Areas of Russia from 1924-39:

Economy: 

  • War Communism (1918-20) 

  • NEP (1921-28) 

    • Implemented by Vladimir Lenin in 1921 after a great famine caused from war communism as temporary fix 

    • Authorized a ‘free market’ and ‘capitalism’ that would be overseen by the state and socialized state enterprises could be operated for profit 

    • Allowed elements of a mixed economy, small business owners had the right to operate for profit in the wake of great starvation from war communism. While still largely state controlled, it was still a large shift away from the full nationalization of the economy previously 

    • Opposed by many Bolsheviks, including Lenin who saw it as ‘one step backward to take two steps forward later on’ 

    • Creation of new group called NEPmen, business men and private entrepreneurs who took advantage of the new opportunities for profit and a free market 

    • Scissors crisis in 1923, rapid industrialization and production of industrial goods as well as prices increased while agricultural prices were decreasing. This caused a fear of food shortages from farmers not having enough money to buy goods and sell their produce, so cities would not have enough food. State decreased the prices of industrial goods 

    • Grain crisis of 1927-28, farmers chose to hold their own food and produce instead of selling them, caused food shortage and famine as a result of capitalism and private entrepreneurship introduced in NEP 

    • Abolished by Stalin in 1928 during the Great Break/Great Turn and establishment of the first 5 Year Plan 

  • Economic policies of Bolsheviks: 

    • Land Decree (1917)  

      • Nationalized all land, land was taken away from private landowners (aristocracy, Russian Orthodox Church, etc…) being given to peasants 

      • Power of the Provisional Government was weak and did not extend far beyond Petrograd, so peasants were already forcefully taking land from landowners for themselves 

      • Officialized these land reforms 

      • Won Bolsheviks support from peasants (vast majority of population) 

    • Workers’ Right Decree (Nov 1917) 

      • Responsibility and authority of factories in workers’ hands 

      • Factory committees were to control production, finance and to supervise management (ie. wages, work hours, etc…) 

      • Did not formally establish trade unions 

      • Gained Bolsheviks support from the proletariat 

    • (+) (Not economic but useful info) Rights of the People of Russia Decree (Nov 1917) 

      • Gave the right of self-determination to national minorities in the empire 

      • Self-determination = The right to be an independent nation 

      • Brought Bolsheviks support from national minorities 

      • Why? 

        • Marxist reasoning: Nationality was of little importance in comparison to class division 

        • Bolsheviks realised they did not have the ability to control the entire empire, splitting up the Russian empire into various independent states of national minorities would solidify their power in Russia 

  • 5 Year Plans 

    • Focus on heavy industry, belief of Russia being capable of becoming a great industrial state not reliant on foreign capital, ‘Great Leap Forward’ psychology = Widescale program to industrialize USSR as fast as possible (taken from Mao’s policies in Communist China), large and intensive projects with forced labour and promotion of socialist enthusiasm 

    • First (1928/29-32) 

      • Planned by Gosplan (State Planning Committee, creating and administering series of 5 Year Plans for the economy of USSR 

      • Slogan of ‘4 Year Plan’ = to evoke more enthusiasm and work, push for faster and more efficient accomplishment of projects 

      • Emphasis on production of energy and construction materials such as coal, oil, electricity, iron, steel and cement 

      • Push for 20 percent (120%) increase in production, not fully met, steel target - 62%, 59% of iron, 67.7% of metallurgy, 73.5% consumer goods 

      • Belief of product exchange replacing monetary exchange after the NEP abolishment and enthusiasm would incentivize workers instead of piece rates 

      • Imbalance created in favor of heavy industry to the detriment of consumer goods, houses and wages 

    • Second (1933-37) 

      • Emphasis still on heavy industry but now shifted to metallurgic resources 

      • Lead, zinc, nickel and tin 

      • Emphasis on railway transportation, communications and investment into armaments 

      • Attempted to address problems of lack of support for consumer goods, houses and wages 

      • Overall more successful than first 5 Year Plan 

      • Gains in machinery and metal works (from completion of earlier large scale projects), coal production and rail transport 

    • Third (1938-WWII) 

      • Ambitious goals for growth of 92% for industrial output, 58% for steel production, 129% in machinery and engineering 

      • WWII caused many revisions of goals and targets to compensate for the reduced workforce 

      • Mass arrests and executions in the Great Purges of 1930’s also caused further problems to actualization of the plan 

    • Results 

      • USSR became world’s third largest industrial output, behind US and Germany, 

      • Coal production increased by 350% 

      • Iron and steel by 400% 

      • Production of industrial goods increased by 2.6 times from 1928 to 1940 

      • Size of urban workforce increased to 32% of population 

  • Collectivization (1929) 

    • Circle of enemies, other nations but perceived political opponents of communism and Stalin, including other communists, Trotskyists, rapid industrialization but agricultural was not developing at the same pace 

    • How to further industrialize the country was to provide more food and produce to feed the people 

    • Bolsheviks agreed with policies but thought gradual shift may be more beneficial to not disrupt the current economy 

    • Introduction of Kolkhoz (Collective farms), policies of encouragement of increased agricultural output and reducing power of Kulaks (prosperous peasants) 

    • Farms of different families put together to work collectively, so less incentive for keeping wealth to themselves like during NEP days 

    • Kolkhozes formed from combining small individual farms together 

    • Sovkhoz, state-owned farm, formed from state-reserved land confiscated from larger estates and worked by landless rural residents 

    • Incentives for collective farming included salaries based on numbers of days worked, tractors and agricultural technology provided by the state, ideology of enthusiasm for socialism and the state with people willing to work for the state and work to get closer to socialism 

    • Forced collectivization, richer peasants were unlikely to work in kolkhoz, 25,000 Communists went into villages and forced people to collectivize and work land, threats of arrest and execution 

    • Introduced internal passports and documents needed to move around the country, to restrict movement of peasants away from working in kolkhoz 

    • Kulaks were wealthier peasants, remnants of capitalists from NEP days, most likely just wealthier farmers who had more land and more livestock 

    • Dekulakization = Goal to ‘liquify the kulaks as a social class’ 

    • Podkabluchnik/Podkulachnik = Political label for traitors of Soviet unions, supporters of kulaks 

    • Peasants resisted by killing their livestock to hinder agricultural output 

    • Massive famine and decline in agricultural output 

    • Holodomor (1932-33), ‘massive death of hunger,’ state was targeting bouts of Ukrainian nationalism, food was mainly given to industrial workers and not the majority peasants, from collectivization, land was being taken away that was given during Lenin’s agrarian reforms, peasants were revolting against collectivization by killing their livestock and not working their farms → Famine worst in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Mass migration to Poland, Stalin in turn forced many into the Gulag system 

  • Industrialization (see above)  


Politics: 

  • Stalin’s rise to power 

    • Stalin as General Secretary of State could appoint those who supported him to office and power within the Communist Party 

    • Originally not a good public speaker, staying under the radar during Lenin’s power 

    • After Lenin’s death in 1924, became more of a public speaker, using his close ties with Lenin in support of his campaign to succeed Lenin 

    • In Lenin’s Testament nearing his death, he had spoke ill of Stalin, Trotsky and many other Bolsheviks who all campaigned to succeed him as leader of the Communist Party 

    • Ideological struggle with Trotsky and fight for power 

    • Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev originally against Trotsky. Later formed an alliance with Trotsky against Stalin. Defeated by Stalin when Zinoviev and Kamenev were replaced by Molotov and Kirov (1925-26) 

    • (1928-29) When Stalin had been in power, his policies that he originally framed as extremely radical of Trotsky he had decided to implement that were very similar to the ideas Stalin chastised Trotsky for in the first place 

    • Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky against Stalin (Right wingers believed in gradual change to socialism from NEP, for peasants to garner wealth and food first after many famines under war communism) 

    • Stalin’s victory was through the ideology of ‘circle of enemies’ = Radical change is needed as Russia is surrounded by enemies, of communism and of the state, internationally, domestically and within the party 

    • Victory through control of the party 

    • Consolidated power as a sole dictator by the 1930’s 

  • Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin 

    • Trotsky 

      • Ethnic Jew 

      • Joined Bolsheviks while arrested during July Days (1917) 

      • Handled negotiations with Germany after signing an armistice during WWI, which eventually led to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 

      • Experienced military officer and influential Old Bolshevik 

      • Trotsky commanded the Red Army, very influential and powerful Old Bolshevik with close ties to Lenin and control over military force and transport lines to mobilize force 

      • Stalin and Trotsky ideological struggle (1924-27) 

      • Issue of NEP: Trotsky extreme radical Marxist and Old Bolshevik, pressed for the abolishment of the NEP immediately for its elements of capitalism. Stalin wished to continue NEP and wait for gradual change to socialism 

      • Modernization: Trotsky (radically) in favour of coercion, Stalin in favor of persuasion 

      • Trotsky supported permanent socialist revolution, socialism establishing itself through many proletariat revolts in many states, Stalin supported one stat Socialism 

      • Expelled from Politburo in 1926, 1927 expelled from Central Committee with Zinoviev, expelled from party on 10th anniversary of revolution 

      • Exiled to remote parts of Russia in 1928 

  • Structure of Communist Party 

    • Politburo, the highest and most authoritative members of the Communist Party 

    • Ministries/Commissariats 

    • Democratic Centralism = Political processes are decided by voting between party members and is binding on all party members, implemented by Lenin to prevent factionalism 

    • Structure parallel to Soviet government structure 

      • Sovnarkom (People’s Commissariat, the central executive seat of government authority) > Central Committee > Congress of Soviets > Provisional and city soviets > Local and district soviets 

      • Politburo (close group of principal leaders of the Communist Party) > Central Committee > Congress > Provincial and city states > Local parties

      • Several ministries with their own leaders that all answered to the Politburo who headed the Central Committee 

  • The Stalin Enrollment, 1931-34 

  • Between 1931 and 1934, Stalin brought a large number of skilled workers and industrial managers into the Communist Party, as a means of tightening the connection between the party and government and the people actually operating the first Five Year Plan 

  • However, these people went through an incredible rise in their careers owed to Stalin, and Stalin used this to further secure his position against anti-Stalinist elements in the party, encouraging loyalty to him and against anti-Stalinist threats for praise or promotion 

  • The early purges: 

    • Since 1932, Stalin had used purges as a means of consolidating and extending his authority, less violent than the great purges/great terror from 1936-38 

    • Public show trials meant to root out and eliminate saboteurs to the USSR’s industrial programme 

    • Party purges usually conducted by forcing CPSU members to turn in their party cards for checking, which would be kept away from them to stop them from participating in party activities without their cards 

    • 1932 Ryutin Affair - An attempt by Ryutin to remove Stalin from power, writing publications critical of Stalin, Ryutin and his supporters (Ryutinites) were defeated by a loyal Stalinist faction of the CPSU, arrested by the CPSU and later executed during the Great Purges 

  • Murder of Sergei Kirov: 

    • 1 Dec 1934, secretary of the Leningrad soviet, Kirov was shot and killed 

    • Kirov had been a highly popular figure and elected into the Politburo 

    • Kirov was likely the figure behind anti-Stalinist opposition would have rallied behind, likely NKVD involved 

    • Stalin quickly made a decree against terrorism, with head of NKVD Yagoda rounding up 3,000 suspected conspirators to be imprisoned or executed 

    • Vacant positions filled by Stalinist loyalists: 

      • Kirov’s post in Leningrad was filled by Andrei Zhdanov, a loyal Stalinist in 1935 

      • Equivalent position in Moscow was filled taken by Nikita Krushchev, another Stalin supporter 

      • Vyshinsky appointed as State Prosecutor 

      • Fellow Georgian, Lavrentiy Beria (and future head of NKVD) entrusted with state security in national minority areas of USSR 

      • Stalin’s personal secretary, Poskrebyshev, put in charge of the Secretariat 

  • The Great Terror/The Great Purges 

    • Political prisoners 

    • Extensive network of prisoner camps, horrible conditions and forced labour in Gulag system 

    • 1936 - Kamenev, Zinoviev and 14 other leading members of the Bolsheviks were tried and executed. Stalin and the NKVD would set up show trials, professing false confessions extracted from Bolsheviks who had been tortured or their families threatened and executed on charges (mostly suspicious) of treason, counter-revolution, sabotage, speculation, terrorism, etc… 

    • 1937 - 17 Bolsheviks denounced as ‘Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Centre’ and charged with spying for Germany, all but 3 were executed 

    • 1938 - Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky and twenty others branded ‘Trotskyist Rightists,’ publicly tried on accounts of sabotage, spying and planning to murder Stalin, all found guilty, Bukharin and Rykov executed, Tomsky committed suicide 

    • These Bolsheviks were indeed tortured and had their families threatened, but likely the reason for their false confessions, which would have been hard to extract on account of the resilient mentalities of these tough men, were acts of loyalty to the infallibility of the Party and Stalin. These extremely influential and powerful figures such as Kamenev and Zinoviev acting loyal to the Party and falsely admitting guilt led to many innocents being tried with false charges and pleading forgiveness from the Party 

    • Purge of Red Army, during Beria’s appointment as chief of NKVD, removing military officers who were becoming extremely powerful and influential, reminiscent of Trotsky, promotion of officers more loyal and easier to be controlled by Stalin

      • All 11 War Commissariats removed from office 

      • 3/5 Marshals of the Soviet Union were dismissed 

      • 91 of the 101-man Supreme military council were arrested and 80 executed 

      • 14/16 army commanders and nearly 2/3 of 280 divisional commanders removed 

      • Up to 35,000 commissioned officers shot 

      • Similar purges to navy and air force 

      • Military left seriously unmanned and in the hands of inexperience commanders and officers, which given Soviet Russia’s security needs, seemed the most irrational compared to purges of influential political figures and purges of the people 

  • The Gulag, an extensive network of prison and labour camps all across the USSR 

  • By 1941, estimated 8 million people in the Gulag 

  • Harsh conditions of cold winters, little food and rationing, insufficient clothing and warmth and shelter, forced labour, basically a death sentence 

  • 1/8 people in Stalin’s reign was arrested during the purges 

  • Prisons were made up of criminals but also political prisoners, tried and suspected, who were deemed to pose a threat to communist ideals or the soviet state 

  • 1937-38 became known as ‘Yezhovschina’ after the head of the NKVD then, Nikolai Yezhov, typified by extreme repression, NKVD entering localities and removing hundreds of people for execution  

  • The secret police system (Cheka → GPU → OGPU → NKVD) 

    • Cheka - All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Sabotage and Speculation 

GPU - State Political Directorate 

OGPU - Joint State Political Directorate 

NKVD - People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs 

  • Yagoda 

  • Yezhov 

    • Nikolai Yezhov, head of NKVD from 1936 to 1938 (during Great Terror) 

    • Known for incredibly cruel mass repression of people 

    • Yezhovshchina (Russian name for this period from 1936-38) 

    • Mass repression was so unpopular with people that Stalin blamed Yezhov for the incredible extent of the purges and removed him from power as head of the NKVD 

    • Yezhov had previously been associated with helping soviet officials escape the purges (including one who defected to the Japanese’s side) and had Stalin’s trust in him quickly deteriorate 

    • Executed by NKVD in 1940 along with 300 more people named enemies of the state 

  • Beria

    • Joined Cheka in 1921, became leader of OGPU in Georgia and Transcaucasian states 

    • Met Stalin in 1931, where he quickly gained his trust and respect 

    • During Great Purges, assassinated Khaljian, chief of OGPU in Armenia and poisoned Lakoba of Abkhazia 

    • Appointed director of NKVD in 1938, until 1946. 

    • ‘Liberal start’ of his length as director, freeing 100,000 prisoners and blaming the previous harshness of the purges during Yezhov’s appointment on Yezhov entirely and not the state 

    • Beria matched, Yezhov’s cruelty in some ways, appointing and promoting officers known for brutality and use of torture to gain false confessions from political prisoners 

    • 1940, over 300 people executed, including former head of NKVD, Yezhov 

    • Katyn Massacre (Mar 1940) - 22,00 Polish POWs executed by suggestion of Beria, included defeated military officers, intelligentsia, priests, all either politically or ideologically a threat to the Soviet 

    • Use of prisoners in wartime production, assigned head of plane construction along with Grigory Malenkov, use of gulag prisoners in nuclear testing 

    • Massive sexual predator, serial rapist and used NKVD to arrest and execute women 

    • Succeeded by Sergei Kruglov as head of NKVD in 1946 

    • Tried to succeed Stalin as sole dictator due to his connections with the secret police force but arrested on charges of treason, terrorism, counter revolutionary activities, etc… by Malenkov, Molotov and Kamenev 

    • Executed via gunshot, pleading and begging, on 23 Dec 1953 

  • Kruglov (1946-) 


Culture: 

  • Liberalism and flourish of art after revolution 

  • Conservatism during Stalin’s rule: 

  • Socialist realism 

    • Art and culture supposed to reflect and uphold the ideals of a socialist society 

    • In literature, writers had to follow guidelines that made their work acceptable to the party in terms of themes and presentation, written in a style that was digestible by workers and included characters and figures who could be seen as socialist role models or class enemies to socialism 

    • With theatre and film, the Union of Writers oversaw the organization of all other arts, making works produced keeping in line with Stalinist demands for socialist realism, abstract forms of art denounced and unsupported for not aligning with socialist realism, films and theatres banned and withdrawn for not representing socialist realism and Stalinist values 

    • Konsomol was a youth movement formed in Lenin’s time and made an official body in 1926 under the direct control of the Communist Party (CPSU), offered to ages 14 through 28 with another movement for those under 14, pledged loyalty to Stalin and the soviet state, grew quickly in popularity from 2 mil in 1927 to 10 mil in 1940, in part due to promise of full eventual membership in the CPSU

  • Women and sexual minorities 

    • Lenin had given women more rights to abortion, divorce, land ownership and higher education, including literacy, as well as sexual freedom 

    • Stalin tried to repeal the effect of Lenin’s liberalization of women from the effects of the social disharmony his actions were creating, so tried to establish women as child-bearers and caretakers to revert back to some social structure 

    • The right to abortion and divorce made much more difficult 

    • Financial incentives and social praise for mothers with many children 

    • Homosexuality was re-criminalizaled in 1933 after being decriminalized in 1917 

    • However, during WWII and the Great Patriotic War, due to industrial workers being sent to fight in war, there was another significant increase of women in the workforce 

    • By 1945, half of all Soviet workers were women, increasing to 15 mil from 9 mil since 1936, despite that pay rates for women decreased since 1930, talk of women’s progress under Stalinism showed exploitation of women 

  • National/ethnic minorities 

    • During Lenin’s time, the self determination of national minorities was decreed but Stalin feared that allowing minority rights for self determination and self authority would challenge central authority and the state government 

    • Mass deportation of people from their homelands to far regions of the USSR 

      • In 1940 (during WWII), takeover of Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia as well as Bessarabia and Bukovia led to 2 mil people deported and many dead 

      • In 1941, after German invasion and occupation, Stalin feared national minorities siding with the Germans so ordered a mass deportation of 4 million, with 1/3 dead, from the west to the east, including Ukrainians, Chechens, Crimean Tatars and Volga Germans 

      • By 1945, 20 mil Soviet people had been displaced 

  • Religion: 

    • Stalin, in congruence with Lenin, believed religion had no place in a communist society, with other worldly values detracting from the collective needs of the nation (socialist realism) 

    • 1928, campaign to close churches began, targeting the Russian Orthodox Church, exiling clergy members who resisted 

    • Destruction of churches and confiscation of icons and relics led to peasant revoluts in rural areas 

    • Response to religious resistance was to brand revolters as kulaks resisting against collectivization, and giving authority to seize property from kulaks 

    • This spurred extreme resentment towards Stalin that he halted the campaign but reopened it again during the Great Purges, by 1940, only 500 churches were open for worship in the Soviet Union, 1% of the number in 1917