Stalin and the USSR
History 12
Ms Leslie
A Little bit about Stalin.
 Joseph Stalin, was born in Gori, Georgia on
21st December, 1879.
 His real last name is Djugashvili.
 Joseph's father was a bootmaker and his
mother took in washing.
 At the age of seven he contacted smallpox.
 Joseph's mother was deeply religious and in
1888 she managed to obtain him a place at
the local church school.
 he made good progress at school and
eventually won a free scholarship to the
Tiflis Theological Seminary.
 he joined a secret organization called
Messame Dassy. Members were supporters
of Georgian independence from Russia.
 Some were also socialist revolutionaries
And introduced to the ideas of Karl Marx.
 In May, 1899, Stalin was expelled from the Tiflis
Theological Seminary.
 Several reasons were given for this action
including disrespect for those in authority and
reading forbidden books.
 Stalin was later to claim that the real reason was
that he had been trying to convert his fellow
students to Marxism.
Weaseling his way to the top
 Plays up humble beginnings against
Trotsky
 Trotsky has also only been a party member
since 1917 and others resented his rapid
ascension in the party, a fact Stalin used to
get others on his side to oust Trotsky.
 Stalin got Zinoviev and Kamenev on his
side and the three of them persuaded the
Central Committee to ignore Lenin’s last
will and testament which recommended
Stalin’s removal for office.
 Stalin starts promoting ‘Socialism in
One Country’
 This means ignoring Lenin and
Trotsky’s dreams of helping revolutions
start in other countries
 It appealed to people’s patriotism while
Trotsky’s vision was one of more struggle
and hardship.
 The Bolsheviks were beginning to realize
how much needed to be rebuilt after the
Civil War and did not feel resources could
be spent spreading Socialism around the
world.
 Stalin removed Trotsky from his post in
1925.
 By 1926 Stalin had enough supporters in
the Central Committee that he no longer
needed Zinoviev and Kamenev, they were
dismissed in 1927.
What Happened to Trotsky?
 Trotsky fled in exile and traveled to many places
until settling in Mexico.
 There he wrote many Socialists texts and reviews
of the Russian Revolution and even had an affair
with the famous Mexican Painter Frida
 In 1940 Stalin felt threatened by Trotsky’s voice
of dissent and sent a Secret police assassin to
Mexico
 The assassin Stabbed Trotsky in the head
with an ice pick
 the blow did not kill Trotsky at first and
Trotsky wrestled his assassin to the ground
 When his guards burst in to the room to kill
the assassin Trotsky told them not to as the
man ‘had a story to tell’
 Trotsky was rushed to the hospital where
he under went surgery but succumbed to his
injuries the next day.
Stalin, Industrialization and
Collectivization
 Despite NEP working, Stalin turns
things down another path
 Need to increase production to go from
socialism to communism
 Stalin wanted to dominate over the
party members as there was infighting
1928 - a big year for change
 Collectivization of agriculture. Stalin
wanted to get rid of all private farms and
impose an industrial model on the country
side.
 Massive Industrialization. Industry was to
be speeded up enormously. In doing so he
would destroy the power of the Nepmen and
their supporters in the party.
The First 5 Year Plan
 Economics would not be driven by central
planning and not the free market.
Collectivization of the first 5
year plan
 Since the party was supposed to be based on
the interests of the proletariat, a lot of
energy was focused on the countryside.
 In 1928 urban areas were, once again, short
on food.
 Stalin blamed the farmers for not doing
their part and focused on the wealthier
farmers, called Kulaks.
 In reality, there were only a few Kulaks and
Stalin was just reversing Lenin’s policy of
allying with the peasants.
 Stalin believed that food shortages could
be solved by changing the peasant system.
 Any farmer could be labeled a Kulak,
Entire villages even!
 Once they had this label they were
considered class enemies and could be
destroyed.
 Farmers had to sign up to become a part of two
kinds of farms.
 The Sovkhoz, or state farm, where they would be
labourers or a Kolkhoz, or collective farm, where
there was a sort of joint ownership among
members.
 This was supposed to be run by peasants but was
really run by party members.
 On January 20, 1930 there were 4 million
peasants on collective farms.
 March 1, 1930 there were 14 million (55%
of all farmers).
 The result was a disaster, not the predicted
improvement.
 By May 1, 1930 the number on collective
farms was dropped to 6 million yet Stalin’s
goal was unchanged.
 By 1932 60% of peasant families were on
collective farms.
 In 1937 agricultural production was below
to 1928 level.
 In 1933 there were less then half as many
horses then the 1928 figure.
 The number of cattle fell by 1/3 and the
number of sheep by 1/2
 Horses were supposed to be replaced by
tractors, but not enough were produced.
 About 5 million peasants died in the
collectivization process and the famine the
followed in 1932.
 Stalin would not admit the famine existed
and would not allowed a famine relief
program
 It was the farmers who paid for the
industrialization of the USSR.
 It was pried out of their cold dead hands.
Industrialization of the First
5 year plan
 The First Five Year Plan came into effect in
April 1929. Production was to focus on
industrial goods, not consumer goods. The
goals were sky high:
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Total output to increase by 250%
Heavy industry to grow 330%
Pig Iron output by 300%
Coal production to double
Electrical out put to quadruple
 When party members challenged these
figures Stalin raised them and changed the
deadline to 4 years instead of 5.
Problems with
industrialization
 Supplies and distribution means not
there
 Factories did not have the right
equipment, or equipment did not have
factories to house them
 Products were made that did not work
just to fill quotas
 Once product was made, there was no
transportation to get the goods to
markets
 Stalin would not let up on the targets
 The NEP had encouraged the growth and
independence of unions.
 Stalin crushed them.
Stalin and Unions
 In 1929, Stalin Fired Tomsky, the party official
responsible for union activity, and replaced him
with his crony – Kaganovich.
 The duty of unions was now to ensure an
increase in production
 In 1932 workers guilty of one day’s voluntary
absence from work would cost them their job and
housing.
 In 1931 and 32 legislation was passed to force
workers to go where ever the authorities told them
Papers please
 In 1932 the old Czarist system on internal
passports was revived.
 Now people could only move with police
consent.
Wages
 Piece rate wages were introduced to replace
fixed salaries. Meaning people were paid
for each item produced not an hourly rate
 Skilled workers were paid more.
 There was also ‘material incentives’ to
increase production such as better housing,
holidays and consumer goods.
 To fail at achieving one’s production quota
was to fail the party as well.
 The government used propaganda to create
industrial heroes and provide a model for
the New Soviet Man.
 The media was full of Shock Workers and
Stakhanovites.
 Stakhanov was a coal
worker; he and his crew
were given an easy coal
seam and the best
equipment to break up 102
tons of coal in 1 shift.
Over filling their quote by
1400%. The media spread
this story all over an
expectations for normal
workers was heightened.
Results of 1-5yp
 Ended 1932, was a failure
 Successful in making a new society
 Production of Oil, Peat, sugar, coal, electrical
fixtures, automobiles, tractors all reached their
goals. But reliable figures stopped in 1931.
 Most land was collectivized, but production
stopped
 Stress was placed on technical education
 Money was raised for foreign purchases.
 Central Asia was opened to development.
Second 5 year Plan
 The Second 5 year plan was announced in
1933, to be completed in 1937.
 Its aim was to eliminated all capitalist
elements in the USSR.
 Private business and trade had already been
eliminated, except for Farmer’s markets and
the black market.
 This new plan focused on improving the
quality of goods.
 Wage differences increased.
 Collectivization continued to have
problems.
 Overshadowing the Second Five year Plan
which makes its achievements not to
important was the Great Purge.
The Great Purge
Why did they happen?
 Paranoia
due to Syphilis?
 Deep inferiority complex?
 German Gestapo creating havoc?
 5 year plans creating too much
dissent?
 Afraid of loosing power?
Stalin did not tolerate any opposition to his
policies.
 At first he was content with sending opponents
to prison camps, (3 million were sent. )
In 1934 he had the perfect cover for the launch
of the purge campaign; the leader of the
Leningrad Communist party was assassinated.
 This gave Stalin the excuse to Purge out all of
Lenin’s old supporters.
When did he make the
decision?
 Suicide of his 2nd wife in 1932 effecting him
deeply
 She had criticized his terror and he yelled at
her a stream of vulgar abuse and she shot
herself
 He was visibly shaken, tried the resign from
the party but they wouldn’t let him
 No longer trusts people close to him
 By 1934 Stalin announced there is no
one left to fight as all the peasants and
workers had been beaten into
submission.
 Now going to focus on cleaning up the
party
It Begins
 Kirov, Stalin’s second in command, is sent to
Leningrad to clean up the rest of Zinoviev
supporters there.
 On Dec 1st he is assassinated by one of Z’s
supporters
 Andre Zhdanov is sent to replace Kirov
 With in months hundreds of ‘Kirov’s
murderers’ are sent to Siberia
 Z and K are given prison sentences for
causing the murder
 Kamenev and Zinoviev were put on ‘show trial’.
These were public trials were the accused were
forced into confession with various tactics.
 K and Z were forced to confess to plotting against
Stalin with Trotsky to take over the USSR. People
would confess after torture or threats to the safety
of their family. K and Z were shot in 1936.
 It was later revealed in 1956 by Khruschev
that Stalin had ordered Kirov’s murder
 Arrests continue in 1935-36 but not in
large numbers.
 Stalin is focused on drafting a new
constitution with Bukharin.
 August 1936 Show trial begin with K
and Z with 16 other old Bolsheviks
confessing their crimes and being shot
 After the great purge
Stalin was the only
original member of the
first Bolshevik
Government of 15
members.
Third series of Show trials
 Most dramatic and bizarre
 Has high- ranking communists
 All on Lenin’s original Politburo except Stalin
 Rykov- an ex premier
 Ztukhachevsky - chief of staff
 Tomsky - ex-chief of trade unions
 Trotsky (who is in Mexico)
 The world was astounded to how
everyone would confess to the most
wildest accusations
 There was little truth to the claims
 EG meetings in hotels that no longer
exists or non existing flights landing in
airports
 No one was safe from the Purge.
 The Army, air force and navy all had
casualties in the top ranks.
 A third of the entire officer corps was lost.
Stalin even shot the leader of the NKVD to
prove that no one was safe.
 Nikolai Yezhov, an NKVD leader
photographed alongside Stalin in at least one
photograph, was shot in 1940 and
subsequently edited out of the photograph.
Not just old Bosheviks
 70% of the Party central committee on 1934
 Most high ranking official son the army
 25% of the entire officer corps
 90% of the central trade union committees
 Almost all soviet ambassadors in Europe and
Asia
 Manages, Intellectuals, lower party members
Who carried out the purges?
 Stalin had created his own secret police.
The NKVD (People's Commissariat for
Internal Affairs) was the public and secret
police organization of the Soviet Union that
directly executed the rule of terror,
including political repression, during the
Stalinist era.
 Millions of ordinary citizens also
accused
 Orders sent out to the NKVD to arrest a
certain percentage of the population
 As many as 8 million were arrested
Why Confess?
 Confessions made through torture - physical
and mental.
 Thought confessing would bring a lighter
sentence
 Save their families
 End the torture
 Final service to the party - be the last to die
for the party to stop the bloodshed
And if you didn’t confess?
 Secret trials… or just simply an
execution with out trial
 Fate of all military leaders
Was there any truth to the
confessions?
 Not really
 Maybe in the case of some of the
military as some did plan a coup
What did the Great Purge
Accomplish?
 Stalin is unchallenged totalitarian
master
 A whole lot of slave labour
Who’s the NKVD?
 The NKVD contained the regular, public
police force of Soviet Russia and the USSR
(including traffic police, firefighting, border
guards and archives) but is better known for
the activities of the Gulag and eventually
becoming the Committee for State Security
(KGB).
But what did they do?
 conducted mass extrajudicial executions,
 ran the Gulag system of forced labor,
 suppressed underground resistance,
 conducted mass deportations of nationalities and
"Kulaks" to unpopulated regions of the country,
 guarded state borders,
 conducted espionage and political assassinations
abroad,
 was responsible for influencing foreign
governments,
 and enforced Stalinist policy within
Communist movements in other countries
How did Stalin get away with it?
 Cult of Personality. A cult of personality
arises when a country's leader uses mass
media to create a heroic public image, often
through unquestioning flattery and praise.
 strong and vivid personality
 Knew how to charm people
 Name linked with Lenin
 May 5, 1920, Lenin gave a speech to a crowd of
Soviet troops in Sverdlov Square, Moscow. In the
foreground was Leon Trotsky and Lev Kamenev. The
photo was later altered and both were removed by
censors.
 Stalin knew how popular Lenin was and
saw to it that history was rewritten in such a
way as to make his own relations with
Lenin seem much more friendly than they
had been in fact.
 The rewriting was so thorough that perhaps
Stalin himself believed his own version in
the end.