Stalin and Early Soviet Union Years (C

Stalin and Early Soviet Union Years (c.1922-c.1940)

Stalin’s rise to power A. Took various office and bureaucratic jobs that other revolutionaries did not want Examples: 1. Peoples’ Commissar of Nationalities Affairs (1917-1923) 2. People's Commissar of Workers & Peasants Inspection (1919–1922) 3. Head of NKVD in 1917 B. Appointed Gen. Secretary of Central Committee (represented Bolshevik Party) on April 1922 1. Filled Politburo with his followers NOTE: Soviet governmental structure: a. Top: Politburo b. Middle: Central Committee c. Bottom: General Assembly 2. “Mouthpiece of Lenin” when Lenin becomes paralyzed from strokes

NOTE: “Trotsky versus Stalin” Trotsky ideas: a. Worldwide Communist revolution immediately!

Stalin ideas: a. Secure Communism in USSR first and make country powerful b. Believed in an inevitable coming of WW2 that would cause the capitalist countries to kill each other, allowing Soviets advance and begin the world revolution

3. Uses his political power to exile Trotsky and his supporters (c.1922- onward) a. Lenin’s death (1924): No aid for Trotsky in Kremlin, so Stalin took power and had him exiled b. Lenin’s Last Will and Testament: letter written by Lenin on his deathbed read by his wife to the Kremlin 1. basically stated that Stalin must be removed and Trotsky must be made Lenin’s successor (making Trotsky # 1 in the USSR) 2. Government by that point had many Stalin loyalists and many others did not trust Trotsky, so the letter was ignored (Traditional ideas of women as well: women still seen as second-class at this point in USSR, so many did not trust the wife’s motives)

Analysis: Stalin was an excellent organizer and manager of all the positions he was appointed head of. Because the Bolsheviks were revolutionaries, none of them wanted the jobs that Stalin had (they wanted to be out fighting and doing things “for the cause”). Stalin used each one of these positions to advance his own power by filling all the subordinate positions with his own loyalists, all the while managing the job very well. When he performed the jobs well, he appeared to be very loyal to Lenin, causing him to gain more important responsibilities, eventually becoming the head of the Communist Party as General Secretary. This all plays into Gaddis’ main argument, Stalin made sure that his own power base was secure before focusing on anything else, including the well- being of the country or others. The Twenty-Third Congress ultimately votes against Trotsky in favor for Stalin because many of them saw Trotsky as a threat (very radical, very opinionated, loud, and control of the Red Army). They pick Stalin in the idea that he was he less of the two evils, as they did not know much about Stalin because he had always stayed in the dark behind the scenes (Stalin’s nickname was the Grey Blur in this period). They also saw Stalin as weaker and thus voted for him in the hopes that they would be able to advance their own power. These people would all be purged later as Stalin secures his absolute control in the country, living up to Gaddis’s idea by caring for himself and regime before all else.

Stalin’s ideology A. Gaddis (pg. 11): Himself, his regime, his country, his ideology in that order B. Devout communist of sorts a. Led to the abolishment of successful NEP program to begin process of collectivization (1928) b. Clear example of him before country, as it went against all logic (NEP was a success! Why stop it?) c. Problems in system blamed on “enemies of the state”, → purges → Stalin’s opposition gone → Stalin’s absolute rule in USSR

First Five Year Plan (1928-1934) A. Began in 1928 administered and run by Gosplan B. Began collectivization and industrialization of the USSR C. Main objective: make USSR a self-sustaining industrial power a. Reason for this: SURVIVAL!!! b. USSR 100 years behind the rest of the world and where surrounded by enemies D. Very ambitious goals were set; quotas on grain production nearly impossible E. Plan so successful in Stalin’s mind that it was made into Four Year Plan ending in 1932 F. Results: a. Led to Holodomor in Ukraine (1932-33) b. Liquidation of the kulaks (land owning farmers) c. damage to Soviet farms did not recover until post-WW2 era d. most land and housing was collectivized by 1932

Collectivization/ Industrialization of USSR A. End of NEP → NOTE: NEP established to replace war Communism a. Gave peasants land! IMPORTANT!!! b. Let peasants keep 10% surplus and sell it (incentive to grow more food) c. Production quickly reached and passed pre-WW1 levels (very successful) B. Administered by Gosplan in Moscow C. Objective: create grain surplus to sell abroad to receive machinery, engineers, and equipment to industrialize, especially steel mills Examples: White Sea Canal Kolyma Gulag Camp (raw minerals for industries)

D. Kulaks (land owning farmers) not happy to give up land as they had it given to them after Revolution as part of the NEP Kulak resistance→ slaughtering of animals and destruction of crops and equipment→ 2 million ton grain shortfall→ Stalin identifying them as enemies of the state→ the 25,000ers and NKVD taking all the grain to meet the quotas (out of fear of death if they do not meet them)→leaving farmers and peasants with nothing→ food shortages→ Holodomor (Ukrainian Famine 1932-33)→over 5 million dead

Analysis: The overall result of the first Five Year Plan, collectivization, and industrialization in the USSR in this time was a failure at a massive loss of life. However, Stalin allowed these programs and ideas to continue for several reasons. The first being that in Stalin’s mind, the programs were a success as industrialization was indeed accomplished in record time, making the USSR a great power in the world by 1931. For Stalin, this helped to secure his own regime and thus himself, all the while making his country more powerful in the eyes of the world. Stalin also gave the go-ahead for these plans for ideological reasons. Stalin, as a Communist, rightly saw the NEP as a threat because it allowed the peasants to make profit and own property, which is a capitalist idea. Also, Stalin believed that this industrialization would lead to the creation of an urban class to be the vanguard in the worldwide revolution. Stalin also used the NEP and collectivization to secretly gain more power for himself by having the members of the Party recorded voicing their support for the NEP, which he would use against them in the Purges, ultimately securing his dictatorial rule of the USSR.

E. Holodomor (1932-1933) Scared of going to Gulags so 25000ers lie to Gosplan-inflated numbers- take too much- leads to decrease in food for farmers b. Kulaks burn crops and kill livestock rather than give it up- leads to decrease in food c. 5 million Kulaks sent to Gulags for resistance- taking away best farmers- leads to decrease in production

a. Because of resistance to collectivization, crop yield down 32% by 1932 but grain and food need up 44% The 25000ers and managers of the farms feared for their lives if they did not meet the quotas, so they inflated the numbers sent to Gosplan and took every bit of grain produced, leaving nothing for the farmers b. led to a massive famine in Ukraine, N. Caucasus, and Siberia c. 25,000ers took all they could to meet the grain quotas set by Stalin d. kulaks sent to gulags or killed e. at least 5 million dead in the Ukraine alone F. Gulags The gulags of the USSR were initially instated as work camps for prisoners ranging from kulaks to political leaders. There were 4 sections of gulags. 1. The science testing facilities, where they forced scientists to work, 2. The human testing facilities, where they performed testing on humans, 3. The disabled facilities, where pregnant women and disabled went, 4. The work camps, where most were forced to grueling work

Such places as Kolyma were subject to some of the most brutal treatment of the workers. Millions died in camps such as these (life expectancy about 3 months)

They were located in Eastern Siberia where many of the camps were well within the Arctic Circle. The conditions were so poor; it was highly unlikely prisoners survived at all.

Analysis: Example of Stalin’s personality of himself first, then the rest: 1-2. Himself and regime- eliminates any potential threats Stalin sees by sending them to certain deaths in the gulags. 3. Country- Also allows for the USSR to receive the minerals and resources it needs to develop and become powerful. This would lead to the communist survival as well as strengthening Stalin’s regime by allowing the country to defend itself in the event of attack. 4. Ideology-remove the enemies of the state that are keeping everyone else back from being equal.

Great Purge/Terror (c.1934-c.1940) A. Large scale arrests and executions throughout the USSR B. Could be said to begin with the murder of Sergei Kirov in 1934 C. After this incident, Stalin acted as if this was a great tragedy to him and ordered the murderers to be found (the order to kill Kirov was from him most likely because of Kirov’s huge popularity in the Kremlin) D. The Terror spread to all parts of the country, beginning with Party members suspected of being against Stalin (Stalin acted as if Kirov had agreed with him on everything. (IDEA: if you didn’t support Kirov then you don’t support me, so you are gone…) E. Led to the arrest/execution of over a million Party members and another 7 million ordinary people F. Numbers: 1,710,000 people were arrested, 1,440,000 people were sentenced, and 724,000 people were executed. G. All a clear example of Gaddis’ basic analysis of Stalin. This was done not for the good of anyone but Stalin and his power. H. Led to an atmosphere of complete fear within the USSR keeping anyone, from politician to ordinary citizen, from even briefly thinking about trying to take on Stalin I. The Purges also included the liquidation of the majority Red Army officers: by 1940, the USSR was in a dire situation because of the poor quality of its military. There were almost no professional officers left alive, nearly all power was in the hands of Stalin’s political commissars. This would be the reason for the Nazis’ huge initial gains when they invade the Soviet Union in 1941; not until around mid-1943 would the Red Army officers have the more power than the commissars.

Analysis: the Great Purge can be seen as receiving its inspiration from the theory of French Revolution thinker Maximilian Robespierre, who stated that in order for the people to follow a cause, make them live in such an atmosphere of fear that no one would even think of challenging the leadership (being Stalin in USSR’s case). During the French Revolution, over 1200 people were killed on the guillotine. Stalin uses state- sponsored terror to completely secure his absolute control in the Soviet Union, satisfying the needs of himself and his regime. The massive loss of life does no good for the country as a whole, including damaging the Red Army almost to the point of collapse during the War.