Russian Dictatorships 1855-1955

Joseph Stalin

Stalin’s accession to power

• Key to rise to power was his post as General Secretary of the Communist Party

• As Party grew in size and influence Stalin’s own influence grew

• Lenin warned Party of Stalin’s ambitions

Power Struggle

• Leon Trotsky was Stalin’s main rival

• Stalin allied himself with the Right to attack Trotsky

• Programme of ‘Socialism in One Country’ seemed to offer stability

Victory goes to Stalin

• Using support of Bukharin Stalin removed Trotsky from power

• The Right believed that the NEP would continue

• After a food shortage grain was seized (again!)

The drive to industrialise

• “We are 50 to 100 years behind the advanced countries

• We must make good this lag in ten years.

• Either we do it or they crush us…”

• Stalin planned to replace the NEP by the 5 year Plans

The Five Year Plans

• Not a general programme • A Law which laid down rate of increase

for industry and agriculture 1928-32• Emphasis to be on heavy industry & fuel

supplies• Target was 300% for industry• Industries producing consumer goods to

develop more slowly

Industrial Expansion

• A new iron & steel works grew up in the Urals

• Europe’s largest hydro-electric plant was built

• New tractor and car plants built

The 1st, 2nd & 3rd Plans

• First Plan focused on industrial expansion• Second and Third Plans stressed transport• As a result 100,000 miles of air lines, roads and

waterways were built• Old towns were enlarged and new ones created• Overall industrial output increased by 400% from

1914

Goods 1913 1928 1940

Pig iron 4.2 mill tons 3.3 mill tons 15.0 mill tons

Steel 4.2 mill tons 4.3 mill tons 18.3 mill tons

Coal 29.1 mill tons 35.5 mill tons 166 mill tons

Oil 9.2 mill tons 11.7 mill tons 31 mill tons

Cement 1.5 mill tons 1.8 mill tons 5.8 mill tons

Grain 81 mill tons 73 mill tons 95.5 mill tons

Tractors 0 700 31,000

Motor vehicles 0 700 145,000

 

Cost to the workers

• Targets set by Gosplan

• Workers book system restored

• Conditions of service got worse

• ‘From each according to his means,to each according to his needs’

• Some workers rewarded more than others

Stakhanovites

• Alexis Stakhanov produced record amount of coal

• Became figure head of Stakhanovite movement

• Awarded Hero of the Soviet Union

Conditions for the workers

• For majority of workers conditions worsened

• Food and goods in short supply• Anyone who criticised the Party could be

arrested for sabotage• Those arrested faced show trials• Many shot, thousands of others sent to

work camps

Collectivisation (1)

• Money needed to finance industrial expansion - Peasants were only real source

• Growing number of workers needed cheap food

• Peasants needed as labour

• Only one solution for Stalin- peasants must be moved to collective farms

Collectivisation (2)

• Stalin hoped peasants would support policy – tried to blame Kulaks for problems

• Almost all peasants opposed – police and army units used force

• 1000s lost property and were exiled• Millions burned crops and killed animals• Chronic shortage of equipment delayed

increases in production

Collectivisation

“Peasants call for the expulsion of the Kulaks from the village”

At work in the Gulag

The Purges

• Criticism of Stalin’s policies growing in early 1930s

• Purges sparked by Kirov’s death in 1934• ‘Old Bolsheviks’ found guilty by public

show trials• One fifth Red Army officers liquidated• Stalin’s men replaced those killed in the

terror

Russia and Europe

• Stalin underestimated threat posed by Hitler – KPD opposed SPD in elections

• Russia joined League in 1934 – western governments did not trust Communists

• USSR supported Republicans in Spanish Civil War

• Stalin began negotiations with Germany – Nazi-Soviet Pact (August 1939)

War!

• June 22nd 1941 Germany attacked the USSR

• Russia suffered huge losses from the ‘Blitzkrieg’

• Poor treatment by German troops cost them support

The Great Fatherland War

• Stalin took charge of the war

• 1,500 factories were moved to the East

• Surrender was not an option for Russian soldiers

• Moscow, Stalingrad and Leningrad were besieged

• ‘General Winter’ helped to turn the tide

Victory in the East!

• The Germans could not afford to lose the men and equipment at the same rate

• As the Germans retreated Russian forces ‘liberated’ Eastern Europe

• At Yalta Churchill & Roosevelt gave in to Stalin’s demands

• By the time the war ended Russia was a ‘superpower’