From Lenin to Stalin
Russian Revoution
Death of Lenin
• January 1924 –
thousands lined up to
view the corpse of Lenin.
• No simple burial
• Communist party (Stalin)
wanted him on
permanent display
• By preserving Lenin –
Stalin showed he would
carry on the revolution.
Building the Communist Soviet Union
• After revolution was won – Lenin turned to
securing his personal power and rebuilding
Russia.
• Government:
– Constitution seemed both democratic and
socialist
– Elected legislature called Supreme Soviet
– All citizens over 18 had right to vote
Building the Communist Soviet Union
• Russian Empire became the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics – U.S.S.R.
• Multinational state made up of European and
Asian peoples
• In THEORY, all people shared certain equal
rights.
• Reality:
– Communist party ruled supreme – not the people
– Used military and secret police to impose its will
Lenin’s NEP
• ‘war communism’ had brought the economy
to near collapse.
– Factory and mine production had fallen
– Peasants stopped producing grain knowing
government would take it
• 1921 – New Economic Policy or NEP adopted
Lenin’s NEP
• Allowed some capitalist ventures
• State control of banks, foreign trade, and large
industries
• Small business allowed to operate for profit
• Peasants allowed to farm small plots and sell
excess for profit
• Compromise with capitalism helped USSR
recover economically.
– Only temporary
Stalin Gains Power
• Lenin’s death caused a
power struggle:
– Leon Trotsky
– Joseph Stalin
• Leon Trotsky
– Marxist thinker
– Skilled speaker
– Architect of Bolshevik
Revolution
Leon Trotsky
Joseph Stalin
• Stalin:
– Not a scholar or orator
– Shrewd politician and
behind the scenes
organizer.
• Born Joseph Djugashvili
• Took the name Stalin
which means “man of
steel”
Stalin Gains Power
• General secretary of the Communist Party
• Built a loyal group of officials that owed their jobs
to him
• Lenin did not want Stalin to succeed him:
– Thought he would abuse his power
• Stalin and his supporters isolated Trotsky within
the party
• Trotsky was stripped of his membership and he
fled the country in 1929 – assassinated in Mexico
by Stalinist agent
Stalin’s Five Year Plan
• Set out to make USSR a modern industrial
power
• Plan:
– Build heavy industry
– Improve transportation
– Increase farm output
• All economic activity brought under
Government control.
Command Economy
• Government officials make all basic economic
decisions
• Government owned all businesses
• Government allocated all financial and other
resources
• Capitalist economy is controlled by the free
market; business is privately owned and
operated for a profit
Mixed Industrial Results
• Five year plan set high
production goals
• Government gave bonuses
to those who achieved goals
–punished those that didn’t!
• 1928-1939 USSR
modernized and increased
industrial output
Mixed Industrial Results
• Soviet workers had little to show for their
efforts:
– Standard of living remained low
– Wages were low
– Consumer goods scarce
• Central planning was inefficient
– Shortages of some goods, surplus of others
– Managers only concerned with quotas – quality
not a concern!
Revolution in Agriculture
• Agriculture brought under state control
• Private farms were seen as inefficient and a
threat to state power.
• Peasants forced off private plots to:
– State owned farms
– Collectives
• Collectives are large farms owned and
operated by peasants as a group.
Collectives
• Peasants kept homes and personal possessions
• Farm animals and machinery turned over to the
collective.
• State set all prices and controlled access to
supplies
• Theory – govt. supplied equipment, seeds, and
training in modern farming methods
• Goal – to feed the urban factory workers and sell
surplus abroad to earn money.
Ruthless Policy
• Peasants resisted:
– Killing farm animals
– Destroyed tools
– Burned crops
• Government responded with brutal force
– Set out to destroy kulaks – wealthy peasants
– Confiscated land and sent to work camps
• Thousands killed or died from overwork
Ruthless Policy
• Peasants only grew enough food for
themselves
– Govt. seized all grain leaving peasants to starve
• 5-8 million died just in the Ukraine
• Collectivization increased Stalin’s control but
didn’t improve farm output
– Feeding the nation remained a problem in the
Soviet Union until its demise in 1990s
The Great Purge
• Stalin obsessed with fears of plots against him.
• Stalin’s secret police cracked down on
– Party Activist, army heroes, industrial managers,
writers, ordinary citizens
• Charges were counterrevolutionaries or just
failure to meet production goals
• 1936-1938 some 4 Million people “purged”
The Great Purge
• Increased Stalin’s power
• Young party members owed him absolute
loyalty
• Soviet citizens well aware of consequences of
disloyalty
• Result –
– Purge included experienced military officers
– Hurt USSR when Germany invaded in 1941
Soviet Foreign Policy
• Wanted to bring worldwide Revolution as
Marx had predicted
• Wanted to guarantee security of USSR by
winning support of other nations
• Communist International (Comintern) to
support revolutionary groups
• Sought to join League of Nations to improve
relations with western governments.
Three Revolutions Compared
• American Revolution
– Least radical; no mass executions or seize property
• French Revolution
– Executed thousands; seized land of the Church
and aristocracy
• Russian Revolution
– Seized all property
– Policies put millions of people to death.
Three Revolutions Compared
• Russia and most of its allies have abandoned
the goals of Lenin and Stalin
• Democratic nations continue to build on the
principles preached during the American and
French Revolutions
• Democracy and Freedom –WIN!!!!!!!
Questions to Ponder
• How did Lenin make a compromise between
the ideas of capitalism and communism?
• What were the goals and results of Stalin's five
year plan?
• What were the causes and effects of the Great
Purge?
• How did Soviet foreign policy lead to difficult
relations with the west?