Russia and the Soviet Union 1917-1941

Survey: Bolshevik consolidation of power, including:

An overview of Bolshevik ideology, the October Coup 1917 and early soviet
government
• Bolshevik ideology of passing power to the industrial working class can be attributed to
the work of Karl Marx
• Marx outlines that the working class was being exploited therefore had to find a way to
become the owners of capital
o Proletariat: ‘Working Class’
• In 1917 Lenin produced the treatise ‘State and Revolution’ in which he outlined
Bolshevik tactics for the coming struggle
o Plan was to destroy bourgeois parliamentarianism
o ‘Power to the soviets’
o ‘Peace, Bread, Land’
o Bourgeois: ‘Middle class’
o He believed the proletariat were able to create a successful revolution due to their
numerical size and political education
• Lenin believed that a revolution could happen once an adequate party had arose to lead
the masses. Overtime the party state would be replaced by ‘dictatorship of the
proletariat’
• From the 1905 revolution Lenin understood that the cooperation between workers and
peasants would be a necessity

^Principles of Bolshevik ideology^

• The internationalisation of Communism
• All businesses put into the hands of industrial workers instead of private owners
• Coercive apparatus to deal with internal enemies and external powers

^The 1917 October Coup^

• This was the Bolshevik seizure of power
• Many disliked the Provisional government after the abdication of the Tsar as they
remained in the war, ‘bourgeois war’
• The revolution was carried out by Leon Trotsky, the president of the Petrograd Soviet
• 6 November: Red guards took all important locations such as telephone exchange,
railway stations and government buildings
• 8 November: Provisional Gov was arrested by contingent of red guards. Lenin issued
the decree on peace and the decree on land
• By the 16 November the Bolsheviks had taken control of Moscow

^Early soviet government^

• Exit the war + Restore economy = Establishment of effective rule
• Savnarkom = Bolshevik cabinet
• Two views were contested in the cabinet about the nature in which they should rule:
o Liberatarian or Authoritarian
• The liberatarian ideal favoured the principles of creativity and power
• Authoritarian believed in the necessary use of control, discipline, dictatorship and
application of violence
• The first acts reflected Liberatarain ideals:
o Decree on Peace: Proclaimed a new method in international affairs, free of private
diplomacy and founded on an ideal of peace
o Decree on Land: All land held by the gentry was transferred to the peasant land
 o Decree on Workers control: allowed workers to supervise their managers
• Many saw their initial ruling as disingenuous and deceptive behind a liberatarain front
• Lenin also argued for coercion and discipline within society, this is supported by:
o Press law: Asserted the closure of ‘bourgeois’ papers
o CHEKA: The communist secret police in Russia established on 5 December
o Additionally those who opposed the Bolshevik regime were imprisoned
• After the first few months of ruling, their position still remained tenuous as the economic
situation failed to improve and anti-Bolsheviks were starting to move against the regime
• RHB Lockhart: “The Bolsheviks have established a rule of force and oppression
unequalled in the history of any autocracy”

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Civil War and the introduction of the New Economic
Policy
^The treaty of Brest-Litovsk^
• Lenin was determined with attaining peace at any cost, therefore the Russians signed
the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918
• The terms of the treaty were universally rejected due to the unfavourable conditions for
Russia including the loss of territory home to 62 million people, 32% of its arable land,
25% of industry and 90% of its coal mines
• After the signing Anti-Bolshevik feelings were common
• It was the catalyst for the civil war
• Counter-revolutionary groups believed Russia’s sovereignty was threatened and
therefore sought to remove the Bolsheviks

^The Russian civil war^

• Spring 1918-1920
• The Bolsheviks, ‘red army’, were opposed by many groups, ‘white army’
• ‘White army led by former Tsarist military officers and the ‘red army’ was led by Lenin
and Trotsky
• The Bolsheviks were opposed by the Mensheviks, liberal cadets and foreign countries
as many nations sent troops and funding to stop the Bolsheviks
• The Bolsheviks emerged victorious from the war and as a result their ideology had been
profoundly changed
• The state had become centralised and Emancipatory ideology was heightened by the
war
• The Bolsheviks were victorious due to geographical factors, unity and organisation,
leadership, support and foreign intervention

^The NEP^
• At the closure of the war the economy was collapsing and there was widespread famine
= Widespread anger in society with many protesting for change in economic policy e.g.
Workers in Petrograd drafted a proclamation in which they demanded freedom of
speech, press and the abolition of martial law
• Noteable event = Rebellion at Kronstadt naval base in which initial supporters of
Bolshevism were now also demanding change. The rebellion was crushed
• In March 1921 the party finally introduced the New Economic Policy, it constituted the:
o Free market in grain and peasants could grow and sell what they wanted
o Denationalisation of a segment of industry = Small scale private industry
• Economic conditions started to improve and by 1926 economic conditions had reached
pre war levels
• It was believed that Lenin was moving to capitalism, he suggested that the civil war had
taken its toll and Russia didn’t have enough personal to run the country
 The Bolsheviks and the power struggle following the death of
Lenin, including:
The impact of the Bolshevik consolidation of power, including the creation of the
USSR
• Lenin now enforced compliance from those within the party, hence a purge in 1921
aimed at ‘eliminating radishes’: Those who were red on the outside but really white on
the inside
• By 1922 ¼ of the party had been expelled with the assistance of the CHEKA who had
been given unquestioned authority
• The Bolsheviks were now stern, disciplined, devoted and organised

The creation of the USSR

• Stalin was appointed as Commissar of Nationalities
• Lenin and Stalin both hoped surrounding nationalities would support the communist
movement and in turn would create a federation of communist states
• However this wish was ignored as the Communists were not willing to let economically
valuable parts of their empire, instead during the civil war they imposed communist
governments on these nationalities
• Beginning of 1924, a new constitution created the USSR, Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics
• Constitution:
o Outlined basic rights and freedoms of the people
o All adults allowed the right to vote
o Guaranteed freedom of conscience and religion for all
• Parliament:
o All union congress of soviets which only met for a few days a year
o Elected the Central Executive Committee (CEC), who met more often and had
more power
o Those in the CEC elected the Sovnarkom
• The communist party:
o Large all union congress elected by party members, and a smaller more powerful
central committee
o Top of the party structure was the Politburo, who decided party policy
• The secret police:
o The CHEKA was abolished in 1922 and replaced by the GPU who were later
replaced by the OGPU in 1924

The power struggle between Trotsky, Stalin and leading Bolshevik figures 1920
Death of Lenin
• On 30th August 1918, Lenin gave a speech to workers at Michelson factory in Moscow
• When he was leaving he was shot twice, he was rushed home and luckily survived
• Lenin's final years were difficult as he suffered three strokes, with a stroke on 24th
January 1924, killing him that day

The succession
• Russia had fallen into backwardness = Bourgeois culture had returned, social problems
persisted, workers were a subordinate class and crime was rampant
• The NEP represented a betrayal of the ideas of the revolution
• Two major challenges that Russia faced:
o How to overcome the backwardness and build Socialism?
o Who would guide Russia into the future?
• Two influential people led the power struggle: Leon Trotsky and Nikolai Bukharin

Trotsky
• Trotsky headed a campaign calling for the use of force, coercion and even terror to
suppress any opposition
• Defended the use of terror, suggesting that in times of unrest
• Trotsky believed Russia’s backwardness was their biggest problem, therefore
establishment of vanguard was necessary and industrialisation prioritised
• Trotsky was politically alienated in the power struggle as he criticised the trends of
authoritarian and bureaucratisation
• “He was the only Marxist who had possessed literary genius … Trotsky gave already the
answer to which he adhered all his life: permanent revolution” AJP Taylor
• Lenin: “the most able man in the party”

Nikolai Bukahrin
• Against the treaty of Brest-litovsk and desired a permanent revolution
• In 1928 Stalin, accused his group as a ‘Right deviation’ and chose to expel him from the
party
• Lenin: “The most liked man in the party”
• Opposed the economic arguments of Trotsky
• Advocate for maintaining Peasant support “One should approach the peasant with love,
not hate” = Gradual, peaceful revolution

The Right
• Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky
• Urged continuation of the NEP to urge peasants to produce more
• Growth of town population to produce consumer goods

The left
• Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev
• Disagreed with the NEP
• Collectivisation of farms
• Urged industrialization
• Money to be obtained by taxing peasants

Reasons for the emergence of Stalin as leader of the USSR by the late 1920s
• Stalin understood the changing nature of the party = Bureaucratic and hierarchical
• He therefore knew who held considerable power within the politburo and other positions
would be able to assume power
• Position of Commissar of Nationalities: Build up contacts in border areas
• He chaired the Organisational Bureau (Orgburo): They recruited members and chose
who would be expelled
• Most important position was that of General Secretary where he was responsible for
promotions, demotions and various appointments. Soon thousands of party members
owed their position to Stalin
• Ability to outmaneuver his opponents
• “Russian society already lived under Stalin’s virtual rule, without being aware of
Stalin’s name” - Boetke

The death of Lenin

• Timely for Stalin = Deteriorating relationship with Lenin/
• Lenin’s will highlighted his growing distaste for Stalin and suggested that he be removed
from the position of General Secretary
• Stalin was not dependent on Lenin to the extent in which his opponents were
• The use of the Lenin Enrolment, saw an increase of party members. Stalin was able to
build networks of Loyal supporters
• Stalin managed to survive Lenin’s will as Zinoviev grossly underestimated the power of
Stalin and spoke in his defence at the central committee = The will was not published
• “Stalin could now wipe that cold sweat from his brown. He was back in the saddle, firmly
and for good” - Isaac Deutshcer

Development and abuse of the cult of Lenin

• Stalin raised Lenin to an almost divine status, in which he presented himself as totally
loyal
• Stalin manipulated the words and actions of Lenin to legitimise his actions and the
introduction of party policy in the Politburo
• He used this “cult of Lenin” as a means of criticising the campaign of Trotsky, accusing
him of lacking the sufficient heroism, optimism and faith that Lenin had
• “in the mind of the young communist, the selection of such quotations added up to a
picture of Trotsky malevolently opposing Lenin at every turn of events” (Deutscher,
1953)

The contrast of Stalin and Trotsky

• “Grey blur” described y Sukhanov
• Stalin was a backroom bureaucrat = Noone suspected his ambitions for power
• People believed most likely would be a military dictatorship = Trotsky
• Stalin kept his views to himself and had time for people were as Trotsky was arrogant
and showed little patience for his intellectual inferiors

Luck, opportunism and how to play the political game

• Partly attributed to Luck: Lenin’s death, Trotsky’s absence at lenin’s funeral and
Zinoviev speech
• He also knew how to play the political game: Use of key positions to ensure success
during votes, and was very good at forming and reforming political alliances

Understanding of the mood of the country

• Mood = Rest from the strains of war and revolution
• Supporters of NEP as it provided peace and consolidation
• Introduction of “socialism in one country” = Understanding of nationalism

The soviet state under Stalin, including

The nature of the USSR under Stalin, including dictatorship and totalitarianism
Totalitarianism
• Totalitarian rule: Individual or party has total control over the economic, political,
cultural and militaristic features of control
• Totalitarian as they had an elaborate ideology, single mass party, system of terror,
control of mass media and the economy as well as a monopoly of weapons
• Complete authoritarian rule = Indoctrination, terror and victimisation
• Life of terror, with an emphasis on the need to industrialise
• The need for industrialisation = Increased employment, collective land and appalling
working conditions
• Famine = 5 million die in Ukraine
• Employment rose from 11 million to 24 million in first five year plan
• Ideology:
o Religion banned
o 7 day working weeks
o Women seen as equal
o Education key = By 1939 85% of the population could read and write
• Rewriting of history through censorship
• Construction of cult of personality = Masses of photos
• Purging of political opponents through show trials and fabrication of events =
Communists suffered the worst and of the original central committee only Stalin survive
• Bullock: Suggests that Russia was a police state with a one man rule reliant on terror,
concentration camps and the big lie

Economic transformation under Stalin and its impact on Soviet society, including
collectivisation and the five-year plans
• Gov took control of the economy
• Set production targets for industrialisation, failure to achieve targets = Criminal offence
• Industrial centres and major industrial areas were established from nothing
• ‘Scissors crisis’ = Widening gap in prices between agricultural and industrial goods
(Poor efficiency in industrialisation)
• Rationale:”We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must
make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or we shall be crushed”
• Kochan: “Technical institutes, colleges and universities, factory schools, all were
pressed into service to provide new generations of skilled workers”

Five year plan

• ‘Top down’ process, Commissariats > Regional admins > Individual enterprises
• First plan: October 1928 - 1932: Emphasis on industrialisation. Workers mobilised and
sent to production sites. Impossible targets
• Second Plan: 1933-37: Emphasis on heavy industry and transportation was given a
high priority.
o Targets more reasonable
o Introduction of Stakhanovite movement: Celebrated a workers willingness to
produce more than the required work norm
• Third Plan: did not go the full term due to German invasion. Emphasis on building
armaments preparing for war

Target for 1933 Actual Result

Coal: 75.0 million tonnes 64 Million tonnes

Oil: 21.7 Million tonnes 21.4 million tonnes

Pig Iron: 10.0 million tonnes 6.2 million tonnes

• Class B industries were expected to double their output, GNP to be 236% above the
1927-28 level and increase by 600% in terms of electrical power
• Effectiveness of Industrialisation can be questioned due to supervisors fabricating
output statistics, supported by Nove “The simplest thing to do was to avoid
responsibility”

Collectivisation
• Was needed to drive the process of industrialisation by producing the necessary capital
• Peasants forced into state owned collective farms
• Aim to destroy the kulaks, in a process of ‘dekulakization’ = Wealthy peasants who held
a lot of capital
• Politically: The communist party now had complete control over the countryside.
Prevention of Peasants using economic power against the Regime as they were now
dependent on the state for employment
• Economically = Grain procurement rose from 15% in 1928 to 32% in 1934, helped to
generate capital exports rose from 0.03 million to 4.76 million tonnes
• Socially = Rural society had been changed forever but not without resistance from
peasants who killed livestock and produce just enough grain for food. They resented the
whole process. E.g. in 1929 18 million horses and 100 million sheep destroyed
• David Christian: “Collectivisation had secured for the Soviet Government the sort of
power over the countryside that the tsarist government had at its height”
• Grain procurements were much higher, but at the cost of society, as peasants
independence had come to an end with many referring to it as serfdom returning.
Additionally there was a great cost to human life

Political transformation under Stalin: Growth of the party, use of terror, show trials,
gulags, propaganda and censorship

Growth of the Party

• Ensure absolute power > Elimination of opposition > Totalitarian regime under the
banner of Socialism
• After Lenin’s death the party became increasingly bureaucratic
• The 1936 constitution = consolidate power
o Power of central government expanded
o Moscow took control of the administration of defence, foreign policy and the
budget
o Direct elections
o Former ‘class enemies’ granted full rights

Use of terror and show trials

• Terror used to drive political transformation = No opposition
• Stalin oversaw the elimination of approximately 20 million people through the use of the
NKVD
• In the Great Purge (1936-1938) 600,000 were killed
• Murder of Sergei Kirov = Used as pretext to launch purges
• Arrests of party officials, old Bolsheviks and ordinary citizens
• Moscow Show trials > Propaganda event = Prominent communists were accused of
plotting against Stalin > improbable confessions = Execution (Zinoviev and Kamenev)
• Army was also purged > 9 out of 10 generals = Ill-prepared for WW2
• During the great purge Intellectuals, writers and poets, musicians and actors, religious
figures and communists were targeted = No cultural expression
• Denouncing of friends and colleagues

Gulags
• By 1941 they were the single largest employer in the world
• Extensive prison and labour camp system
• By the late 1940s = 2 -2.5 million prisoners
• Accounted for 12-15% of the entire economy in the 1930s

Propaganda and censorship

• During consolidation of power = Targeted the Bolshevik party to portray him as the most
preferred leader
• Once he was leader he promoted “socialism in one country”
• During industrialisation = Glorification of heroes and promoting kulaks as the enemy
• Show trials = Inspired fear and resulted in loyalty to Stalin’s ideology
• Stalin as a war hero = Portrayed in military uniform and history is rewritten to portray
him as the hero of the civil war
• Stalin promoted an extensive censorship campaign = Doctoring of images to portray him
as close to Lenin and an important figure within the establishment of the party. He also
removed people from the image who had been purged

Social and cultural change in the USSR

• Key elements ‘Discipline’ and ‘conformity’
• Religion and church was condemned however some churches allowed to function
allowing gov to claim “Freedom of conscience”
• Women given civil, legal and electoral equity = Elaborate front to improve employment
• Increased opportunities for education and encouraged to join workforce
• Values of school teachers questioned, with education having tight programs and
activities e.g. ‘a short history of the USSR’ became compulsory teaching
• Slogan ‘Life has become more joyful’ = Illusion of prosperity and happiness
• Historians targeted
• Socialism realism = Arts to express communist progress
• Social and cultural change was accepted by the younger generation
• Creation of large, modern industrial base (urbanisation and poor living conditions)
• Targeting the religions within Russia
• Expansion of services (education, health etc) ‘nascent welfare state’
•

Soviet foreign policy (both dot points)

• Bolshevik ideology is contradicted by foreign policy
• Nov 1917-June 1918:
o Calls for world revolution (lenin believed this would happen over time)
o Introduction of Comintern, wanted to assist in communist revolutionaries and
destroy democracy however key contradiction as the Soviet commissariat of
Foreign Affairs was trying to develop relationships with same countries
o Signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to ensure peace > catalyst for civil war
• 1917 - 1921 “the desperate years”:
o Essential goal was survival
o “The strangling of Bolshevism at its birth would have been an untold blessing to
the human race” - Winston Churchill
o The Comintern has been described by Deutscher as a constant “old ideological
antagonism”
• Did not achieve diplomatic relations with the USA
• Alastair Kocho Willaims ‘...Soviet foregin policy was the product of a mix of Marxist
ideology and pragmatism in the face of what could be realistically be brought about’
• Marxist internationalism (foreign policy pure what wanted to be achieved) opposed by
the State/Internal security causing tension.

Preservation and Security (Aims for Stalinism)

• Growing ‘capitalist encirclement’
• Construction of a modern economic base= crucial to defence
• Internal security an increasing concern throughout the 1930s as war approached

Economic Transformation
Themes that would be useful to explore:
• Increased state control over the Soviet countryside
• Secured resources for state use (e.g. grain for sale on international market)
• Freed up significant population for alternative labour (industry, gulags and military)
 • Devastated key groups within the population (esp. Kulaks, Ukrainians, Kazakhs etc.)
• Increasingly unstable society (old certainties and structures destroyed)

Political Transformation
Themes that would be useful to explore:
• Growth of Stalin’s personal dictatorship (immense power and weaknesses)
• Party no longer a ‘vanguard’ unit but a mass organisation (2 million + members)
• Party composition = majority younger men
• Increased reliance on secret police (NKVD) and forced labour (gulags
• Episodes of widespread political violence and more extreme

Questions
• What were the aims of Stalin and his ‘team’?
• What policies/strategies were implemented to reach these aims?
• What evidence of continuity and change is there as a result of these policies?
• How did these policies affect different groups within Soviet society?
• What kind of society emerged from this process by 1941?

Power and Authority Review

• Power: can be generated by force. Power is generated through fear and reward: a
feature of all major dictatorships following WW1.
• At the Treaty of Versailles the public dictated what action should be taken to reflect
the democratic ideals of these countries. Countries that had authority were able to
persuade (through force and propaganda) the public which created obedience and
allowed them to control over society
• Authority: legitimate authority which is supported by the people of a legitimate
power, democracies are based on Authority and rely on all people in society.
Legitimate authority that was established by LON created by the power of these
dictatorships.
• Powers that held the authority carried some authority into the LON (US, Britain,
France, Italy) soon to be weakened with all four powers after WW1 want to be
aggressive (Japan, Germany, Italy, Austria)- decocratic societies had their power
was limited because it was based on the authority granted to them by the voters at
home.

Authority in Japan:
• Tojo’s dictatorship in Japan offers greater control in terms of the relationship of power
and authority than others. Power built on one man different to other countries. Tojo
was the leader of oligarchy (a group of powers)- was justified by the emperor.
• The revisionist powers Japan wanted a change or revision of the world order due to
dissatisfaction from the Paris Peace Conference.