Stalinist Russia

• Domestic Policies •Economic Policies

Did Stalin start something new or carry on what was

started by Lenin? Soviet Historiography:• Stalin ordered a compulsory History book to be published (1938) –

this claims Stalin has only done what Lenin intended. • Trotsky: Claiming that Stalin ruined the rev. allowing the

bureaucracy to grow stronger and taking power from the workers & ideals of rev.

• During Khrushchev (53-64): Stalin was to blame. Stalin is scapegoat for everything that went wrong.

• Brezhnev-Gorbachev (64-85): Brezhnev erased Stalin. • Gorbachev: ‘Back to Lenin’ – not just Stalin, whole period

regarded as a mistake. • Fall of Soviet Union: Historians criticise whole period.

Did Stalin start something new or carry on what was started by

Lenin? Western Historiography:• Reporters visited Stalin’s Russia; Seen as a great experiment.

Many Western communists saw the USSR as the Saviour against Hitler’s Germany.

COLD WAR LEADS TO NEW APPROACHLiberal School (post ‘45):• Focussed on Stalin’s personal desire for totalitarian state. Determinist School: • Criticises Liberal approach, arguing role of Stalin is less

important. Revisionist School: • Focussed on role played by the people of the Soviet Union. They

show that many supported Collectivisation.

How popular was Stalin?

Liberals: • Focus on negative side of Stalinism. Argue that

Stalin was v. unpopular. They focus on citizen’s lack of freedom.

Revisionists: • Stalin was popular among certain sectors of

society. Hanna Arendt’s ‘Origins of Totalitarianism’ points out that cruel dictators usually get support from many groups of society.

Personal Dictatorship • Control over the Communist

Party• Soviet Constitution of 1936

(known as the Stalin Constitution)- Redesigned the govt. of the Soviet Union.- Basically focused power in Stalin’s hands. Gave right to vote (but only for Communist Party )

• Use of Terror.

Control over Communist Party

• Power centralised in the hands of party leadership by Lenin

• Situation enhanced by Stalin in his role as General Secretary

• Seeds of Stalinism sown by Lenin…check out historiography for debate on this!

• Politburo witnessed removal of members and replaced by Stalin’s cronies.

• ALL PARTY AND STATE INSTITUTIONS REMAINED MECHANISMS FOR RUBBER-STAMPING DECISIONS MADE BY STALIN

1936 CONSTITUTION

• Appeared highly democratic• All citizens given the vote as classes no longer

existed• Civil Right provisions• Guarantee of employment

1936 CONSTITUTION

• Restrictions on rights• Only Communist Party members could stand

for election• Other political parties regarded as product of

class conflict that no longer existed• Constitution not taken seriously at home or

abroad• THE GREAT TERROR FOLLOWED IN 1937

Failure of Political Institutions

• Not caused by Stalin’s actions alone• Weak political bodies inherited from Lenin• Stalin simply continued to hold back decision-making

outside the leadership• By 1924 State organisations already subordinate to

Party• Election rigged by leadership• Institutions such as Politburo met less frequently as

Stalin increased his control – from once a week to 9 times a year by mid 1930s

USE OF TERROR• Terror was used to keep control over the Party• Opposition saw more than demotion• Local Party officials purged as well as former

leadership• Terrorists themselves kept in line• TERROR WAS AN INTEGRAL PART OF STALIN’S

METHOD OF CONTROL but not knew to the communist Party (but wrong to see it as direct continuation Of Lenin who used it when faced with counter-revolutionary threat)

• Stalin justified it because of threat from ‘class enemies’

GREAT TERROR• Launched when Party was secure indicating

Stalin was securing his own position ( so differing from Lenin again but Lenin made use of terror an acceptable policy)

• STALIN’S PERSONAL DICTATORSHIP NOT AN INEVITABLE DEVELOPMENT FROM LENINISM but trends under Lenin helped it to develop – growth of bureaucracy, failure of political institutions to develop, use of terror…

LIMITS TO STALIN’S POWER

• Limited ability of any individual to control all activity• (minor) Limitations from within leadership despite

presence of ‘yes’ men- Ryutin Affair,• Revising down of 2nd 5 Year Plan targets, Kuibyshev and

Ordzhonikidze opposition to brutality of regime• In carrying out Stalin’s will, party leaders developed

their own power base• LIMITS FROM BELOW- demands for rapid

industrialisation• Debate over Terror illustrates degree of control Stalin

had

DOMESTIC POLICIES

EDUCATION• Newspapers available at low prices• Newspapers provided to factory workers• Publishers printed the Russian classis and foreign

literature at low prices thus making books accessible to most people

• Youth groups such as Young Pioneers and Komosomols compulsory for students and future members of the party were drawn from these groups.

• Creation of stereotypical role models

RESULTS…

• 96% literacy for males in USSR by 1939• 82% literacy for females in 1939• Changes in the form and structure of schools• Emphasis on narrow specialist courses• Preferences to proletarian background was

withdrawn

Control of the Arts and Culture

• Media– Broadcasts– Films– Publications

RADIOSet up in every village , every hamlet across the country to hear the voice of Stalin“The Soviet Radio carries to the masses the inspired words of Bolshevik truth, aids the people in tis struggle for the full victory of Communism in our country, summons them to heroic deeds in the name of the further strengthening of the power of the economic and cultural prosperity of the USSR”

Cinema

Cinema

• Patriotic themes• End of experimentation that had been so

much a part of the Proletkult • References to historical past to create the

myth of the Soviet state• From 1930’s the tone was intensely patriotic

Socialist realism

• It was the new approved style for books ,creative art and media.

• The aim was to glorify the worker, the Stakhanovite, the Kolhozes: in short to show what it should be rather what it really was

RAPP and Union of Russian Writers

• Membership to RAPP was compulsory for writers

• Censorship of works by RAPP• Eventually RAPP disbanded because it was too

avant garde• Maxim Gorky came back to head RUW• Writers , composers artists were supposed to

toe the ideological line but what was it?

Face lift Projects• Moscow given a face lift• Tall gigantic buildings became the

norm an expression of the gigantomania that was so characteristic of Stalin’s economic policies

• Buildings : tall and soaring• Decorated with stained glass and

huge gigantic murals and themes that reflected Soviet socialist realism

• Metro, the Hermitage, Sports stadia all a part of the grand scheme

Impact on families and family life?

• Under Stalin there was a reversal of many of the policies that had been formulated under Lenin

• Why?– Part of the change was necessary because of the

huge disruptions caused by migration to cities or deportations of families to labour camps

– In some cases families left in the care of relatives or brought up on Collective farms

Family life• Life in the cities was harsh• Livng conditions claustrophobic• Housing shortage• Sharing of facilities• Enormous strain on family life• Abandonment of families was common• Rise of street gangs and juvenile crime a serious

problem• Hooliganism• Falling birth rate

Solutions• Death penalty for juvenile delinquents over the age

of 12• Juvenile delinquents to be held under state custody

and parents to pay for upkeep• Abortion illegal and doctors punished• Divorce very difficult• Homosexuality banned• Rewards to mothers for having numerous children • Childcare in factories to allow women to work

Five Year Plans• Private trades banned• Coal, Oil gas, engineering • GOSPLAN: State Planning Committee – Responsible for

economic planning. • Individual target setting for factories• New cities – Magnitogorsk• KOMSOMOL: Youth organisation – political organ for

spreading Communist teachings. • Gulag: Forced labour camps• Stakhanovites: Reward individuals’ achievements in

production.

Success?• Huge public work schemes• Education programme• Industrial output expanded• Russia survived WWII

Failure?• Human cost – 10 to 40

million deaths• Overcrowding in cities• Production focused on

heavy industry and military• Figures were unreliable • Quantity not quality • No criticism allowed

Collectivism• Small farms were joined together (Sovkhozes

and Kolkhozes) • To improve efficiency• Destroy Kulaks• Increase Stalin’s control of countryside• Increase grain productions to sell abroad for

foreign currencies.

Success?• By 1940, 99% of land

collectivised• Production did increase

(Wheat up 33%)• New modern equipment and

chemicals • Education programmes in

collectives• Red Army was fed up during

WWI• Kulaks were destroyed

Failure?• 1932-33 famine (5 million

dead)• Human cost – 10 million

peasants deported• Sovkhozes were a failure • Unpopular

For next week…• Read and prepare for discussion on Stalin’s purges. • 1st place to look? Information in the Advanced Higher

folder on pupil network. • Very basic website (starter):

http://www.johndclare.net/Russ12.htm• Better website (Yale University Press):

http://www.yale.edu/annals/siegelbaum/

I expect detail, historiography and for you to demonstrate an understanding of how you would use both in an essay & source answer!

Types of Questions

2012: Purges promotes by social & economic factors? 2011: Stalin’s industrialisation policy2010: Everyday life – source2009: Collectivisation 2009: Purges – source2008: Purges & terror2008: Stalin’s industrialisation 2007: 5 Year Plans2007: Stalin’s foreign policy post WWII2007: Stalinist State – source