Russian Dominance within the USSR
Russian Dominance within the USSR
The Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR) dominated the USSR, comprising over half of the population and about three-fourths of the territory.
Along with Ukraine and Belarus, the USSR had an overwhelmingly Russian and Slavic character.
Despite the formal claim that each Soviet republic was sovereign and had rights (e.g., to conduct its own foreign affairs), real political and economic authority was centralized in the hands of the Soviet central government.
Separatism and Centralized Control
Even though the Soviet government worked to suppress separatism, signs of it remained, especially in Ukraine.
During World War II, several autonomous areas were dissolved for alleged separatist activities or collaboration with German invaders.
By the late 1980s, it was clear that the Soviet Union could not prevent the disintegration of the multinational empire it had inherited from the tsars, which contributed to its eventual collapse in 1991.
State and Party Structure
The governance structure of the USSR and its component republics followed the pattern developed during the revolution, formalized in the 1924 and 1936 constitutions.
The principle of parallelism was adopted, in which two parallel structures existed:
State structures (e.g., government institutions).
Party structures (e.g., the Communist Party apparatus) that paralleled the state at every level.
This section emphasizes the dominance of Russia within the USSR, the challenges of separatism, especially in Ukraine, and the centralized control of both state and party governance despite the theoretical autonomy of the Soviet republics.
State and Party Relationship
Parallelism between the state and the Communist Party was a formal concept, but in practice, it was meaningless due to the interlocking nature of the two.
Soviets (councils) were the distinctive state institution where elections took place, progressing from local to national Soviets.
1924 Constitution allowed only "toilers" (workers) to vote, excluding bourgeois, traders, and priests.
1936 Constitution introduced more democratic features: direct elections to higher Soviets, secret ballots, and no class was excluded from voting. A bicameral parliament was also created.
Dominance of the Communist Party
Only one party was allowed – the Communist Party.
Non-party members could be elected to Soviets but had limited influence.
The Central Committee stood at the top of the party hierarchy, with its Politburo (Political Bureau) and General Secretary wielding immense power. The General Secretary, a position shaped by Stalin, controlled appointments and assignments throughout the system.
While a party congress was held every few years for debate, it mostly rubber-stamped policies decided by higher authorities.
Party Discipline and Control
The Communist Party operated with military-like discipline, using mechanisms like the secret police to enforce conformity, both within and outside the party.
By the late 1980s, party membership had grown significantly, from around 70,000 members during the revolution to about 19 million.
The party maintained its character of strict discipline, initially envisioned by Lenin, requiring members to unquestioningly follow orders and enforce policies.
Growth and Structure of the Party
The Leninist ideal of a disciplined, zealous party continued to dominate.
Cells or nuclei were established at every level of society: factories, mines, offices, universities, labor unions, and villages. These small groups of party members influenced local people, imparting Marxist-Leninist ideology.
Party members studied Marxism-Leninism, adopted dialectical materialism as a guiding philosophy, and were responsible for leading non-party members toward the realization of socialism.
This section highlights the centralized control of both the state and the party in the Soviet Union, with the Communist Party dominating every aspect of governance and society. The party's growth and the expansion of its ideology into every facet of Soviet life were key to maintaining control over the population.
The New Economic Policy (NEP)
NEP was introduced to revive the economy after war and revolution by allowing a mixed economy:
Private trading was permitted for profit, helping to restore trade between town and countryside.
Peasants were allowed to sell surplus farm products freely, and middlemen could buy and sell at market prices for profit.
The NEP favored kulaks (wealthier individualist farmers) and allowed some peasants to become wage-earning proletarians.
The rise of a new commercial class (neobourgeois) emerged, leading to a disparity with the classless society ideal.
While the NEP repaired war and revolution damage, by 1928 Russia's production of key commodities (grain, cotton, coal, oil) had only returned to pre-revolution levels (1913), far below its potential growth.
Social and Cultural Changes After the Revolution
Women's Rights:
The revolution aimed to abolish traditional gender hierarchies.
Women were granted equal voting rights, the right to divorce, and access to birth control and abortion (abortion legalized in 1920 but banned again in the 1930s-1940s).
Despite these reforms, the social and economic status of most women changed little, especially in rural areas.
Education improved for girls, particularly after the Civil War, offering them more opportunities.
Art, Literature, and Film
The Bolsheviks sought cultural transformation to complement political and economic revolution.
There was a campaign to improve literacy rates, as part of broader cultural reform.
Artists and writers embraced the revolution, seeing it as a rejection of traditional ideas and forms.
Sergei Eisenstein, a famous film director, used innovative techniques to portray political themes in revolutionary cinema. His 1925 film, Potemkin, about the 1905 Russian Revolution, is still regarded as one of the most innovative films in cinematic history.
Avant-garde art and futurist movements aligned themselves with the socialist revolution.
Vladimir Mayakovsky, a young poet, wrote revolutionary works like the famous "Ode to Revolution".
This section highlights the NEP's role in rebuilding the Soviet economy, the revolution's impact on women's rights, and the major cultural changes in the fields of art, literature, and film. The Soviet Union aimed to transform both societal norms and artistic expression to reflect revolutionary ideals.
Notes on the USSR and the Stalinist Era:
Cultural Shifts and "Socialist Realism"
Vladimir Mayakovsky, a famous Russian poet, experimented with a new poetic language during the revolutionary period.
Mayakovsky later fell into despair and committed suicide as Stalinist social control began to dominate.
By the late 1920s, the era of experimental art ended, giving way to the rigid cultural orthodoxy of socialist realism.
Art and literature became controlled by the Communist Party, and the avant-garde was replaced with idealized portrayals of industrial life, such as factories and tractors.
The Death of Lenin and the Rise of Stalin
Lenin died in 1924, at the age of 54, after suffering a series of strokes.
His body was embalmed and displayed in the Kremlin, and Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor.
Lenin became a deified figure, equal in status to Marx, around whom a leader cult formed.
Despite this posthumous reverence, Lenin had been subject to disagreements within the party during his lifetime.
Power Struggles After Lenin
After Lenin’s death, his Old Bolshevik comrades feuded over the future of the party and the revolution.
They debated whether Lenin intended for the New Economic Policy (NEP) to be permanent, as advocated by Bukharin.
Meanwhile, Joseph Stalin—who Lenin had previously warned against—quietly consolidated party control through his position as general secretary.
Trotsky’s Opposition to Stalin
Leon Trotsky, a key revolutionary figure and war commissar, became Stalin's most vocal opponent.
Trotsky advocated for "permanent revolution," calling for a continual global push for proletarian revolution.
He was critical of the NEP, which he saw as overly tolerant of bourgeois elements like the kulaks.
Trotsky condemned the bureaucratic ossification within the party and called for the collectivization of agriculture and the rapid development of industry.
His vision was for an overall economic plan with central control of the country's economic life.
Stalin’s Triumph and Trotsky’s Exile
Trotsky failed to gain support within the Communist Party.
In 1927, at a party congress, 95% of delegates supported Stalin, while fewer than 5% supported Trotsky.
Trotsky was charged with leftist deviationism and incitement against the party, leading to his exile to Siberia and later banishment from the USSR.
Communism vs. Socialism
For Soviet communists, communism and socialism were seen as interchangeable terms.
They regarded Soviet socialism as the true path to communism, and all other forms of socialism as opportunistic or reactionary.
Communism was envisioned as a future state of society, with Soviet socialism seen as the intermediate stage toward achieving it.
Notes on the Russian Revolution, Stalin, and the Five-Year Plans:
Trotsky's Exile and Death
Leon Trotsky continued his campaign for permanent revolution after being exiled, criticizing Stalinism as a betrayal of Marxism-Leninism.
He lived in Turkey, France, and Mexico, continuing to write and organize against Stalin.
Trotsky was murdered in Mexico in 1940, likely by a Soviet agent. His legacy was suppressed in the USSR until the late 1980s.
Stalin's Five-Year Plans
After Trotsky's expulsion, Stalin and the Communist Party appropriated aspects of Trotsky's program.
In 1928, the party launched the First Five-Year Plan, focusing on rapid industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture.
Central planning of the economy became a defining feature of Soviet economics, influencing the world.
Challenges of Implementing Marxism
Initially, the Bolsheviks had no clear economic plan after seizing power because Marxism did not offer detailed guidance for governing after the class war was won.
Marxism primarily focused on the analysis of bourgeois society and class struggle but offered vague concepts about the future society, such as the social ownership of production and the elimination of class exploitation.
This left the Bolsheviks uncertain about how to run a modern industrial economy after the revolution.
Engels' Vision of a Centralized Economy
Friedrich Engels had provided a framework, observing that individual capitalist enterprises had internal harmony and order, while competition existed between different enterprises.
Engels argued that large capitalist mergers and trusts had already begun reducing competition, and planning was enlarging.
He proposed that the entire economic life of a country could be treated as a single factory or monopoly, with centralized, coordinated management.
Economic Planning Inspired by Wartime Conditions
During World War I, belligerent countries adopted centralized controls not for socialist reasons but to achieve a common goal: victory in war.
This created the first practical (though incomplete) appearance of a planned society, which would later inspire Soviet economic planning under Stalin.