Stalin's Background & USSR History PDF

**Background for Stalin** - WWI: August 1914 - November 11th, 1918\ 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 (November 11th, 1918) - USSR Established in December of 1922 following the Russian Civil War\ USSR stands for "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" - Stali...

**Background for Stalin** - WWI: August 1914 - November 11th, 1918\ 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 (November 11th, 1918) - USSR Established in December of 1922 following the Russian Civil War\ USSR stands for "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" - Stalin had a difficult upbringing with a tenuous relationship with his father - Ruled with an Iron fist - Born in Gori, Georgia, in 1878 - Beat by father as a child (his father also beat his mother) - Joined the Democratic labor Party - He was arrested a lot - and sent to exile in Siberia in difficult conditions - likely made him a stiffer ruler - Lenin was impressed with Stalin - Man of Steel = Stalin - 304-year Tsardom - Pravda=truth - Stalin: bearer of Lenin\'s legacy - All put to death who resisted Collectivization - The USSR was a totalitarian state\ relating to a system of government that is [[centralized](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=600067661&rls=en&sxsrf=ACQVn0-LZdeSGkdaMeBrkkpPYVuQN4hm4w:1705755898334&q=centralized&si=AKbGX_okpkrXRdHQwZu4Fe0iRe3uKXhOQFo9Wv3UsIdZ-LtS_4E6bOgUZHRi8gvD7WRmpt1n4lzlsRCVPwd8XRoXOfj2Y7TBeZVFyTOMWvrsCMcjzWRIURw%3D&expnd=1)] (controlled by a single state) and dictatorial and requires complete [[subservience](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=600067661&rls=en&sxsrf=ACQVn0-LZdeSGkdaMeBrkkpPYVuQN4hm4w:1705755898334&q=subservience&si=AKbGX_rYYX5RSQWW4ITS1L-igAzuyQMdcEzALed3dzsvcSc_6lYAXe1Haf2EysffkJp4c-qOVfTS8-sAMejNCEKs1T-iBG1x_68XJW-R1NTbu2mTL5niKOc%3D&expnd=1)]  willingness to obey the state. - Many current-day countries were part of the USSR - Ukraine - Moldova - Estonia - Latvia - Lithuania - Romania - Finland - (Baltics + northern Europe) - contiguous area - Contiguous\ Land or regions that are geographically connected - 1925 USSR Constitution - Highly idealistic - excitement that the world was being transformed - Goal of world revolution (communism would be international) - Any country could join the USSR - Creation of separate republics - Federal system of governance - Soviet Union Construction: Built of republics\ 15 republics in the USSR including modern day countries such as Ukraine, etc. - The collapse of the USSR: 14 republics became independent\ 1989: The Berlin Wall fell\ 1991: The USSR fell - Putin\'s perspective on the fall of the USSR: Losing the republics was the greatest tragedy of the 20th century - Socialist Realism\ Artistic style whose goal was to promote socialism by showing Soviet Life in a positive light - art that promotes the soviet cause - All art in the USSR had to be in support of the communist cause, otherwise people were executed/exiled - Russia saw the effect that art can have on people wanting freedom (free art in the early 1920s): implemented **Socialist Realism** ( term used for work for painters, printmakers) in the late 1920s: communist supporting art - In 1922, the USSR controlled 1/6 of the world's land area - The constitution called for cultural diversity in the USSR - 100 recognized languages - 50 distinct nationalities recognized within its borders - The constitution called for fair treatment of different nationalities and ethnicities\ (recognized) - Received cultural autonomy; language, clothes, schools, religion, etc. - Similar to states' rights in the US - The actual treatment of nationalities in the USSR was much different\ Nationalities were put on different levels - republics didn't have as much power as they were promised - The USSR Constitution called for a Federal system of government - A government that divides the powers of government between the national government and state or provincial governments - (US) (Opposite to Portugal) - Promised sovereignty to republics/parallelism - Actual Federal system of government in the USSR\ While it called for a separation between the centralized government and the local governments, that wasn't followed. The central government maintained the majority of the power while the states were left with little power (as systematic Russification continued) - Parallelism - promised by the USSR Constitution\ A form of government where the state and party run in parallel to each other - Parallelism didn't exist in the USSR\ The communist party had far more control than the state - It maintained that control throughout the history of the USSR - Bicameral parliament: form of parliament in the USSR\ A legislature consisting of two parts to the legislature, or houses (US house of reps and senate) - Unicameral\ One-house legislature (Portugal) - The "state" in the USSR referred to the Soviet\ The council of workers - The Communists were the only party in Russia\ Although non-party (non- communist) members may be elected to the soviets (workers councils) - Only 5% of the USSR were party members - Power Structure in the USSR - - - - The goal of the central committee\ Impart party views/party momentum - be the cheerleader of the party - In 1922, there were only about 70,000 party members - grew to 2 million by 1930 - People were scared to toe the party line in front of party members\ People wouldn\'t talk poorly about communist party in front of party members (still secret police so people had to be careful in general) - Party members were: - Highly efficient - Devout - Tightly knit - Disciplined - Trained - Party members made up 5% of the USSR with the other 95% being followers - People were upset that party members were becoming elite- distanced from the reality of the masses - Similar to the 1% in the US - Peasants felt antagonized after war communism - hated state-mandated deliveries\ to make an enemy of; to oppose or counteract -\> annoy/irritate/alienate - The great depression began in October of 1929 with the collapse of the stock market - important to know - The goal of the Bolsheviks / Communists\ Reconstruction of the state and economy; they aimed to revolutionize the daily lives of workers - They wanted to create a world revolution - Changes made by the Bolsheviks / Communists\ Wanted: - Legal reforms - Equal voting rights for women - Right to divorce - Access to birth control - Abortion(Wanted to destroy wealth and gender hierarchies) - Result of  the changes in the long term\ There wasn\'t an immediate change in the USSR - Abortion became illegal again in the 1930s and 40s - Right to vote disappeared - Traditional social relations among the rural masses could not simply be transformed by revolutionary decrees. - Largest area of change in the USSR was education\ Working class Young men and women received far more education (following civil war in the early 1920s) - Many policies were created legally in the USSR though not followed in practice - Woman's rights - Universal suffrage - Sergei Eisenstein directed a Soviet Propaganda movie called Potemkin in 1925\ Created film to show the revolution as a popular movement rather than a coup d\'état - Marx strongly disliked those who believed in opportunism - If one got an extra vacation day a year, he didn\'t see that as a good thing (still Bourgeoise control) - Sought real change which would only happen when the bourgeoise was destroyed - Opportunism\ n. the practice of taking advantage of opportunities as they arise without particular concern for morality or ethics- The belief in opportunism is that one can raise their standard of living through increments - Opportunism has massively changed the world for the better - It has brought massive change in the capitalist world - working conditions and pay has raised significantly - Many see that as evidence of Marx being wrong **The New Economic Policy** - Lenin introduced the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921\ The policy aimed to re-establish limited economic freedom in an attempt to rebuild agriculture and industry in the face of economic disintegration - Lenin was concerned with the economy and thus saw the NEP as necessary - Lenin thought Russia was moving too quickly (in terms of movement towards Communism) - Belief that it would be beneficial to step back in order to advance - Thought that a temporary retreat from socialism would give Russia a chance to recover economically and socially - The USSR was facing many difficulties when the NEP was created including: - Famine - Breakdown of Transportation - End of WWI - Revolution - Civil war - The NEP allowed for some freedoms not usually seen in Marxism/Communism including: - Private property - Private exchange (trade) - Limited capitalism - The goal was to have farmers produce more food than for just themselves in order to stop the famine. They identified that the farmers would **need some financial incentive so allowed for limited capitalism** - The USSR (state) still controlled the Commanding Heights in the economy after the NEP\ the \"most important\" or \"strategic elements\" of an economy, including primarily those industries which provide goods/services that are essential for other industries to operate (e.g., transportation, energy, financial markets,) - Growth was slowing in the USSR\ In 1928, Russia was producing as much grain, raw cotton, cattle, coal and oil as 1913 (no growth) - Lenin believed the move towards communism was happening too quickly **Vladimir Lenin's Death/Lenin's Testament** - Died in 1924\ He died from a stroke at age 54, series of paralyzing strokes made him incapacitated in his last two years of life (still on display in St. Petersburg) - Lenin had a cult of personality\ Promotion of the image of an authoritarian leader not merely as a political figure but as someone who embodies the spirit of the nation and possesses endowments of wisdom and strength far beyond those of the average individual. - When a figure is deliberately made larger than life through propaganda - Stalin and Trotsky both wanted to take over control of the Communist party during Lenin's declining health - Lenin was seen in the same plane as Marx after the Civil War - he was deified\ Made into a god/deity - People wanted to follow Lenin's ideals, and as a result, there were disputes over Lenin's intentions during his declining health. - Lenin opposed Stalin taking control of the Communist party - he warned against entrusting Stalin with control\ Lenin had become increasingly concerned over Stalin\'s power and how he believed Stalin would use it. Prior to his death Lenin had written a testament stating that Joseph Stalin be removed from the party \"Comrade Stalin, having become General Secretary, has great power in his hands, and I am not sure that he always knows how to use that power with sufficient caution." - Lenin's Testament (written in December 1922)\ After Lenin suffered a second stroke; he dictated what he thought would be his last political testament, outlining what he saw as the strengths and weaknesses of all the leading communists (including Stalin and Trotsky) - Lenin's Testament view on Stalin\ Too rude to lead (somewhat acceptable at the time but not for general secretary) - Lenin's Testament view on Trotsky - Capable, administrative (specifically) - not exactly what is needed in the communist party - Displayed excessive self-assurance (two big of an ego) - General ideas given in the Testament - Lenin was generally warning against either of the leaders - If they had to choose one, Lenin recommended Trotsky as he was not as aggressive. - Lenin's Testament was only seen by the top Central Committee Members (due to Lenin's wife releasing it to them) - it was never shared with the general public **Leon Trotsky** - Trotsky was the leader of the Red Army in the civil war\ He was a brilliant strategist who served as Commissar of War (head of) Reds in the civil war and Lenin\'s advisor until Lenin\'s death. He was very persuasive and had charisma; he was very good at propaganda. He fought Stalin for the head job after Lenin\'s death in 1924, but lost - Trotsky began questioning some aspects of communism\ Trotsky raised questions about the future of the movement (wasn\'t fully supportive) - inveighed against lassitude\ complained about the laziness of socialism - Trotsky strongly followed the Doctrine of Permanent Revolution\ An incessant drive for proletarian objectives on all fronts in all parts of the world - championed world revolution - Incessant\ Never stopping, going all the time - Trotsky ideology - advocates for a permanent revolution: - Against bureaucratic **ossification**: (stagnation) - Wants rigor, change, and commitment to the revolution - Doesn't want to build socialism in Russia first (commitment to world revolution) - Ossification\ Stagnation - Trotsky believed in having a world revolution whereas Stalin and Lenin wanted to build up communism in Russia first - This was one area where the viewpoints of Lenin/Stalin and Trotsky varied significantly - Trotsky wanted to develop industry more forcefully and use the collectivization of agriculture to increase growth - The forcible consolidation of individual peasant farms into large state-controlled enterprises in the Soviet Union. - The joining together of previously held small properties into one larger property (collectivization) - Trotsky wanted the economy to be entirely centrally controlled (a fully planned economy) - Trotsky failed to carry the party with him - they didn't like his plans - Trotsky began his downfall in the USSR - Charged with leftist deviationism, inciting public discussion of controversial issues outside the party - Stalin tried to purge the opposition (Trotsky) - Trotsky received only 5% of the vote at the Party Congress of 1927 (compared with Stalin's 95%) - Trotsky was forced to leave the USSR - Exiled to Siberia - banished from the USSR - lived in Europe and then Mexico - Organized underground against Stalin (same as he had done with the Tsar) - Murdered in 1940 by Soviet Agent - People in the USSR couldn\'t talk about him or his contributions until 1980 **Joesph Stalin's 5-year Plans/Economic Planning** - Soviet economics was defined by central planning (the most distinctive feature)\ The centralized planning where the government makes every economic decision - copied by other countries in the rest of the world - more extreme that economic protectionism (implemented by Stalin) - Economic protectionism - Subsidies - Tariffs - tax on imports - Quotas - To protect the domestic industries against foreign competition - The Communists at first struggled after taking control\ They followed the Marxist doctrine but it was too general to plan all of society; therefore, the bolsheviks only had a vague idea of what to do after taking control - Stalin wanted to turn the USSR into a giant factory - highly efficient in every aspect - Stalin saw that in WWI, times of crisis meant people were willing to subordinate some of their freedoms for a greater cause - Stalin wanted to purge the opposition\ To violently remove - The Economic System in the USSR was almost entirely top-down\ All the decisions were made on the top combining aspects of: - a Command economy - a planned economy - The USSR required quantitative criteria for fulfillment\ As a result, there was a complete neglect of quality control - shoddy products - Shoddy\ Poorly done, badly made **First 5-year plan (1928-1932)** - The first five-year plan was introduced in 1928 and lasted until 1932\ Introduced by Stalin in 1928 as a way to show his power in Russia and similarly implemented due to the failure of Lenin\'s NEP - The First five-year plan called for many changes in the USSR to help it advance (due to the failure of the NEP) - Rapid industrialization - Collectivization of agriculture - \"Central planning of a country\'s whole economic life by government officials\" - Stalin's goal was to overcome Russia's reputation of Economic **backwardness** - He wanted to strengthen and enrich the country - He wanted to make the USSR militarily and industrially self-sufficient - He wanted to create a true workers society - Economic backwardness in Russia\ Was late to industrialize; food shortages; could not supply both soldiers and citizens - Gosplan was created by Stalin\ Central planning authority in the former Soviet Union that devised and directed Five-Year Plans - Gosplan set quantitative goals for every aspect of society - in the first five-year plan  it met the quantitative goals a year early by 1932\ Gosplan Determined: - How much of every article the country should produce - What wages of all classes of all workers should receive - What prices all goods should be exchanged at - Gosplan rigorously enforced five-year plans\ They conducted regular reports and checkups to ensure output - The criteria for fulfillment was almost entirely quantitative - The first five-year plan was largely successful - Met some goals - Exceeded some goals - Failed some goals **Second 5-year plan (1933-1937)** - Focus on: - Industry - Transport - Communication **Under the first two five year plans** **Greatest growth ever seenBy 1939: USSR was the 3rd largest industrial economy in the world - Stalin overcoming backwardness (after US and Germany)By 1938, no country in the world was producing more tractors and more trains** - Somewhat backwards - in terms of output\ Many standard, everyday products were in short supply whereas many non-useful products (tractors) were heavily produced (flaws in the communist system) - 11 pounds of paper produced per person compared to 103 in the US (education) **Third 5-year plan (1938-1941) - interrupted due to WWII** **The overall impact of the first few five year plans** - As a result of the five-year plans, there was a massive loss in Kulak life\ As a result, there was a drop in agricultural productivity - People in the USSR had to live with austerity and self-denial\ Great self-denial, economy, discipline; lack of adornment - to do without amenities (better food, housing, consumer goods) - Morale sustained through propaganda\ Through propaganda - party members had to explain why sacrifices were necessary- Maintained by party functionaries/party agitators\--\"If you just follow\... then you will get your freedoms\" - Operation Barbarossa (failed)\ Codename for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during WWII - The USSR had supply lines close to the war effort - They were able to move factories back and keep producing - Huge advantage over Germany - why they were able to win - Massive growth allowed for success in WWII - The USSR was successful in stopping the German invasion during WWII\ The first two 5-year plans had modernized and industrialized the USSR, making it able to successfully fight off the Germans **Stalin's Agricultural Planning/Famine** - 80% of the USSR population in 1929 were peasant - As a result, there needed to be an agrarian revolution in order for Russia to meet their economic goals - to industrialize - The USSR was largely an agrarian economy\ Economy based on farming and cultivation of the land. Way of life stayed the same for many years. Usually involved two classes, very rich and very poor, no middle class. **STALIN WANTED TO INCREASE AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT** - Stalin wanted to improve agricultural output in order to raise capital - He hoped it would allow peasants to be able to move to cities and work in factories (free up the labor force) - Part of his goal to industrialize - Agricultural output didn't go up as much as Stalin hoped it would in the 1930s in the USSR - Dairy and meat production went down: didn\'t meet their quotas (largely due to the of farm animals) - Wheat production went up by 1939 - Many farmers part took in a work slowdown in order to protest the collectivization (sabotage) - didn\'t want to meet the quotas and in order to resist the state. **Agricultural plan of 1929** - Ironic as this was one of Trotsky's plans that Stalin had previously hated (collectivization and industrialization) - The goal of the collectives was to convert the peasantry into a class more nearly resembling the proletariat of the Marxian doctrine - People who owned no capital and employed no labor so would better fit into the proletarian, socialist state - There was a famine due to the collectivization\ Southeast of Russia and Ukraine in 1932 - millions of lives lost - Stalin didn't make changes as a result of the famine\ **Stalin refused to cut back on cereal and other food exports because they were needed to pay for industrial imports under the Five-Year Plan (punishing Ukraine)** - Holomodor\ a man-made famine-genocide in which the USSR (Stalin) starved the people of Ukraine; killed millions/Ukrainian famine - 7 million poor peasants starved to death - Ukraine didn't support the five year plans; likely the reason Stalin punished them - Ukraine was struggling in the early 1930s\ Ukraine was one of the largest grain-producing states in the USSR and was subject to unreasonably high grain quotas compared to the rest of the USSR - hit particularly hard by the famine in 1932-1933 - To what extent did Stalin deliberately starve Ukraine? **Collectivization** - Set up collective farms/Kolkhoz (Russian name for a collective) - Few thousand acres apiece - Property owned by the peasants collectively who resided on them (not the state) - The peasants didn't really own the land - There was some state-owned/run land - Kulaks resisted the collectivization program - Resisted surrendering their land to the collectives (felt it was hard earned) - Kulaks and their families were killed and many more transported to labor camps (Gulags) in remote parts of the soviet Union - There was a massive social cost of the collectivization - unforeseen loss of animal life\ Village class war: - Many of the most capable farmers perished - Wholesale destruction of livestock - Big farmers (kulaks) slaughtered their horses, cattle, pigs, and poultry rather than give them up to collectivization - Small farmers did the same (didn\'t care about the animals that were no longer their own) - The Collectivization was largely a failure - no increase in agricultural output - 20 million peasants moved from cities between 1926-1939 - No incentives for peasants: - Couldn\'t pass land onto their heirs - No freedom to make economic decisions - No incentive to improve the land they worked on - Stalin withdrew somewhat from the collectivization due to the societal resistance - Later, he pushed towards collectivization as he had before - Stalin set up Tractor Stations as part of the collectivization program\ Stations set up with tractors in order to help with farming for the collectives - run by experts and a main goal was to increase agricultural output through efficiency - To what extent did workers move to the cities due to fear of starvation versus the freeing up of the working class due to collectivization? **Dekulakization/Gulag** - Gulag Archipelago - Name made famous by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn\ A collection of Soviet-era labor camps for political prisoners, made famous by writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. - The Collectivization program largely led into the Dekulakization\ This term refers to the campaign to eradicate the class of better-off peasants who were resisting collectivization as part of Stalin\'s goals Russia. This often involved shooting the adult males. Others were sentenced to prison camps. In most cases, whole families were deported to Siberia. About 10 million people were deported to Siberia as a result of this campaign.- Liquidation of the Kulak class - There was a negative connotation with Kulak in the USSR\ Used as a derogotory term by the state:\ Negative (in the eyes of the govt.) - anyone who resisted collectivization was called a Kulak - Peasants and Kulaks were herded by bayonets into cattle cars to move them around the state\ a swordlike stabbing blade that may be fixed to the muzzle of a rifle for use in hand-to-hand fighting. - Kulaks were sent to correctional labor camps (Gulag) - Gulags were set up in the eastern parts of the USSR\ Forced labor camps set up by Stalin in eastern Russia (Siberia). Dissidents/kulaks and many innocent people were sent to the camps, where conditions were generally brutal. Millions died. - Gulag Statistics - 18 million people prosecuted through the camps (between 1929-1953) - 6 million people exiled to remote regions - The majority of the people in the Gulags were guilty of nothing - Gulag comparison to the **Concentration Camps** - There was no Soviet equivalent to the Death Camps (if someone was put to death, they would be killed before they went to the camps) - **Camps were merely for labor - the Gulags were the largest employer in the world in 1941 - (slave labor)** - Gulag comparison to Tsardom/Lenin - The gulag was much worse than the forced labor imposed under the Tsarist regime - The Gulag was arguably worse than the camps used for exiles during Lenin\'s time - Trotsky would have likely supported the Gulag\ He believed:\ \"Worst part of bourgeois prejudice\" is to call **slave labor inefficient** - Lenin and Stalin agreed - - Used Gulags as a way to increase economic output - The Gulag, while a large employer, didn't produce great products - Shoody craftsmanship and inefficient labor - Human cost of life did not pay off given the result of the projects - The Gulag continued operating after Stalin's death - may still operate today\ Only closed after Stalin\'s deaths - Stalin\'s death didn\'t bring an immediate end to the Gulags ("officially" shut down in 1960 and Stalin died in 1953) **The USSR during the Great Depression (1930s)** - The USSR allowed many foreigners to come to the USSR in the early 1930s\ The USSR needed help and thus allowed many foreigners to come to the USSR at the beginning of the five-year plans (1932) but later, once productivity and welfare increased, they wouldn\'t let people come (to not spread other ideas) and many were forced to leave - Largely thriving, Russia was relatively stable compared to the rest of the world - Access to: - food - jobs - (things were generally working) - People moved from the West to the USSR for - Economic stability - Ideological reasons - Some changes occurred to improve life in the USSR - Food rationing abolished (1935) - Few more products of light industries began to appear in stores (fountain pens, dishes) - Living standards rose to 1927 levels - The USSR avoided the evils of unrestrained capitalism - Unemployment - Income inequality - Homelessness - Secular boom and depression - Misuse of women and children (child labor) - ColonialismEnvironmental impact - Still no wage equality - didn\'t exist; no economic equity (despite it being the principal objective of Marxism) - No very rich people as in the rest of Europe (due to there not being inherited property)- - Govt officials, managers, engineers and intellectuals received the highest wages- - There could be some passed down wealth to children (no stock exchange) - People in the USSR were paid at piece rates/piece work\ They were able to increase their wages through increasing output (1935 minder Stakhanov increased daily outputs through improving his methods) - a worker paid a fixed rate for each unit produced - Labor heroes (stakhanovites) were propped up in society\ People who exceed labor quotas \"labor heroes- hard working true soviets" - Through propaganda - Propaganda was part of Stalin's five year plans - People who all others should aspire to become - Piece work is disliked by the west - Incentivizes shoddy craftsmanship (poor quality) as the only goal is increasing quanity - Workers who didn't meet their quotas might loose their jobs - Hardcore bolsheviks / communists continued believing their core ideology\ Industry/industrialization is the way forward - by the workers for the workers - "If Only Stalin Knew" - Belief among many workers in the USSR\ similar to the belief of the little Tsar (would change if he knew their concerns) - Solidarity was purchased at the price of totalitarianism - Any benefit in Russia was at the price of control of every aspect of life - Huge social costs were made to achieve totalitarianism - A form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)(only Stalin/Hitler) - The government supervised everything - No room for skepticism/doubt - No independence of thought - No room for criticism of the government/criticism that weakened will to achieve - People couldn\'t leave the USSR without special permission (less freedom than 1914 under tsardom) - Stalin imposed harsh restrictions - No free labor unions - labor unions were at the state level (gosplan) - No free press (only paper was pravda - communist party paper) - No freedom of association - Irritable tolerance of religion (at best) - Life was largely more strict than it had been under the Tsars - Only one political party (Communist) - Jews did better than before (some attained high levels of office and importance) - still antisemitism - People were distrustful/suspicious - Art/literature/science were vehicles for political propaganda - -talent only rewarded if it helped communismeveryone was intended to conform **John Scott - life in the USSR** - Train engineer from the US who went to Magnitogorsk in Siberia between 1932-1937 to be a part of the "Great Soviet Experiment" - One of the many who went from the US to escape the great depression - Life wasn't the best in the USSR according to John Scott - many shortages (coal & wood) meant freezing temperatures - Few alternative goods - Many were enthusiastic to work for their country and better the USSR (drinking communist kool-aid) - Others weren\'t as willing to work in tough conditions - Many would toe the party line with the belief that tomorrow would be better (sacrifices would be temporary) - The Communist system had many failures (according to John Scott) - Overuse of equipment - no repairsPeople overworked - unoraganized - Fear of system - Propaganda made people disloyal (share if their friend wasn\'t meeting quotas) - Stalin set ridiculous, unachievable targets though there was still growth **The New USSR Constitution/Show Trials** - New Constitution in 1936 - USSR was doing so well that a new constitution was proclaimed - Allowed for more personal leisures/freedoms/economic security/comfortable old age - Universal suffrage - Western nations largely supported the new constitution - Believed it was a step in the right direction for the USSR - Believed USSR was weakening their control due to success (NOT TURE) - Many countries followed some of the reforms (Roosevelt- New Deal - Social Security) - The constitution actually tightened the dictatorship leading to the Purge Trials of the 1930s\ Stalin\'s new constitution tightens the dictatorship therefore new opinions from; Stalin\'s reaction is to purge or kill any opposition; example= Old Bolsheviks all brought to trial and put to death; 3,778,334 tried and put to death for counterrevolutionary crimes by the KGB; reinforces Stalin\'s dictatorship - The Trials were Show Trials (1936-1938)\ Public trials of Stalin\'s enemies to terrorize the population into obedience - Show trials nicknamed the "Great Terror"\ From 1936-1938, Stalin carries out Great Purges to remove all memory of the Bolshevik revolution thereby controlling history. // Killed many old bolsheviks in show trials to control the Communist narrative and be Lenin\'s legacy continuer - Serge Kirov was one of the first victims of the Purge  - an old bolshevik friend of Stalin who got assassinated\ Old friend and revolutionary companion of Stalin since 1909. Was very popular with the workers and soldiers in Petrograd/Leningrad. Showed signs of appealing to the disaffected. Stalin became very jealous of him. In 1934 he was assassinated in his office - most probably by an agent of Stalin. But Stalin used this assassination as an excuse to strike out at his opponents, real/imagined, and a revival of \"terror\" ensued. All told, there were about 100+ executions of high-ranking revolutionaries in the 4 year purged that followed. No-one seemed safe. During this time even Stalin\'s wife, an old Bolshevik revolutionary herself, was driven to \"suicide.\" - Assassinated (likely due to Stalin\'s orders) as a part of a larger group - Was an old bolshevik - Began complaining that too many freedoms were taken away - First of many communist members to be expelled from the party by Stalin - The trials in 1936 were very public - 16 old Bolsheviks on trial - put to death - including Zinoviev and Kamenev who were expelled in 1927 for supporting Trotsky - later reemitted after proper recantations - Killed a lot of accused dissidents to show the public the consequences of going against the party - Those in in support of Stalin saw it as a representation of Stalin\'s strength and his willingness to protect the state at any measure - later another group of 17 old Bolsheviks were put on trial and either imprisoned or put to death - The world was very confused about people confessing in the show trials\ **People didn't understand why the people were confessing (confessing to fabricated charges) - hallmark of totalitarian state (kangaroo courts)** - Families of the accused were being threatened (made them sacrifice themselves to protect their families) - Stalin wanted a monopoly on his relationship with Lenin - his goal of eliminating old party members - Lenin was the father figure of Communism - Stalin eliminated many people who remembered Stalin and his beliefs - There were exterminations of the old bolsheviks that occurred outside the trials - Arrests - Private inquisitions - Executions - (All people at the highest level in the party, intellectual, scientific circles, military, and government) - ***Statistics on the Victims*** - likely higher\ 3,778,334 **million tried and sentenced for \"counterrevolutionary activity\"786,098** were executed - Others died in prison camps - Stalin's success with his goal of the purges\ Stalin rid himself of opposition (rivals) - Didn\'t want others who remembered the \"old days\" of Leninism - After 1938 there were virtually no old Bolsheviks left - There were then a younger group of agitators of Stalin\'s dictatorship - Nobody was safe from the Purge Trials - Stalin's wife was killed\ Argued with Stalin; shot and died; unknown cause of death - likely died due to Stalin\'s orders **The USSR in WWII→** - Russia and Germany signed a Non-Aggression Pact in 1939\ 1939-Secret agreement between German leader Hitler and Soviet Leader Stalin not to attack one another and to divide Poland (right before the outbreak of WWII) - peace pact - Stalin was massively scared of the Germans - Despite the similar/higher death toll in Nazi Germany\ Hammer and Sickle vs. Swastika connotation - Swastika is seen as far worse as it has the connotation of antisemitism and racism (which motivated the killings) - The hammer and sickle was not as bad as the killings were more general and not due to race or religion. - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Wrote 1962 Book: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich detailing life in the Gulag - Showed the difficulty of life under the USSR - One example of truth getting through the iron curtain (wrote largely from exile in Vermont) - Waited until 1991 (after the collapse of the Soviet Union) to return to Russia (loved the land) - Wrote the Gulag Archipelago - Exposed human rights violated at the Gulags - The K.G.B. (secret police) created a defamation campaign about Solzhenitsyn\ Created a defamation campaign - he was anti-communist and an anti-semite - publication of false statements that result in damage to a person\'s reputation - Stalin began deporting entire nationalities\ Stalin deported entire nationalities due to fear of them resisting going to gulags, falsely claiming that they had collaborated with the Nazis - Andre Sakharov - famous soviet dissident\ (someone complaining about this government) - Disagreed with excess of the Soviet State - Too famous to kill or put in Siberia so they jailed him and put him in internal exile and forbid him to speak - Prague Spring\ The term for the attempted liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. **International Impact of Communism** - Zimmerwald Program Created in Switzerland - 1915\ This was crated by small group of antiwar socialists who met in Switzerland in 1915. The group, who created this plan demanding immediate peace without annexation or indemnities, soon split up and never got any power. The \"Left: of this group consisted of Lenin and his Russian emigres who would lead the Russian Revolution. - Zimmerwald Left deviated and left the original Zimmerwald program\ The Zimmerwald group split. Most regarded peace as the aim but the left wing, inspired by Lenin and the Russian emigres, wanted revolution not revisionism. They wanted the war to continue, believing it would hasten the revolution. - They believed the war would weaken many capitalist nations, allowing for an easier world revolution - Small faction//Radicals of the radicals - The Bolsheviks believed in a world with communism spread throughout and Moscow would be the nucleus from which the world revolution would occur - Lenin and Marx were not nationalists; their main goal was for every part of the world to join the world revolution - why Lenin easily signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty - Russia signed a humiliating peace treaty with Germany at this site and dropped out of the war, marking Russia\'s exit from World War I by conceding Lithuania, Poland, and Finland. Although Lenin supported peace many other Bolsheviks were not prepared to lose one third of the population to Germany. - Communists were chauvinist - Especially Lenin/Stalin\ one having a fanatical devotion to a country, gender, or religion, with contempt for other countries, the opposite sex, or other beliefs//Believing they are superior in a group - After WWI, Germany and Eastern Europe had some attempted communist revolutions - The Comintern/Third International/Communist International was created in Moscow in 1919 to help move the world towards the world revolution - The International intended to fight \"by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the State.\" - fight for World revolution - The communists vehemently hated the socialists despite seemingly fighting a similar cause\ **communism** - each person contributes as they are able and receives what they need; no private property; no class distinctions\ **socialism** - each person contributes as they are able, and receive what they have earned, houses and clothes etc. owned privately; businesses owned by the government; class distinctions diminished - The Second Congress of Soviets was a meeting following the overthrow of the Provisional Government in Russia during the October Revolution\ the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers\' and Soldiers\' Deputies (November 7-9, 1917) ratified the revolutionary transfer of state power - turned into comintern - Endorsed program of Twenty-one Points (by Lenin) - Hardcore communists attended the conference - People thrown out of Comintern if they didn\'t hew to the party line - The Popular Front was created in 1936\ An alliance between the Communists, the Socialists, and the Radicals formed for the May 1936 French elections. It was largely successful, increasing the Communists in parliament from 10 to 72, and the Socials up to 146, making them the largest party in France. - After WWII, and the end of the Popular Front, the Cominform was created\ It was essentially the same as the Cointern was previously - The goal of the Popular front was. to be a coalition of a variety of different left-wing groups to combat the rise in Fascism that was making inroads - just for the left - The Comintern joined the popular front despite them also including socialists - Believed it was more expedient to move away from world revolution for the time-being - they needed to join other left-wing groups to combat fascism in Europe - seen as massive threat - Hitler (fascist) came to power in 1933 - Communism was a success due to the success of the USSR - not just comintern\ \-- No great depression in the USSR - Some capitalist countries began embracing some form of planning and big government due to the success that Stalin had with Gosplan\ Governments increasing their involvement in the everyday lives of citizens - US - Roosevelt: New Deal/Social Security - Unemployment benefits Large work/infrastructure projects undertaken by the left The USSR wanted to Control Global Communism - As Communism spread (somewhat) to China, etc. the USSR wanted full control over its growth - It may have made the communists in the USSR too far-stretched and thus not able to maintain control domestically **The Breaking Down of Communism** - The world really didn't know about the horrors of Communism until **Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn** published his book: *The Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich* - The book gained international attention and began breaking the iron curtain in the USSR - Technology largely broke down the iron curtain and showed people in the USSR how much better the world was on the outside (as well as outside the USSR how bad Communism actually was) - PALMER\ Ex. Russians saw that there were nice cars in Germany whereas there were not nearly as nice cars in the USSR - Iron Curtain: Winston Churchill\'s term for the Cold War division between the Soviet-dominated East and the U.S.-dominated West. - The USSR tried to control communism in China - very different than the USSR\ China became communist in 1949 (dynamic communists) - Allowed some capitalist ideas (free markets) - Mao and Stalin didn\'t get along - Innovation was allowed in China whereas in the USSR, Gosplan planned everything and told people what to produce (killing innovation) - Mikhail Gorbachev was the final leader of the USSR - tried to make changes - Promoted economic reconstructing - Promoted greater freedom - Too little too late and too much at once **Modern-Day Perception/Impact of the USSR** - Many Russian's believe that Stalin's actions were necessary and justified - Stalin was not a monster due to the evils of communism, but tyranny is sometimes necessary in order to build a great nation - Long line of rule through strong, iron grip: going back from Stalin to the Tsars - Russian textbooks have largely show the positives of Stalin's reign - Stalin promoting domestic products - considered nationalist to buy things from domestic markets - Russia has a great education system - Stalin devoted a great deal to educationMany mathematicians, etc. (True) - February 2006 Public Opinion Fund Poll - views on Stalin\ Positive: 47 percent; negative: 29 percent; did not answer: 24 percent. - The USSR had a strong education system - true\ Very high literacy - great education system that created many mathematicians (Stalin devoted a great deal to education) (Portugal under Salazar - highly illiterate) - Putin justifies his iron grip on Russia through the teaching of Russian history that shows the benefit of the iron grip - We can't trust many of the statistics out of the USSR - All came from the USSR - highly manipulated (likely) - Output may have been inflated to make it seem like people were meeting their quotas - Stats may have been exaggerated as a form of Soviet propaganda - In total, over 20,000,000 people died under Stalin\ Due to the: - Gulag - Famine - Purges - Putin shut down the memorials that commemorated the loss of life at the gulag - There was nothing in Russia like the Truth and Reconciliation Committee created by Mandela\ The post-apartheid body established to document apartheid-era human rights abuses and to give reparations to victims and amnesty to perpetrators who confessed to crimes - Impossible to charge everyone who particpated in apartheid (so widespread) - Mandela thought it would be better to have an open conversation and forgive (have white people apoligize) - 15-20% of Russians see Stalin as a positive historical figure\ Belief that Russia\'s current success wouldn\'t have been possible without the Gulag - historical necessity - There have been no trials or events to remember and discuss the victims of the Gulag (unlike in Germany) **Miscellaneous vocabulary** - Muzhik\ Russian peasant - Stagnation\ Motionless?inactivity - Russification\ When Russian culture and values are imposed on other regions (Poland, Baltics, etc.) - Balkanized/Balkanization\ Divided/split up (the splitting up of...) - To toe the Party Line\ To obey the communist doctrine - Toiler\ The working class (more encompassing than proletariat) - less skilled laborers - Party Agitator\ People who promoted the party (communism) via propaganda - Think tank\ institutional collection of policy-oriented researchers and academics who are sources of policy ideas - influence politicians and often attempt to lobby government officials - Juggernaut\ (n.) a massive and inescapable force or object that crushes whatever is in its path - Preemptive action\ Military action that responds to threats before they happen - as opposed to responding to the aggression of others. - Posthumously\ after one\'s death (as in how people\'s reputations/innocence were restored after their deaths in the trials) - Dacha\ A Russian country cottage used especially in the summer (summer home) - Regalia\ emblems and symbols of royalty, rank, office, or institution - Orwellian logic\ brutal policy of draconian control via propaganda - Kremlinologist\ a term for an academic Soviet expert who studied public statements from Moscow for clues to the private political dynamics within the top ranks of the Soviet Communist Party// Name based on Russian \"white house" - Aberration\ a departure from what is normal, usual, or expected, typically one that is unwelcome/outlier - Triumphant vindication\ proving right after prior doubt//Major proving right - Expropriate\ take possession of (often for public use and without payment)// to take by force - Hewing the party line\ Exactly follow the party doctrine ** **