tonnes

Alexei Stakhanov, propaganda icon, was claimed to have mined this much coal in 6 hours in August 1935. This was 14x the output of a normal miner.

Totalitarianism

A form of government in which all areas of life are brought under government control. Unlike traditional dictatorships, it demands enthusiasm and commitment from its citizens.

The Short Course of the History of the All-Union Communist Party, and The Short Biography of Stalin (both published in 1938)

These were the two history books that Stalin edited to push his "Myth of Two Leaders"

Komsomol

A special youth organisation, formalised in 1926, members (aged 14-28) swore allegiance to the party and to Stalin, and took part in parades etc. They were provided with a route to full membership in the CPSU, and members were encouraged to inform on those who criticised leaders. Membership increased fivefold from 1929-1941.

October

Sergei Eistenstein's film called this was used as propaganda to push a false narrative about the 1917 revolution.

1 million

Between 1933-34 this many members were excluded from the Party as a result of purges.

1922-1934

The OGPU was the All-Union State Political Directorate. It replaced the Cheka which was disbanded after the Civil War. It created fear by arresting civilians and interrogating them to extract (often fake) confessions, it also organised dekulakisation.

1934+

The NKVD was the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, and it created a permanent state of terror, where it imposed the purges. It gathered evidence against high-ranking Bolsheviks, and administered the Gulags (40 million people were sent to Gulags during Stalin's regime).

Genrikh Yagoda

Director of the NKVD from 1934-36, was later killed during the Trial of the Twenty-One. Stalin was suspicious of his loyalty, and replaced him with Yezhov.

Nikolai Yezhov (Yezhovshchina)

Director of the NKVD from 1936-38, he led the Purges and was blamed for them by Stalin.

Lavrentiy Beria

Director of the NKVD from 1938-53. He is known for his assassination of Trotsky in Mexico on 21 August 1940.

1934

Murder of Sergei Kirov was used as an excuse for the Great Terror, 1936-38, but it is likely that Stalin and/or the NKVD were actually responsible. Kirov was very popular in the party (he was a leading moderate), and had gained more votes than Stalin, when the CPSU voted to elect the Central Committee.

Trial of the Sixteen

Show trial: August 1936. The trial involved Kamenev and Zinoviev and 14 other individuals who had been members of oppositionist groups in the party, who were proved guilty of being part of a counter-revolutionary bloc involved in Kirov's murder. They confessed and were executed the next day.

Trial of the Seventeen

Show trial: January 1937. Karl Radek and Georgy Pyatakov (deputy in the Commissariat of Heavy Industry) were the main defendants (Trotsky's former allies), who were accused of working with Germany and Japan to plan the division of the USSR and of sabotage in general. This was the first product of Yezhov's "conveyor belt system" of interrogation (torture, sleep deprivation and questioning). 13 were killed and the rest were sent to Gulags, where they died.

Trial of the Twenty-One

March 1938. There were defendants including Bukharin (leading economic thinker and Chairman of Comintern), Alexei Rykov (Chairman of the Central Committee) and their accomplices (including Yagoda). They were charged with the murder of Kirov, subverting the ruling regime, conspiracy and spying on behalf of external enemies. Bukharin was also charged with plotting to kill Lenin in 1918. The trial was dramatic, Bukharin confessed to "political responsibility" for the crimes that he was accused of, but he refused to acknowledge guilt for any events that happened. Most of the defendants were executed.

WG Krivitsky, I was Stalin's Agent, 1939

It was said that many of those accused, confessed to their crimes, not because of the torture, but because they felt that it was their "sole remaining service to the Party and the Revolution"

Historian JN Westwood

"there seemed little hope of resisting Stalin's forcefulness"

10%

Total party membership was reduced by this much during the Purges.

70%

This percent of the Central Committee members of 1934 were shot due to the purges.

5 of 11

This many members of the Politburo in 1934 were killed, many in mysterious circumstances.

40%

By the end of the Purge, this percent of the top echelon of the military had disappeared. This included 8 generals, including Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who were all heroes of the Civil War.

3.4 million people

By 1941, there were this many people in Gulags.

Land decree

This gave peasants the right to take over estates of the gentry, without compensation, and to decide the best way to divide it up for themselves. Land belonged to the "entire people" and could not be bought, sold or rented

Workers' control decree

Factory committees were given the right to control production and finance in workplaces and to "supervise" the management. This was not what the Bolsheviks wanted, but they could not resist the strength of workers' pressure for reform.

Rights of the People of Russia decree

This gave national minorities in the former Russian empire the right of self-determination. In realist this was just a paper measure as the Bolsheviks did not have control over most of the areas where these people lived.

5th January 1918

The first and only meeting of the Constituent Assembly in Petrograd. The gathered deputies had time to elect a chairman (Chernov - leader of the SR)

26th October 1917

Lenin set up the Sovnarkom

October 1917

Decree of Peace was announced which asked for "all belligerents to open negotiations without delay for a just and democratic peace"

March 1918

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk pulls Russia out of war. Russia lost a lot of land (including over 1/3 of its population), but Lenin believed that these territories would soon be recovered after Germany's defeat.

15,000 men

The size of Yudenich's White Army

150,000 men

The size of Denikin's White army (this is the army that besieged Tsartisyn)

140,000 men

The size of Kolchak's army

March 1921

The Treaty of Riga: peace treaty between Poland and Russia: Poland was given lots of land from Russia.

500,000

The number of White soldiers at any given point during the Civil War

3.5 - 5 million troops

The number of Red soldiers during the Civil War

December 1917

The Cheka was established and headed by the Polish Communist Felix Dzerzhinsky

300,000

People who died because of the Cheka during the Civil War

Night of 16th-17th July 1918

Nicholas and his family were killed by the Bolsheviks.

1921

Kronstadt Rising: they held a lot of influence and hoped to start a general revolt

March 1921

Lenin's NEP was introduced. Key features: small businesses were allowed to reopen, state control of heavy industry, ban on private trade removed, an encouragement of foreign trade, and an abolishment of grain requisitioning.

1921

Ban on Factions: introduced to prevent splits in the party and criticisms of the government.

1921

All other socialist parties outlawed in Soviet Russia.

200%

Factory output rose this much from 1920-23

60%

By 1923, Nepmen were a new breed of entrepreneur and were responsible for this percent of retail trade.

1922

Significant foreign trade agreement with Germany

1924

Significant foreign trade agreement with Britain.

1919

Politburo was formed. This quickly took precedence over the Sovnarkom.

1918

RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) was made up of Russia and parts of central Asia.

1922

The USSR (Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics) was created.

1924

Lenin's death

1916

Brusilov Offensive: was a good idea from General Brusilov, but due to poor communication, it led to attrition warfare

1915

The Tsar took control of military decisions and left Petrograd with the Tsarina in charge.

1914-1917

Prices had risen 400%