Unit 1 History - Stalins Rise and Consolidation

Josef Stalin

General Secretary from 1922; used his administrative power to control appointments, defeat rivals, end NEP, launch collectivisation, industrialisation, and later the Great Purge.

General Secretary

Administrative role controlling party membership, promotions, and delegate selection; became Stalin’s main source of power.

Leon Trotsky

Leading Bolshevik; advocate of permanent revolution; main rival to Stalin; defeated through alliances and political isolation; expelled in 1929.

Permanent Revolution

Trotsky’s theory that socialism in Russia required international revolution and rapid industrialisation.

Socialism in One Country

Stalin’s theory (1924) claiming the USSR could build socialism alone despite backwardness and isolation.

Grigory Zinoviev

Politburo member; allied with Stalin against Trotsky; later opposed Stalin; executed in the 1936 Trial of the Sixteen.

Lev Kamenev

Moscow Party leader; allied with Stalin then opposed him; executed in the 1936 Trial of the Sixteen.

Nikolai Bukharin

Rightist leader; defended NEP; opposed forced collectivisation; expelled 1929; executed in the 1938 Trial of the Twenty-One.

Alexei Rykov

Rightist; opposed rapid collectivisation; expelled 1937.

Mikhail Tomsky

Trade union leader; Rightist; opposed Stalin; removed from power.

United Opposition (1926–1927)

Alliance of Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev opposing Stalin’s policies; defeated and expelled.

Left Opposition

Trotsky-led group advocating rapid industrialisation and internal party democracy; defeated by Stalin.

Right Opposition

Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky; defended NEP and gradualism; defeated 1928–1929.

Lenin’s Testament (1922)

Document criticizing Stalin’s rudeness and recommending his removal; suppressed by Zinoviev and Kamenev.

Lenin’s Postscript (January 1923)

Addition to the Testament strongly urging Stalin’s removal.

Nadezhda Krupskaya

Lenin’s wife; clashed with Stalin; supported opposition groups at times.

Politburo

Top decision-making body of the Communist Party; Stalin gradually dominated it.

Central Committee

Elected body overseeing the Party; Stalin manipulated delegate selection to control it.

Party Congress

Large meeting of delegates; Stalin controlled elections to ensure loyal delegates.

12th Party Congress (1923)

Trotsky isolated; Stalin re-elected General Secretary.

13th Party Congress (1924)

Left Opposition defeated; Testament suppressed.

14th Party Congress (December 1925)

“Industrialisation Congress”; Party supports economic modernization.

15th Party Congress (December 1927)

“Collectivisation Congress”; NEP criticized; voluntary collectivisation supported.

16th Party Conference (April 1929)

Right Opposition defeated; First Five-Year Plan approved.

17th Party Congress (January–February 1934)

“Congress of Victors”; Kirov more popular than Stalin; General Secretary position abolished.

18th Party Congress (March 1939)

Third Five-Year Plan approved; official end of Great Purge.

NEP (New Economic Policy)

Partial capitalism; allowed private trade; supported by Bukharin; ended by Stalin.

Smychka

Worker–peasant alliance under NEP; destroyed by collectivisation.

War Communism

Civil War policy of grain requisitioning and nationalisation; caused unrest and famine.

Kronstadt Rising (1921)

Revolt by sailors demanding democracy; crushed; led to NEP and ban on factions.

Ban on Factions (1921)

Prohibited organized opposition inside the Party; later used by Stalin to eliminate rivals.

Gosplan

State planning agency; created Five-Year Plans; disrupted by purges.

Vesenkha

Supreme Council of National Economy; rival to Gosplan; oversaw state industry.

First Five-Year Plan (1928–1932)

Focused on heavy industry; unrealistic targets; major industrial growth but shortages and chaos.

Second Five-Year Plan (1933–1937)

Continued heavy industry; major successes; Stakhanovite movement; rationing ended.

Third Five-Year Plan (1939–1941)

Originally consumer goods; shifted to defense; disrupted by Nazi invasion.

Magnitogorsk

New industrial city built during First Five-Year Plan.

Stakhanovite Movement (1935)

Productivity campaign inspired by miner Alexei Stakhanov’s record coal output.

Alexei Stakhanov

Miner who mined 102 tons of coal in one shift; used to raise work norms.

Storming

Workers pushed to meet targets by working nonstop; caused breakdowns.

Collectivisation (1929–1937)

Forced merging of farms into kolkhozes; caused resistance, deportations, famine.

Kolkhoz

Collective farm; peasants forced to join; controlled by state-appointed managers.

Sovkhoz

State farm; workers paid wages; less common in early collectivisation.

Kulaks

Richer peasants; blamed for grain shortages; “liquidated as a class” in 1929.

Liquidation of the Kulaks (December 1929)

Stalin’s order to eliminate kulaks through deportation, execution, or imprisonment.

Urals-Siberian Method (1928–1929)

Forced grain seizures; arrests under Article 107; precursor to collectivisation.

Article 107 (Criminal Code)

Law against “speculation”; used to arrest peasants resisting grain seizures.

Grain Crisis (1927–1928)

Peasants withheld grain; caused shortages; triggered Stalin’s shift to forced collectivisation.

Mass Collectivisation

Urban brigades forced peasants into kolkhozes; violence widespread.

58% Collectivised (March 1930)

Rapid collectivisation achieved but caused chaos; Stalin temporarily halted it.

20% Collectivised (October 1930)

After pause, collectivisation dropped; resumed later.

Machine-Tractor Stations (MTS)

State-run centers providing machinery to kolkhozes; payment in grain.

Famine of 1932–1933

Worst famine in Russian history; millions died; caused by collectivisation, deportations, quotas.

Ryutin Affair (September 1932)

Ryutin wrote anti-Stalin document; Stalin wanted execution; Politburo refused.

Syrtsov Affair (December 1930)

Syrtsov expelled for criticizing collectivisation abuses.

Smirnov Affair (January 1933)

Smirnov expelled for forming anti-Stalin group.

Kirov Murder (December 1, 1934)

Popular leader assassinated; used by Stalin to justify mass arrests; start of Great Purge.

NKVD

Secret police; carried out arrests, interrogations, executions during Purges.

OGPU

Earlier secret police; absorbed into NKVD in 1934.

Great Purge (1936–1938)

Political purge targeting Old Bolsheviks, Party members, and officials.

Great Terror / Ezhovshchina (1937–1938)

Peak of repression under Ezhov; mass arrests, executions, Gulag expansion.

Nikolai Ezhov

Head of NKVD (1937–38); directed Great Terror; executed 1940.

Lavrenti Beria

Replaced Ezhov in 1938; ended mass arrests; later executed after Stalin’s death.

Trial of the Sixteen (August 1936)

Zinoviev, Kamenev, and others executed for alleged conspiracy.

Trial of the Seventeen (January 1937)

17 accused of sabotage and spying; 13 executed.

Trial of the Twenty-One (March 1938)

Bukharin, Rykov, and others tried; Bukharin executed.

Conveyor System (NKVD)

Interrogation method using sleep deprivation and nonstop questioning.

Red Army Purge (1937–1938)

Half of officer corps executed or imprisoned; included Marshal Tukhachevsky.

Marshal Tukhachevsky

Top military leader; executed June 12, 1937.

Gamarnik

Deputy Commissar for Defense; arrested and killed during military purge.

Gulag

Forced labor camp system; expanded massively during industrialisation and purges.

Franco-Soviet Alliance (May 1935)

Attempt to build anti-fascist alliance; part of Stalin’s foreign policy.

Sudetenland Crisis (September 1938)

USSR not consulted; showed Western distrust.

Nazi–Soviet Pact (August 1939)

Non-aggression pact; Poland divided; USSR gained Baltic states.

Baltic States Annexation (July 1940)

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania incorporated into USSR.

Hitler becomes Chancellor (January 1933)

Shifted Soviet foreign policy toward anti-fascist alliances.

Germany invades Czechoslovakia (March 1939)

Increased Soviet fear of war; influenced Third Five-Year Plan.

Germany invades USSR (June 1941)

Interrupted Third Five-Year Plan; industrialisation helped USSR survive.