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Stalin’s rise in the party
1917 after he return from exile in Siberia
appointed editor of Pravda
leader of Petrograd Soviet
1919
appointed to Politburo
made Head of Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate
Appointed to secretariat
made liaison between Politburo and Orgburo
lenin dies
1924, having been out of politics for the last two years due to strokes
this caused a power vacuum → Troika: Stalin, Kamenev, Zinoviev
had not named a specific successor
Stalin is made General Secretary
1922
chose who was a party member and slowly replaced members with his supporters
trotsky was not at Lenin’s funeral but Stalin was and delivered the address - further cementing his image of Lenin’s successor
used charm to win his way within the party
1920s
1925: trotsky is forced to resign as war commissar
1926: united opposition ( kamenev, Zinoviev, Trotsky) removed from Politburo
1927: Kamenev, Zinoviev and Trotsky removed from party
1928: NEP abandoned and first Five year plan introduced
1929: Trotsky exiled
1940: assassinated in Mexico
Repression and Terror
linked with Stalin’s idea of a “revolution from above”
Dekulakisation → killed 5 million
expansion of gulags and forced labour camps
deliberate food seizures to feed industrial revolution, army and export
Famine 1932-33: 7.5 mil deaths
mainly impacted Ukraine and used as a form of genocide to break peasant power and destroy ukrainian nationalism
Sergei Kirov
friend of Stalin and leader of Leningrad
speaks against collectivisation and is murdered by Leonid Nikolaev December 1934 (he was also rumoured to be having an affair with Nikolaev’s wife)
Stalin used this to accuse latent in-party opposition and justify a party purge of senior figures
Stalin is believed to have masterminded Kirov’s murder
decline in role of Politburo + Secret Committee in 1936
Moscow Show Trials
1936-8
Trial 1: august 1936
Zinoviev + Kamenev accused of killing Kirov and attempting to kill Stalin
confessed to false charges under threats to their family
Trial 2: January 1937
17 lesser figures accused of plotting with Trotsky + conspiring w/ germany
13 shot, 4 sent to gulags and died
Trial 3: march 1938
trial of the 21
Nep supporters on the right → Genrikh Yagoda (ex secret police leader), Bukharin accused of plotting to kill Stalin
many secret trials of generals → severely weakened the army → 30,000 officers and 81 of 103 generals executed
dead men were docked out of photos
continuation of Cheka
GPU 1922
OGPU 1923
NKVD 1934