How did Lenin impose Communist control in Russia

How did Lenin impose Communist control in Russia between 1917 -1924?

Consolidation of Power • • St. P only area of control, Moscow fighting for a week Nov. 12 Constituent Assy. (Shut down Jan 1918) Decree on Land – Redistribute land to Peasants Workers control of factories – Factory committees elected to run businesses – Decisions can be annulled b Trade Unions or Congresses – Means Bolsheviks really in control State Capitalism: State control not elected factory Committees Decree on Nationalities: Self Determination (false promise) Decree on Peace: Leave war immeadiately

The abandonment of the Constituent Assembly The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 1918 The Civil War 19181921 The execution of Tsar Nicholas II 1918 Factors that helped Lenin impose Communist control in Russia 1917 -1924. War Communism The Cheka Success of the New Economic Policy The Kronstadt Revolt 1921

Establishment of a Single Party State • 1921 Victory in RCW ends cooperation with Mensheviks and SR’s and they are banned again • Nationalities absorbed, not independent, forced to be Soviet Socialist republics (SSR’s) – Technically SSR’s on social issues but defense and Foreign Policy controlled by central gov’t • SET UP Parallel Gov’t of STATE and Party

Structure of the Single Party State • State Government • Local Soviets vote, only “toilers” • Elect Village/Town Soviets • Town Soviets Elect Provincial Soviet • Provincial chooses Republic Soviets • Repub chooses two houses – Soviet of Nationalities (Upper) – Soviet of the Union (Lower) • Two houses are SUPREME SOVIET • CPSU is parallel Government • City and Provincial Party members elect CPSU Party Congress • Party Membership rises from 70, 000 in 1917 to 2 mi. in 1930 • Congress selects General Secretary of Party and the Central Committee • CC appoints: – Politburo: Strategic Planning – Orgburo: Party operation at local level – Secretariat: Selects people for Party posts (Civil Service? ? )

Structure of the Single Party State • SUPREME SOVIET – Appoints the Central Executive Committee • CEC appoints council of 15 Commissars called the: • SOVNARKOM – They run gov’t day to day as a cabinet: Ministers of Defense, Industry, Foreign Affairs, Agriculture etc…. – Lower you go in Gov’t fewer Party members you find • Many are also members of SOVNARKOM • Technically Democratic • Reality: – P-buro dominates CC which dominates Party Congress

The Leninist State • Stalin uses the Leninist State to Seize Power • Characteristics – Single Party State • Claim to represent irresistible historical force of proletariat • All other parties banned • Top down leadership – Lenin says workers are not ready to lead they have “trade union consciousness (concerned only with work conditions) not “class consciousness” • Democratic Socialism – Idea is that once Politburo is appointed, debates an issue and votes on it, all opposition must cease, no more debate

The Leninist State • Single Party State (con’t) • Ban on Factionalism – Despite democratic centralism there is still much debate within the party up to 1921 – 1920 Party Congress the “Workers Opposition” group criticizes Party officials for top down style – 1921 20 th Party Congress passes The Resolution on Party Unity » This bans all factions » Workers opposition is purged and 150, 000 expelled from the party – Free speech has been censored

The Leninist State Characteristics • Bureaucratic – Despite communist ideology state grows larger it does not “wither away” – SOVNARKOM dominates from the top (it is of course dominated by the CPSU) – State ministries get bigger and bigger – Need more officials (bureaucrats), they control all elements of society – SOVNARKO dominant • • Lower levels have less and less influence Elections less and less frequent Congress and CEC lose control on SOVNARKOM Congress meets only a few days a year

The Leninist State Characteristics • Police State – Cheka later NKVD enormous power – Terror, torture supported by law – Create a network of informers – Internal and external espionage – Prison system including the Gulag • Trade Unions Destroyed – No alternative voices other than the Party are allowed – Trade unions are destroyed by Trotsky using the Military – Workers have no organizations to speak for them – State dictates their work rules and conditions

The Leninist State Characteristics • Law is politicized – Used for political control not justice – Political dissent becomes a criminal act – Court function is to promote Party and Revolution (Terror made legal) – Example is the “Show Trial” • Usually associated with purges of dissenters • Show trials used extensively by Stalin later on • Lenin purges Moscow Clergy Apr. 1922 and SR’s in June – – Publicly degraded at the trials Outcome decided before trials begn Terrorized and intimidated, mot confess as families often threatened Public worship prohibited, atheism promoted (no outside voices)

The Cheka (or secret police) In December 1917 Lenin set up a secret police force known as the Cheka agents spied on the Russian people in factories and villages. Anyone suspected of being anti-Communist could be arrested, tortured and executed without a trial. When opponents tried to assassinate Lenin in 1918, he launched the Red Terror campaign against his enemies. It is said that 50, 000 people were arrested and executed in this period.

• • • Lenin’s Single Party State Bureaucratic Police state Trade Unions crushed Politicized law Purges/Show Trials Concentration camps Prohibit public worship Foreign Policy Succession

The abandonment of the Constituent Assembly 1917 Straight after the October Revolution of 1917, Lenin promised to hold elections for a Parliament to be known as the Constituent Assembly. Lenin renamed the Bolshevik Party as the Communist Party in order to win wider support. However, the Communists only won 175 seats out of 700, not enough for a majority. Therefore Lenin shut down the Constituent Assembly after only one day! Lenin was not prepared to share power with anyone. This was the first step in setting up a Communist dictatorship.

Success of the New Economic Policy 1921 To regain popular support, Lenin relaxed War Communism with the New Economic Policy (NEP). Smaller industries were returned to private ownership and peasants could sell their surplus on the open market. This was a return to capitalism and competition. Lenin hoped that NEP would give Russia ‘a breathing space’ to get back on its feet. Most of the Communist Party saw the need for NEP, but some were against it. On the whole NEP was a success. But it did create some problems. Some peasants, the Kulaks, became rich, while ‘Nepmen’ or businessmen made a profit in the towns. Some saw NEP as a betrayal of communism and return to the old system.

Communist control of the USSR by 1924 • Leningrad • Moscow

When Lenin died in 1924, he had been very successful in imposing a communist dictatorship in Russia. He had defeated all of his opponents and established a strong communist government. As each of the areas formerly belonging to the Tsar came under communist control, they were turned into socialist republics. In 1923 these became the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). But, Lenin failed to provide a clear successor on his death. This led to four years of bitter struggle.

Who would succeed Lenin? OR Trotsky – Red Army Commander and Commisar of Foreign Affairs Stalin – Commisar for Nationalities

Stalin Aims, Ideology • Personal ascendency over the party/ cult of personality • Create a socialist economy • Make Russia a modern industrial state • Classless society/social reform • Maintain security of the USSR • Export socialist revolution • Monopoly of communist power & totalitarian state evolves into …?

Rise to Power • Various party positions • Key is Gen’l Secretary 1922 • Underestimated: The “Gray Blur” • Lenin Funeral • Suppression of Lenin’s Testament • Skillfull political operator – Zinoviev, Kamenev, Stalin “Troika” – Trotsky counter-attack “Bureaucratization”

Rise to Power (Con’t) • Policy Disputes – NEP – Socialism in one county v. Permanent Revolution • Defeat of Trotsky – 1925 Cong. Endorses “SIOC” – T, K, Z form “United Opposition” – 1926 Stalin uses “right” Rykov, Tomsky, Bukharin, v. T, K, Z (lose positions in party) – 1927 T expelled, 1929 exiled • Defeat of the Right – B, T, R, Uglanov, resist S move to left due to “scissors” crisis

Why Does Stalin Win? • Controls party apparatus • Rivals underestimate him • Plays opponents against each other – Personal and policy issues • • Correctly gauges party mood Outmaneuvered Trotsky Testament not published Use Resolution on Party Unity (no factions) to silence critics Historiography • Structuralist Richard Pipes • Continuity of Lenin & Stalin = Conquest • Stalin as a Deviation From Lenin = Cohen

How did Stalin rule the USSR between 1928 -1941?

Yezhov • Stalin’s Terror State • Purges are regular feature of Soviet state – 1921 -28 450 K Counter-revolutionaries – 1921 150 K “Onions”/carreerists • Is the Great Terror simply a continuation of the Purges? – 1933 -34 20% Expelled from Party – Next step is qualitatively different • Early Purges – Shakty Trial 1928 – Industrial Research and Planning Trial 1930 – Ryutin Purges 1932 • For these early trials members are expelled and lose priveleges

WHY? • Violence a normal part of the Soviet State? How? • NKVD – Police, Secret Police, Camps, Border and security guards – Special Military courts • Stalin’s cronies – – Yogoda, Yezhov, NKVD Vyshinsky - Prosecutor Beria, State Security Poskrebyshov - Secretariat

• Trigger? – Kirov Murder 1934 – Decree v. Terrorist Acts – Party Congress 1934 • 1996 Attend- 1108 Shot by 1938 • CC 98 of 139 Shot – K & Z arrested 1935 – Trial of the 16 ( T, Z, K Counterrevolutionary Line) • Confess under torture – 1937 Trial of 17 (Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center) • Alleged plot with Germans – 1937 Decree of Anti-Soviet Elements • Quota arrests and executions – Trial of 21 (Trotskyite Rightists) – New Anti-Soviet Center – B, R, T all tried, 18 others

• Army Purge – Tukhachevsky and most of Air Force, Navy and Army officers – All units end up understaffed, inexperienced • Purge of the people – – – Yezhovschina 1934 – 1 mi arrested 1937 - 8 mi. in camps 1939 – 5 -7 mi. more 1940 – 2 mi deported 1941 - ethnic deportations • Later Purge – Leningrad Affair – Doctors Plot

• Why the Purges? J. Arch Getty – Stalin wants to retain power – Stalin wants sole credit for Soviet successes – Stalin’s Personality – Ther are some actual opponents (Ryutin, Kirov) on issues like collectivization • Revisionists – – J. Arch Getty, Sheila Fitzpatrick Not just Stalin Party officials want to eliminate rivals Stalin can’t control all local officials • Purges generate own momentum – Background of forced collectivization and Nazi rise breeds violence – Yezhov/NKVD use purges to increase power

The Struggle for power: Stalin v Trotsky After the death of Lenin in 1924, there was a four year power struggle between Josef Stalin and Leon Trotsky over the succession to the Russian leadership. Trotsky believed that under his leadership Russia would become a catalyst for the spread of communism across the world. He had been very successful as commander of the Red Army in the civil war and appeared to have Lenin’s support. Stalin had not played a significant part in the revolution of 1917, but since then he had gathered control of a number of key posts in the Communist Party. Stalin was determined to win control of Russia for himself. He was not interested in international communism, he wanted to make Russia strong and with himself at its head. By 1928 Stalin emerged as the successor to Lenin and Trotsky was forced into exile.

Reasons for Stalin’s success When Lenin died he had warned the Communist Party of Stalin’s threat in his ‘Political Testament’. Comrade Stalin is too rude. Comrade Stalin, having become General Secretary, has great re power in his hands, and I am not sure that he always knows how to use that power with sufficient caution.

Reasons for Stalin’s success Although Lenin had not supported him, Stalin was in a strong position. As General Secretary of the Communist Party Stalin had responsibility for appointing posts in the Party. This meant he could remove opponents and replace them with his supporters. He was also popular in the Party as he wanted to concentrate on turning Russia into a modern, powerful state; this approach was called ‘Socialism in one country’. In contrast Trotsky was much less popular. He had been a Menshevik and had only joined the Bolsheviks in 1917. Trotsky was dismissed as Commissar for War in 1925 and from the Central Committee in in 1926. In 1927 he was expelled from the Communist Party and forced into exile in 1929. Stalin had Trotsky assassinated in Mexico in 1940. Other leading figures of 1917, Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bukharin, were also removed by Stalin.

Stalin’s dictatorship: purges and propaganda Even with his opponents removed, Stalin still felt insecure. He conducted a policy of purges between 1934 -1938. Millions were arrested, executed or sent to labour camps. Stalin used the NKVD, the secret police, to undertake the ‘Great Terror’. Stalin purged: • 90% of the army’s top officers, • every admiral in the navy, • 1 million Communist Party members, • some 20 million ordinary Russians. At the same time Stalin encouraged a cult of personality. Propaganda was used to make people aware of the part Stalin was playing in every aspect of life – work, home and leisure.

Stalin’s face is seen everywhere. His name is spoken by everyone. His praises are sung in every speech. Every room I entered had a portrait of Stalin hanging on the wall. Is it love or fear? I do not know. A foreigner describes the glorification of Stalin in the USSR.

Stalin in 1928 Reasons for Collectivisation Agriculture is developing slowly, comrades. This is because we have about 25 million individually owned farms. They are the most primitive and undeveloped form of economy. We must do our utmost to develop large farms and to convert them into grain factories for the country organised on a modem scientific basis.

Collectivisation In the late 1920 s, Russia suffered a food crisis. To feed starving workers, Stalin ordered the seizure of grain from the farmers. But, just as happened under War Communism, the peasants hid food or produced less. In 1929 Stalin announced the collectivisation of farms. The most common was the Kolkhoz in which land was joined together and the former owners worked together and shared everything. Stalin persuaded peasants to join by attacking the Kulaks, peasants that had grown as a result of the NEP. Collectivisation had limited success and a terrible human cost, between 10 to 15 million people died as a result. Between 1931 and 1932, there was a famine in Russia as not enough food was being produced. By 1939, Russia was producing the same amount of food as it had in 1928. Collectivisation was clearly a disaster and the problem was even worse as its population had increased by 20 million - all of whom needed feeding.

Stalin’s Economy: Revolution From Above • Why end the NEP – NEP recovery from War Communism had stalled by 1926 – Lenin had always said NEP is temporary – United opposition was eliminated by 1926 – Scissors crisis 1927 -28 • Revives forced requisitions – Method to eliminate Kulaks – Peasants always luke-warm to Communists

Stalin’s Economy: Revolution From Above • Collectivization – Step One = Eliminate Kulaks • Petty-bourgeoisie, eliminate opponents, warn other peasants – Peasant resistance and use of OGPU – Brief Halt in 1930 (Historiography debate Traditional v. Revisionist Lynn Viola) – Resume 1931 but permit private plots and some livestock – National famine 1932 -33= 4 - 6. 5 mi. die

Stalin’s Economy: Revolution From Above – USSR did have rural population crisis and this program eliminates it • Wrong thing for right reason? Did Stalin succeed? – YES! • • Party gets control over peasants (New serfdom? ) Grain procurements rise from 15% to 35% by 1933 Able to feed industrial workforce after 1935 Massive increase in urban workers 12 mi. – No! : Grain production only rises from. 5 tons per peasant to. 57 • No incentive to work hard, have to buy grain by 1960’s • Massive decline in livestock

Stalin’s Economy: Revolution From Above – Industrialization and 5 Year Plans • 15 th Party Congress sets Industrial targets and CC picks the highest in 1928 (NEP Ends) • Quotas not methods • Propaganda “Build a better world” • GOSPLAN runs it, OGPU ‘motivates” i. e. terrorizes workers

5 Year Plans – 1 st 5 Year Plan (1 -5 YP) • Set of targets and quotas not a plan • Propaganda targets young – – Create a Soviet “man/woman” Sacrifices for the good of all Plan is defense v. capitalists Opposition = sabotage (miners tried for example for low production) • Giganto-mania • Local levels try to meet goals but no central plan

5 Year Plans – 2 - 5 YP 1933 -37 • • • 1934 -35 successful because factories built under 1 -5 YP Goals more realistic and food rationing ends Still no coordination, lack raw materials Hoarding, no cooperation Fear of failure if officials share supplies – 3 - 5 YP 1938 -41 • • Purges under way Stakhanovites disrupt production Labor discipline code Conditions terrible

5 Year Plans – Successes 1927 -40 • GDP triples 1928 -30, industrial output passes Britain, Germany, France in 1940 • Coal up 500%. Steel 600%, Oil 200%, Electric 500% • 8000 new factories, 70, 000 libraries, literacy rises from 51% to 81%, Tech. Colleges graduate 300, 000 engineers – Failures • Only heavy industry = giganto-mania (Belomar Canal) • Unbalanced economy, lousy quality, still can’t compete with modern economies • Food shortages drain scarce capital, industry eventually stagnates and tech. collapses

5 Year Plans • Incentives; Higher pay for skills or exceeding quotas • Propaganda: “Heroes of Socialist Labor”, Socialist Realism, KOMSOMOL • Negatives: iron discipline, internal passports, Gulag, Show trials (wreckers) • Money sources: seize more garin, high taxes, drive down living standards (56 mi. industrial workers) • Historiography: Could Ind. Rev. occur w/o Stalin’s methods? – NO: Wouldn’t have caught up, survived Hitler, Bukharin methods won’t work, did it w/o foreign investment – Yes: NEP showed similar growth, too centralized, “storming” lowers productivity, Purges destroy, managers, engineers + starvation

Grain 1928 = 73. 3 million tons 1934 = 67. 6 million tons Cattle 1929 = 70. 5 million 1934 = 42. 4 million Pigs 1928 = 26 million 1934 = 22. 6 million Sheep and goats 1928 = 146. 7 million 1934 = 51. 9 million

We are 50 -100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make up this gap in ten years. Either we do it or they crush us. Stalin 1931 The Five Year Plans Stalin believed that industry could only develop through state control. Under GOSPLAN, three Five Year Plans set targets between 1928 -1941 to increase production. Russian industry changed enormously. New towns such as Magnitogorsk grew up and large projects such as the Dnieper hydroelectric dam were developed. The USSR became a major industrial country. The human cost was high. Forced labour killed millions, working conditions were poor and hours of work were long.

The effects of Stalin’s rule on men and women Millions of people suffered in Stalin’s purges – workers, peasants and members of the Communist Party itself. There was brutality, persecution, executions and forced labour. Millions died of starvation and over-work. The shops were empty ; clothes were dull and badly made and household items difficult to find. Although the USSR was a Communist state, the dictatorship of Stalin was just as complete, and in some ways even more bloody, than that of Hitler. But despite these appalling tragedies, there were some positive aspects to Stalin’s rule. For example schools were built and social insurance schemes were introduced. Russia became a modern industrial country.

Social Policy • Religion – 1917 Confiscate all Church lands – Kill many priests during Civil War – Arrest Bishops 1920’s – Propaganda: League of Militant Atheists – 1929 ban churches from any activity except church services – 1930’s only 2% of churches still operate – Program fails: 1937 57% still claim to be believers – 95% of Mosques closed in 1930’s

Social Policy • Education – Literacy: 40% literate 1913, 94% by 1939 – Peoples Commissariat for Enlightenment (Lunacharsky) • Ban bourgeois from education 1928 – 7 -10 Years compulsory education (improves production) • Core curriculum and Marxist theory • State Books, tests exams uniforms all abandoned under Stalin then reintroduced 1930 and don’t have to be working class – Special schools for elites – Stalinst History, Research at Universities • Disaster of Lysenkoism is example

Social Policy • Women and Family – Divorce easier 50%, abortion legal – Stalin returns to traditional family structure (population growth) – Restricts divorce, abortion restricted, traditional marriage, homosexuality outlawed • 1944 restrictions increase – Divorced tightened further, abortion outlawed, small families taxed, reinstate inheritence – Few women in the Party, labor and Mother roles emphasized

Social Policy • Culture – 1920’s artists can experiment, futurism, modernism – Stalin sees art solely as propaganda: must serve the people and create a useful product • Socialist Realism – Glorify 5 Year Plans, Stalin’s genius – Example N. Ostrovsky novel HOW THE STEEL WAS TEMPERED glorifies a Komsomol member – Union of Soviet Writers under Zhdanov attacks bourgeois themes like individual emotions/feelings – Party themes, easy language, common man characters, – Theatre/Films: censored, Stalin like figures, same for music, sculpture

Social Policy • Cult of Personality/Propaganda – Worship of Stalin – Newspapers, posters, theatre, movies • Stakhanovsim • Komsomol Youth League – Young Pioneers – Path to CPSU, Exploited, indoctrinated

The Great Patriotic War 1941 -1945 When Germany attacked the USSR in 1941, Stalin used the same ruthlessness to defend his country. The defence of the USSR was the bloodiest war in history and cost the lives of millions of people and the destruction of thousands of villages, towns and cities. The final victory in 1945 was, like everything else, put down to the personal leadership of Stalin by the Soviet propaganda machine. After the war, Stalin built up the USSR as a superpower, in opposition to the USA. This conflict was known as the Cold War. Stalin died in 1953.