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47 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Lenin |
Leader of the Bolshevik party and head of the October revolution 1917, he died in 1924. |
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Power Struggle: Stage One |
Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev created a triumvirate or troika against Trotsky. Their aims were to ensure that Trotsky was unable to take hold of the power of the party and destroy his influence. |
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Lenin's Testament (part 1) |
Lenin's testament had called for Stalin to be sacked from the party because of his rudeness and lack of tolerance. Without Stalin the Troika wouldn't get a majority and would therefore lose to Trotsky. Zinoviev and Kamenev argued to keep Stalin in the party to the Central Committee. They claimed that Stalin had 'changed' and that there was no need to sack him - this was accepted. |
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Lenin's Testament (part 2) |
Secondly, the Central Committee agreed to keep the Testament secret as it was critical of many communist party members - this meant that Trotsky had lost his early advantage as Lenin was very found of him in his Testament |
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Stalin as General Secretary in the fight for power |
Stalin drew up lists of candidates to be sent to the Party Congress, this was an advantage for Stalin because, the Party Congress elected the Central Committee, which elected the Politburo - this meant that Stalin could essentially get laws passed in his favour. |
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Trotsky's isolation |
Due to poor health Trotsky neglected his powerful position in the Politburo, missing important meetings and thereby excluding himself from significant discussions. |
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Undercutting Trotsky's influence |
1. Lenin's funeral - Trotsky did not attend, Stalin capitalised upon this and made out that Trotsky was disloyal. 2. Lessons of October - Trotsky's book about the Revolution in 1917 was criticised for emphasising his role over Lenin's. 3. 'Trotskyism' - was seen as incompatible to Leninism --> Trotsky and the left opposition were defeated at the Thirteenth party conference in 1924 and Trotsky was condemned for forming a faction against the command of Lenin. |
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Socialism in One Country |
A new theory Stalin was adopting that caused the Troika to split. It involved a self sustaining Russia that did not need to depend on any other countries. |
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Power Struggle: Stage Two |
Stalin and Bukharin formed a Duumvirate against the left of the party. Stalin was in control of the party machine while Bukharin was seen as the party theorist and controlled the soviet media - together they controlled the most important aspects of the soviet politics. |
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NEP: New Economic Policy |
'Limited Capitalism' through allowing the peasants to keep some of their profit to create a free market. |
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Duumvirate vs the New Opposition |
Zinoviev and Kamenev (no longer fearing Trotsky) switched from supporting the NEP to demanding Rapid Industrialisation. In the debate of the Fourteenth Party Conference Stalin and Bukharin proved to be stronger than Zinoviev and Kamenev - Duumvirate gained 559 votes, Z&K 65 - which may be down to Stalin's influence in the party. |
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Consequences |
Zinoviev and Kamenev's positions in the party were weakened, they were stripped from their powerful positions and both were not re-elected into the Politburo. Trotsky (even though he wasn't involved in the conference) in 1925 was stripped of his title as head of the Red Army. |
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Trotsky Returns |
Zinoviev and Kamenev began an alliance with Trotsky and were united in rejecting 'Socialism in One Country'. However, at the Fifteenth Party Conference Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev were expelled from the party and removed as opposition.
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Power Struggle: Stage Three |
The last stage of the power struggle involved a contest between Stalin and Bukharin - now that the NEP began to fail Stalin decided to advocate Rapid Industrialisation. |
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Ideological Battle |
Due to the failure of the NEP Bukharin's theoretical prestige began to diminish, on the other hand, Stalin's began to flourish. |
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Conclusion |
Stalin won the contest for power over Bukharin in 1929. Bukharin was forced to admit his 'political error' and was made to see the necessity of rapid industrialisation and collectivisation. |
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Collectivisation - What is it? |
Stalin planned to merge all the small farms into 'collective' farms meaning that all labour and resources would be pooled which would help it run more efficiently. |
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Economic Factors |
The harvests of 1927, 1928 and 1929 were all much poorer than the record grain harvest of 77 tonnes in 1926. The standard of living among urban workers declined and the lack of soviet production also affected the government - they had been selling grain surpluses abroad in order to gain foreign currency to provide resources for industrialisation. |
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The Grain Procurement Crisis, 1927-1929 |
It acted as a catalyst that ended the NEP and kick started a new era of collectivisation. Poor harvests from 1927 onwards forced the price of grain upwards, the richer peasants (kulaks) started to with hold the grain in order to push the price up further. The 'Kulak grain strike' was used as an excuse to revive the policy of grain requestioning. The strike highlighted how easily the peasants could hold the government ransom. |
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Emergency Measures |
In the winter of 1928-29 Stalin re-introduced rationing. Secondly, at the end of 1928, the state resumed grain requestioning and made grain hoarding punishable - Stalin would reward the peasants that informed the government about their richer neighbours by giving them land once owned by the Kulaks. In 1929 Kulaks could be sent to labour camps for up to 2 years for 'failure to carry out general state instructions'. |
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Liquidation of the Kulaks |
Stalin sent out the instruction to 'liquidate the kulaks as a class' in 1929. 'Dekulakisation' marked the end of capitalism and independent farming in the countryside and secondly, it would increase the speed of collectivisation. Many peasants believed that collectivisation posed as a financial loss and chose to destroy grain and livestock instead of surrendering it to the collective farms. 18 million horses and 100 million sheep and goats were destroyed between 1929 and 1933. |
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'Dizzy with Success' |
The majority of kulaks and their families were either shot or herded into cattle trucks and exiled to Siberia during the first wave of collectivisation. It also resulted in chaos in the agricultural economy, the economic and political reality of collectivisation caused Stalin to call a halt the process in 1930. |
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Famine |
Pressure to collectivise resumed in 1931, the result of the second wave was a famine - however, it was caused by government policy rather than natural disaster. In 1931, the government issued highly unrealistic targets to the farmers, failure to meet these targets was considered a sabotage and would be punished. When the framers failed to meet their targets meant that the Red Army and the secret police would requestion the grain (all of it). Stalin set up military checkpoints to stop food entering Ukraine. |
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Consequences of Collectivisation |
It had a devastating effect on the Russian peasantry. Around 10,000,000 people were exiled as part of the dekulakisation drive - in some cases 10% of the peasants in a single village were exiled. The remaining peasants endured enormous hardship, they were still forced to meet targets and were paid little for the crops they produced. Collectivisation created anger and resentment towards the government which inevitably failed to raise agricultural production - the most hard working peasants were exiled. The harvest of 1933 was 9 million tonnes less than that of 1926. |
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Industrialisation and Urbanisation |
1. Although the amount of grain produced fell, the amount procured and exported by the state increased. 2. The standard of living for urban workers decreased as their wages fell by half between 1928 and 1932. |
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Five Year Plans: First 1928-1932 |
The first five year plan was a series of targets drawn up by 'Gosplan', a company that set targets for every, factory, workshop, mill, mine in Russia.
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Successes of the First Five Year Plan |
1. Increased Production - caused the Russian economy to grow at around 14% a year. Iron: 1928-3.3, 1932-6.2 (million tonnes) Steel: 1928-4.0, 1932-5.9 " Coal: 1928-35.4, 1932-64.3 " Oil: 1928-11.7, 1932-21.4 "
2. Social Mobility - The urban population trebled as peasants moved into the cities to find jobs.
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Failures of the First Five Year Plan |
1. Meeting Targets - official targets were never met. 2. Living and working conditions decreased 3. Abolition of the free market |
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Magnitogorsk |
Stalin's planners aimed to build a steel-works and an entire city from scratch, in an area in Russia rich with iron ore. 1/4 of a million workers were transported to the 'magnetic mountain' and were instructed to create Russia's largest steel factory. When workers arrived they found few houses built so they had to live in mud huts, wooden shacks and tents. But, they did manage to turn into one of Russia's major industrial centres. |
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Five Year Plans: Second 1933-1938 |
The targets were much more realistic than the first five year plan. From 1934 to 1936, more effort was made to improve living standards, however, in response to German Rearmament, military spending replaced any focus on consumer goods. |
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Reasons for changing priorities |
1. A moderate group of Party leaders 'led' by Kirov, argued for a change of focus from within the Politburo, these moderates argued for a better standard of living for industrial workers. 2. They also argued for a more conciliatory approach to Russia's peasants - they would need them if they were to go to war with Germany. |
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Stakhanovite movement |
This was a new propaganda campaign that would appeal to the Soviet workers whilst offering incentives for worker who exceeded their quotas. The government created the persona 'Alexei Stakhanov' - an over achieving worker that exceeded his quota and was rewarded with 200 roubles, a new apartment, tickets to cinemas, clubs and holiday resorts. This was deliberately planned by the government to put an emphasis on labour producivity. |
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Successes of the Second Five Year Plan |
1. 'over-fulfilled' by 3% 2. The output of steel trebled 3. Moscow Metro opened in 1935 4. Moscow-Volga Canal completed between 1932 and 1937 - allowed transportation of large quantities of material throughout western Russia 5. In early 1934, bread rationing was ended and meat and butter soon followed |
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Failures of the Second Five Year Plan |
1. Poor coordination between the different branches of industry 2. Fear of execution or exile meant that nobody was prepared to report errors or suggest targets were unattainable. 3. Shortages of essential items for Russia's citizens 4. Housing failed to improve 5. Social Inequalities |
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Five Year Plans: Third 1938-1941 |
1. Rearmament - continued from the Second five year plan, by 1940 a third of government investment went into the armed forces. 2. Military technology - in 1939 Gosplan ordered the construction of 9 new aircraft factories. 3. Heavy Industry - Coal production leapt from 128 million tonnes in 1937 to 166 million tonnes in 1940. 4. Worker Discipline - 'internal passports' were created in 1940 to restrict the ability of workers to move from job to job and therefore ensured that factories were guaranteed a stable supply of labour. |
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Problems in the implementation of the Third Five-Year Plan |
The purges that were going on during this time resulted in the removal and execution of many experienced managers, leading to a return to the planning chaos similar to the First Plan. Other problems were created by the removal of the 'moderate' group led by Kirov in 1936 - in their absence, the inefficiencies of the Third Plan continued and Stalin resorted to Terror to motivate managers and workers to meet their targets. |
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The 'Great Retreat' - women |
In the 1930s the Zhenotdel (women's branch of the central committee) was closed down as the communist party believed that equality had been achieved. However, the party still asserted gender roles and didn't really pay attention to the roles of women. |
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'Making money' - Industry |
• At the beginning of the first five year plan only 3 million women were employed, by 1940 41% of workers in heavy industry were women • In some cities women accounted for almost half of the work force • This was recognised by the Soviet authorities as an important contribution to Russia's industry and therefore, increased the allocation of places in higher or technical education available to women. • however, the authorities continued to pay women less than their male counterparts - the income of women was 60-65% of the income of men doing the same job |
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'Making Money' - Agricultural |
• by 1945 80% of workers on collective farms were women • the most celebrated stakhanovites were both female |
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'Making babies' |
• decline of the birth rate due to the trauma of industrialisation and collectivisation • Rewards were given to mothers who had large families - women who had more than 6 children qualified for state help - mothers with 7 children received 2,000 roubles a year for five years ( for women with 11 children it rose to 5,000) • the reward system was a success - the Moscow registry office received 4,000 applicants for support within the first moth • In 1936, the soviet authorities discouraged abortion - the new law banned terminations except where they were necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman • doctors who performed abortions on 'undeserving' women could be sentenced to 2 years imprisonment |
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Making Homes |
• as well working on collective farms or soviet industry, women were responsible for housework • wives of party officials were expected to manage a 'well-ordered Communist home' • ^ they were also expected to be involved in the 'wife activists' movement - it organise nurseries and activities for ill children, setting up schools and supervised factory canteens, as well as charitable work |
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The Great Retreat - family life |
• the family was seen as the 'primary cell of our society' • working class described as one big family • Stalin portrayed as 'father' of the soviet people • Stalin seen as a family man - he visited his mother in Tblisi and was highly publicised - Soviet magazines published the first photographs of Stalin and his children • propaganda in the second half of the 1930s emphasised men undermining the family • posters and films showed men as responsible for family break up, the neglect of children and for abandoning their wives • women were depicted as responsible, noble, self-sacrificing and the essential source of strength within the family |
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Marriage |
• wedding rings (which were banned in 1928) were reintroduced in 1936 • marriage certificates started being printed on high quality paper • party members that were married were given more spacious accommodation and their own holiday home in the country, they were also encouraged to to take family holidays in party holiday resorts • communist husbands were expelled from the party for having affairs • the 1937 census showed that 91% of men and 82% of women aged 30-39 were married |
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Sex under Stalin |
• in 1934, the government launched a campaign aimed at young people promoting sexual abstinence - there was police action against young women who had an 'immoral appearance' • 'medical virginity checks' on young women were carried out • incest, bigamy, adultery and male homosexuality were re-criminalised in 1936 • under the five year plans gosplan assigned no resources to the production of contraception aids • all sale of birth control resources ended in 1936 |
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Divorce and family break-up |
• In 1936, new divorce laws were introduced which made it harder to get one • the cost of your first divorce was a weeks wages and it rose after that • men were expected to pay 1/3 of their earnings to support their child or 60% if they had two or three - the penalty for failing to meet these obligations was 2 years in prison • some local parties were prepared to track down absconding husbands and force them to make regular payments to support their ex-wives and children • The soviet press hounded men who had deserted their wives |
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Education under Stalin - raising good citizens |
• Stalin argued that discipline was essential for young people • 'respect and love your parents' • Pavlik Morozov became the soviet government's example of a perfect child • He was supposedly killed by a Kulak ages 14 and was described as a hard-working and obedient school child |
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Formal Education |
• Under Stalin the history of social classes was replaced with the histories of Great Russians • the 1935 curriculum also set out an series of core subjects such as reading, writing, communist ideology and science • homework was to be set regularly and examinations were introduced • school discipline was designed to prepare children for the harsh regulation of the workplace under the five year plans |
