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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=LK8NhPPLmuA
Totalitarianism, Communism, Stalinism
 Totalitarianism can be both Left and Right: similarities and
differences
 Communism in its original utopian meaning means
abolition of the state – the exact opposite of totalitarianism
 Communism as the political praxis of Communist Party
regimes has historically produced the most developed
forms of totalitarianism
 The fact that the ideology of liberation led to the practice of
enslavement of society by the state has dealt a devastating
blow to the communist project
 Ability of communist states to move away from the
totalitarian mode without abandoning a socialist framework
would be tested for several decades
2 forms of totalitarianism
Similarities
 Total subjugation of society to the state
 State control of the economy, suppression or heavy
regulation of market forces
 Personal dictatorship
 Abolition of political and civil liberties
 The party-state
 Cult of the Leader
 Mass political terror and repression, key role of secret
police
 Mass mobilization in support of the state – key role of mind
control by means of culture, media, propaganda
 Militarization of society, preparation for war
Stalin and Stalinism
 The association of a specific form of communist rule with a
specific leader – inevitable, given the enormous personal
role of the leader in a totalitarian system
 But the personality cult and the new type of autocratic rule
were products of specific processes of political and social
change
th
 The ubiquity of totalitarianism in the 20 century – Russia
was just one of many examples
The march of dictators
 1922: Italy, Spain
 1923: Turkey
 1926: Poland, Lithuania, Portugal
 1929: Yugoslavia
 1933: Germany
 1934: Latvia, Bulgaria
 1936: Hungary, Greece
 1939: Spain again
 1940: Romania
1927
 The economy had been restored to pre-World War I levels,
but on an old and weak technological base
 Need for modernization widely recognized
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The rural economy not productive enough, peasants demand
higher prices for produce, more industrial goods
Fear of war, sense of backwardness and weakness
How to industrialize?
By means of national economic planning –
Five Year Plans
Nikolai Bukharin, member of the Party’s Politburo
Aleksei Rykov, head of the Soviet Government
(1924-30)
Mikhail Tomsky, head of the Soviet trade union federation
Nikolai Uglanov, head of Moscow Party
organization
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Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky, Uglanov:
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Planning must be within the NEP framework,
combine government directives with market economy
maintain peace with the peasantry,
developing economic incentives,
setting realistic goals for economic growth (not more than
16% a year)
Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov
Lazar Kaganovich
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Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich:
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abandon NEP as obsolete
industrialize fast – or perish
set high targets for growth (20-22% a year)
force the peasants into collective and state farms
extract economic “tribute” from them to finance
industrialization
suppress market forces, replace the market with state
commands
The Command Economy (term invented later)
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1928-29:
The Bukharin group is defeated by Stalinists
The Stalinist version of planning is adopted as government
policy
Bukharin and his supporters are removed from their posts
Implementation of the 1st Five Year Plan begins
Shift from market economy to command economy
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Collectivization of agriculture
Destruction of traditional forms of rural economy and life
Forcing peasants into collective and state farms
Liquidation of the kulaks – richer peasants – “as a class”
Ordering peasants to produce more at minimal prices
Punishment for insubordination
Using this “tribute” to finance industrialization
Disorganization of agricultural economy
Drought
Peasant resistance
Fall in production
Escalation of state violence
7 mln. people died of famine
Members of a village Soviet, 1930
The 1932-33 famine affected 66 mln. people; 7 mln. died
Industrialization
 Massive construction of new industrial plants
 Government pressure on the workers and managers to
produce more
 Labour unions lose their role as defenders of worker
interests
 Wages fell by 50%
 Food shortages in the cities
 Lack of housing
 Social discontent
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This type of forced social change had the characteristics of
another civil war
To wage it, the state became totalitarian
It did so in the name of “building socialism”
It mobilized millions of people to participate in this
offensive
Vast expansion of the police apparatus, with the security
police as its core
Systematic large-scale repressions against all groups of
the population deemed “dangerous”
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“The Cultural Revolution”
Massive education campaign (literacy rate grew from 20%
to 70% by 1939)
Literacy, culture are used to form a new mindset
Suppression of individualism, extolling the virtues of
collective power
No dissent allowed
Total loyalty to the Party
Stalin’s personality cult
“We are only cogs in the great machine”
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The shift from NEP to Stalinism met opposition and
resistance within the Communist Party
In response, Stalinists expelled from the Party those who
had different views
The Party was transformed into a “monolithic” political
force obedient to Stalin, bureaucratically run
The Party is fused with of the state, becomes its core
1934-38: Repressions aimed at Soviet elites
10 of the 15 members of the first Soviet Government
(formed in 1917 under Lenin) were executed as “enemies
of the people”
Sergei Kirov, Leningrad Party leader, killed Dec. 1, 1934
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Scale of repression, official secret police data
From KGB secret report to Soviet leader Khrushchev, Feb.
1, 1954:
Number of people charged with “counterrevolutionary
crimes”, since 1921:
Convicted – 3,777, 380 people, of whom:
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Executed – 642,000 people,
Incarcerated in camps and prisons for terms up to 25 years
– 2,369,000 people,
Exiled – 765,180 people.
http://statehistory.ru/52/Stalinskie-repressii/
Instruction of secret police officers
State security organs, numbers of victims, 1926-1953
convicted
released
executed
Numbers of persecuted Russian Orthodox priests: blue graph – arrests, red - executions
Genrikh Yagoda,
head of security
police, 1934-36:
executed in 1937
for treason
Nikolai Yezhov,
head of security
police, 1936-38,
executed in 1938
for treason
Lavrenty Beria,
head of security
police, 19381945, executed
in 1953 for
treason
GULAG wards, 1930s
Prison “kindergarten” for children of “political criminals”
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March of Enthusiasts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4htPfh
lY2nA
“Life has become better,
comrades, life has become
happier – and when life is
happy, the work is more
productive.” – I.V.Stalin
http://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=1YsL4HXZN9E&fea
ture=related
“Let us raise a generation fully loyal to the cause of communism!”
“The people’s dreams have come true!”
“Young
people – take
to the
planes!”
1934: ANT-20, world’s biggest airplane
1937: Soviet pilots are
first to fly to America
over the North Pole
Landing in Vancouver
Collective farmers, 1930s
Athletic games at a summer resort, 1935
High school graduates, 1930s
A family party, 1937
Young Pioneers, 1937
Amusements
park,
Moscow,
1938
Soviet postage stamps, 1930s
Soviet postage stamps, 1930s
“Worker
and
Farmer”,
giant metal
monument
by N.
Mukhina,
1937
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The human toll of Stalinism
Causes: policy blunders and state terror
Excessive deaths, 1927-38:
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10 mln. people
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8.5 mln. in 1927-36 (most died of hunger)
1.5 mln. in 1937-38 (executed or died in camps)
Vorkuta, center
of GULAG:
Memorial to
inmates of labour
camps
Russia: a
memorial to
victims of the
Great Terror