Stalinism (presentations)

Collectivisation

  • Revolution from above: radical changes started by a country’s leadership rather than the people

  • Stalin did this by rapidly industrialising the Soviet Union

  • Collectivisation: establishing governmental control over agriculture to free up manpower for industrialisation - made farms produce food for the state rather than private ownership

  • Stalin did this to boost productivity and further industrialise the USSR

  • The USSR desperately needed economic and industrial growth as a superpower in the world, but the only usable resource they had was land for agriculture

  • Peasants were forced to produce enough surplus food to sell abroad and gain economic capital

  • This required highly efficient farming, which (theoretically) required cooperation - led to a new farming style

    • Kolkhozy (collective farms)

    • Sovkozy (state farms), recieved a salary from the state

  • Peasants resisted collectivisation to keep their own grain and produce for themselves

  • Kulaks: wealthier peasants labelled as “class enemies” due to their so-called “opposition to socialism”

    • Kulaks were targeted with: expropriation, deportation, execution

  • Stalin cracked down on this in a number of ways, including:

    • Propaganda campaigns, state repression, economic pressures in the form of heavy taxation for farmers who resisted joining collective farm

    • The threat of starvation

  • By 1935, over 90% of peasants were collectivised

  • By the 1930’s, mass starvation had started (Stalin blamed this on local officials for distributing food poorly and giving peasants small plots of land to preserve hope)

  • Party workers were sent out to assist with restoring food production, which was ineffective as they did not have any farming experience

  • Many peasants migrated to Poland and Romania

  • Natiowide famine peaked from 1932-1933

  • Holodomor - Ukraine: man-made famine orchestrated by Stalin as he feared Ukraine’s growing autonomy

  • Between 3.5 and 7 million people died due to this famine

  • It was prohibited to discuss this famine until the 1980’s

  • Results: by 1939, the productivity barely reached that of tsarist Russia, 10-15 million peasants died, the land crisis was solved due to death and migration which was seen as a success

  • It was rumored that Stalin’s 2nd wife comitted suicide because of the guilt

Social Policy

  • Religion was suppressed: churches shut down, clergy arrested. By 1940, only 500 churches remained. Anti-religious propaganda and museums were widespread

  • Stalin’s educational reform incresed literacy rates from 56.6% (1926) to 75% (1937)

  • The new curriculum glorified Marxism, the Russian language, and Soviet history

  • Stalin implemented state control over science, where science became tied with the state, the socialist ideology and the working class. By doing this, he rewrote scientific authority and used “science” to support his regime and spread propaganda

  • The uprising of divorce: after the October revolution, under Lenin, feminism was on the rise (hopes for the liberation of women, gender equality was one of the key principles of communism)

    • This led to the highest divorce rates in Europe (1 in 2), which left a lot of orphans and children living in complex homes

  • The great retreat: (1936) Stalin brought back traditional family values and stressed the value of stable households and women as homemakers - this was also emphasised by propaganda - “The Housewife Movement”

    • Pronatalism: policy advocating for high birth rates

  • Bolsheviks supported feminism until it began to threaten them politically, and Stalin ended up reversing most of the Bolsheviks’ attempts to liberate women

  • Stalin based his view on women on factors such as: socioeconomic class, ideology, etc.

Foreign Policy and WWII

  • Stalin resolutely refused to accept Nazi Germany as a military threat, despite being informed to the contrary

  • After the Nazi invasion of the USSR, Stalin retreated into a temporary self-imposed exile and left the country to be invaded

    • As an authoritarian leader, he had full control over all military action

  • Many Soviet citizens welcomed and even helped Nazi soldiers, seeing them as a liberation from the oppressive and tiring Stalinist regime

    • Stalin combatted this with propaganda, guerilla warfare, and “scorched earth tactics”

  • Battle of Stalingrad: 1942-1943

    • Stalingrad had no strategic value, but held symbolic value so both Hitler and Stalin insisted on being able to claim it

    • Germany lost 200,000 soldiers and finally lost Stalingrad

  • Battle of Kursk: 1943

    • Largest tank battle in history

    • Initiated by Germany to regain status after losing Stalingrad

  • Following WWII, Stalin was portrayed as “the nation’s saviour”