Stalin - Key Terms

Joseph Stalin

1879-1953, Russian radical who transformed the Soviet society into a communist state through violence. Created basic outlines of a modern totalitarian dictatorship after the Bolshevik revolution and during the Russian Civil War. 1928 leader of communist party, tried to turn Soviet society into a Communist state, used propaganda, purges, executions. Soviet Union turned totalitarian state, arranged for the assassination of Trotsky.

five-year plans

A plan launched by Stalin in 1928 and termed the “revolution from above,” aimed at modernizing the Soviet Union and creating a new Communist society with new attitudes, new loyalties, and new socialist humanity. (Use of constant propaganda, enormous sacrifice by the people, harsh repression that included purges and executions, and rewards for those who followed the party line. The Soviet Union therefore because a totalitarian state.)

New Economic Policy (NEP)

Lenin’s 1921 policy to re-establish limited economic freedom (local capitalism) in an attempt to rebuild agriculture and industry in the face of economic disintegration. (successful and helped the economy but divided some people as he didn’t follow communism correctly, Bolsheviks questioned his motives.)

Kulak

The better-off peasants who were stripped of land and livestock under Stalin and were generally not permitted to join collective farms; many of them starved or were deported to forced-labor camps for “re-education.”)

Gosplan

a state planning commission that set production goals and controlled the deliveries of raw and finished materials in Russia. (to stimulate economy, Lenin brought back capitalism for certain sections of the Russian economy, but commanding heights (coal, iron, oil, and steel) remained in state hands)

Sergei Kirov

Stalin’s #2 man who was assassinated by Stalin (supposedly) in 1934, began Stalin’s great terror in which he killed off old Bolsheviks who threatened his political power

“Old Bolsheviks”

people who had been a part of the original Bolshevik party that carried out the 1917 revolution who were respected in Russia, targeted by Stalin

Gulag

forced labor camps set up by Stalin in eastern Russia where ordinary people accused of counter-revolutionary crimes were sent.