 When
we examine the reasons behind the
rise of Stalin, there are TWO MAIN FACTORS
RESPONSIBLE:
 Stalin’s Cunning Personality




Stalin outwitted his Rivals
Stalin Pretended to have been Close to Lenin
Made Alliances
Used His Position as Secretary-General of the
Party
 Favorable

Circumstances
Trotsky’s Weaknesses
1)
Stalin Outwitted His Rivals

When Lenin died, there were four
contenders to his place – Leon Trotsky,
Lev Kamenev, Grigory Zinoviev and
Joseph Stalin.

Although Trotsky, Kamenev and Zinoviev
were much more capable than Stalin,
Stalin managed to outwit them and claim
leadership despite Lenin’s will criticising
Stalin and naming Trotsky as a successor.
1)
Stalin Outwitted His Rivals
 Stalin
used Kamenev and Zinoviev to get
rid of Trotsky before turning on Kamenev
and Zinoviev in later years.
 Stalin
was able to outwit all his rivals
because no one saw him as a threat to
their rise in power. As a result, Stalin was
able to use them against each other and
rise to power.
2) Stalin Pretended to have been Close to Lenin

Stalin tricked Trotsky and made him miss
Lenin’s funeral which reflected very badly on
Trotsky.

Stalin also organised Lenin’s funeral and made
himself the chief mourner which gave people
the impression he was very close to Lenin.

As a result of pretending to be close to Lenin,
many party members supported Stalin’s rise
to power.
3) Trotsky’s Weaknesses

Stalin was also able to rise due to Trotsky’s
weaknesses. Trotsky had a narrow support base
limited to youths, students and the Red Army. As
he was too confident of replacing Lenin, he did not
bother to build a Party support base unlike Stalin.

He was not well liked in the Party and his views on
world revolution were not popular as the Party
members preferred the more practical Stalinist
view of working on Socialism within the country
first.

As a result, Stalin was more popular with the
party members and was able to rise to power.
4) Made Alliances

Stalin made alliances with Kamenev and
Zinoviev to have Trotsky removed and exiled
from Russia.

Once he had achieved his purposes, Stalin
turned on Kamenev and Zinoviev using other
alliances and had them removed from the
Party.

With all these threats removed, Stalin was
able to rise within the party.
5) Used his Position as Secretary-General

Stalin used his position as Secretary-General of the
Party to appoint his supporters to important posts,
ensuring their loyalty.

By controlling the central Party machine, he was
able to exert great influence on the Party members
and get them to vote on his policies or initiatives
(e.g. voting out of Trotsky in 1925).

As a result Stalin was able to rise in power
because he was able to gain loyal supporters and
influence the party to vote for decisions that
would benefit him.

Stalin's first wife, Ekaterina Svanidze, died in 1907, only four years after their
marriage. At her funeral, Stalin allegedly said that any warm feelings he had
for people died with her, for only she could melt his 'stony heart’.. They had
a son together, Yakov Dzhugashvili, with whom Stalin did not get along in
later years.

His son finally shot himself because of Stalin's harshness toward him, but
survived. After this, Stalin said "He can't even shoot straight". Yakov served in
the Red Army during World War II and was captured by the Germans. They
offered to exchange him for Fieldmarshal Paulus, but Stalin turned the offer
down, allegedly saying "A lieutenant is not worth a general"; others credit him
with saying "I have no son," to this offer, and Yakov is said to have committed
suicide, running into an electric fence in Sachsenhausen concentration camp,
where he was being held.

His second wife was Nadezhda Alliluyeva, who died in 1932; she may have
committed suicide by shooting herself after a quarrel with Stalin, leaving a
suicide note which according to their daughter was "partly personal, partly
political”.

In his book The Wolf of the Kremlin, Stuart Kahan claimed that Stalin was
secretly married to a third wife named Rosa Kaganovich. Rumors of this
marriage were later denied.

In 1927 Stalin succeeded in defeating the entire opposition and in
eliminating its leaders from the party. He then adopted much of
its domestic program by starting a five-year plan (FYP) of
industrial development

The price the Soviet Union paid for this great achievement
remains staggering. It included the destruction of all free
enterprise (business organizations) in both town and country. The
transformation of Soviet agriculture in the early 1930s into
collectives (groups of managed farms) tremendously damaged
the country's food production. Living standards were drastically
lowered at first, and more than 1 million people died of
starvation.

Historians consider his government one of history's worst
examples of totalitarianism, or having complete political control
with no opposition.
 Collectivization
-
– collective and state farms
Role of the kulaks – misconceptions
Nationwide famine
 Industrialization
– five - Five Year Plans (FYP)
- first FYP 1928 -32
- second FYP 1933-37
- third FYP 1938 - 41
- forth FYP 1946 - 50
- fifth FYP 1951 -55
 Following
the 1917 Revolution, Russia
underwent an agricultural and industrial
revolution (sometimes referred to as the
second revolution or the ‘revolution from
above’)
COLLECTIVIZATION
Was collectivization voluntary? Less that 5% of
the population agreed, the rest were coerced
into it. The kulaks suffered the most as they
were targeted by the Stalinist propaganda. The
were not the exploiting class, they were just
hardworking peasants.
 It
created widespread famine and disaster.
The food produced was being exported in
order to gain $$ for rapid industrialization.
 Was
collectivization successful?
- detrimental to society, economically it was
a disaster, it created famine. Between 19291933 – 14.5 million people died due to famine.
- it actually achieved its initial purpose – pay
for industrialization
 The
NEP (New Economic Policy) was
dismissed and replaced with the aggressive
FYP (Five Year Plan)
 How successful and accurate was the first
FYP? Achievement was extraordinary – BUT
no rewards for the workers in terms of living
conditions – Stalin called for sacrifice
 Did it meet resistance along the way?
Yes, the plan encountered sabotage along the
way. The blame was passed onto the managers.
Cadres – corporate spies (party members)
 Targets
were more realistic
 Scapegoats? Finding people responsible for
the shortcomings. ANYBODY could be
considered a scapegoat.
 Cheka
– established under Lenin in 1917
 GPU – established in 1922 - name later
changed to OGPU
 NKVD – established in 1934
 The NKVD was reorganized again and
renamed KGB in 1946 and it died with Stalin
in 1953
 Today it is called the FSB


In 1933, the Government Political Administration (GPU)
became known as the People's Commissariat for Internal
Affairs (NKVD).
Genrikh Yagoda, was appointed as the head of the NKVD.
One of his first tasks was to remove Stalin's main rival for
the leadership of the party. Sergy Kirov had been a loyal
supporter of Stalin but he grew jealous of his popularity. As
Edward P. Gazur has pointed out: "In sharp contrast to
Stalin, Kirov was a much younger man and an eloquent
speaker, who was able to sway his listeners; above all, he
possessed a charismatic personality. Unlike Stalin who was
a Georgian, Kirov was also an ethnic Russian, which stood
in his favour." According to Orlov, who had been told this
by Yagoda, Stalin decided that Kirov had to die.
 Purges
used as mechanisms of terror and
control
 The Prelude (party members had to show
party cards – CPSU warrant granting
membership to the holder)
 Nikolai Yezhov – leader of the NKDV (1937),
nicknamed “Poisonous Dwarf”
 Post-Kirov Purges (1934-1936) – Rapid
industrialization
 Internal
party purges vs external party
purges
 “Illegal” according to the Russia law.
 Evidence/testimonials were forced through
physical and psychological torture
THE GREAT TERROR 1937-39
- fear of Red army betrayal – purge of the
army as a result
- purge against the people through means of
labor camps and mass repressions
 Origins
of the cult 1924-29
 Cult
underway 1929-1933
 Cult
fully established 1933-1939
 Height
of the cult post - 1945


Development of totalitarian/autocratic society - Stalin seen as an idol to many –
nicknames included the “Red Tsar”, “man of the people”, “Father of All Nations”,
“Great Helmsman”

characterized as a great father, adored and idolized

long standing ovations at speeches – no one wanted to be the first to stop
clapping
Stalin committed to eliminating all opposition

destruction or alteration of many documents to create an ideal legacy

alteration of Constitution in 1936 (lasted until 1977)
 bicameral legislature
 free elections, universal suffrage
 Bill of Rights (worthless – thousands of people exiled/killed without trial
during the Purges)
 renamed many institutions – for example, Central Committee became
Supreme Soviet
 only one party permitted to exist
 in 1939, Communist party members only numbered 1.5million (not even
close to representative of the entire nation)

State power did not wither away (as Marx prescribed), but grew tremendously large


Stalin justified this as necessary to lead USSR to socialism and defend against
foreign capitalism
Russian Orthodox Church abolished (Marxists were atheist)

priests exiled and humiliated; thousands sent to gulag or killed

by 1930s, USSR economy was entirely centralized and planned – priority given to
heavy industry (“the way of the future”)

some chances for advancement among workers, but required exceptionally hard
work

Socialist realism – official style (for music, drama, literature, art)

artists forced to produce works that glorified Stalin and the Soviet state, to the
point of ridiculousness

towns renamed after Stalin (ex: Stalingrad)

Equality: women given equal education and rights to employment.

(In theory) universal access to health and education

The Stalin Cult used Stalin's image to manipulate people into feeling as if he
were an omnipotent leader, whom everyone loved and revered. His image
dominated the Soviet Union invoking feelings of purpose and unity, thus
providing something the people could have confidence in, during a period of
rapid change in Russia.

Crucial Aspects of the Cult of Personality
his image was literally everywhere, portraying him as the heir of Lenin and the
only man capable of interpreting the party's ideology
-the cult was useful in holding Soviet society together because of the
economic and political circumstances of Soviet Russia, specifically the
disruption and chaos brought about by the first five year plans
-Paintings, poetry, prose, and sculpture of Stalin were utilized in developing
and establishing the cult of personality.
-In addition, opera's and films exaggerated and glorified Stalin's role in the
Revolution, portraying him as the chief hero of the Civil War
-Success in World War II fed the cult and Stalin's image
-the message the people received from all of the images of Stalin can be
summarized as, "Stalin is everywhere present and watching over you; he
understands your hopes and has your best interests at heart."
-Although the cult was a carefully planned propaganda campaign, it appears
the adulation was not entirely manufactured. It was able to grow because it
stem from real affection for Stalin and the ideas that people thought he
stood for
-Sarah Davies in her book Popular Opinion in Stalin's Russia: Terror,
propaganda and Dissent 1934-41 identifies three ways in which people
reacted to the Stalin Cult, and they are as follows:
*Benefactor, Traditional defender of people, and Charismatic leader
- A substantial portion of the population, specifically intellectuals,
experienced party members, and workers were aware of the absurdities of
the Cult. However, even amongst those who did not like him, many often
admired and respected him. There was a feeling that Stalin was a great
leader and that although his methods were harsh, he accomplished a lot,
such as industrializing the USSR and transforming it into a great world power
that other nations respected
-the cult of personality played an important role in increasing Stalin's
popularity. It influenced all areas of Soviet society and ultimately ushered in
feelings of unity, purpose, and clarity during a period of instability and rapid
change.