ICEBREAKER:
IN YOUR NOTEBOOK ANSWER THE FOLLOWING:
1) WHAT WERE REASONS A SINGLE PARTY
STATE DEVELOPED IN RUSSIA IN 1917?
2) DESCRIBE THE CAUSES & OUTCOME OF THE
CIVIL WAR
3) WHAT WAS THE 1921 BAN?
4) WAR COMMUNISM VS. NEP
5) WHO MADE UP THE TRIUMVIRATE & WHAT
WAS THEIR GOAL?
7/10 & 7/12 DO NOW: TAKE OUT POLITICAL
CARTOON DUE TODAY!!!!
ICEBREAKER

1) What were reasons a single party state developed in
Russia in 1917?

Czarist Russia, WWI, Bolshevik Revolution, Civil War
2) Describe the causes & outcome of the Civil War
 Red Army vs. White Army – Kronstadt Rebellion –
3) What was the 1921 Ban?
 Ban on all political parties within the communist party
(factions)
4) War Communism vs. NEP
 Total control vs. Some private ownership
5) Who made up the triumvirate & what was their goal?

Zinoviev, Kamenev, & Stalin form a triumvirate
(alliance) to prevent Trotsky from obtaining
majority support
WHAT WERE THE KEY STAGES OF THE
POWER STRUGGLE

Stage 1: Early Moves against Trotsky, 1923 –
1924
 April 1923 12th Congress meeting mentioned
Lenin & Trotsky but hardly mentioned Stalin =
Stalin not important
 Lenin absent from meetings due to illness =
Stalin replaces Trotsky’s supporters in a new
enlarged Central Committee (Communist Party’s
ruling body between Congress)
 As General Secretary Stalin replaces Trotsky’s
supporters with those who were loyal to him
 Trotsky was absent at Lenin’s funeral saying
that Stalin had told him the wrong date
 Stalin raises suspicions about Trotsky’s absence
and loyalty
WHAT WERE THE KEY STAGES OF THE
POWER STRUGGLE

Stage 2: Defeat of the Left Opposition,1924 –
1927
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Stalin continued to dismiss oppositionist from responsibility
Position was threatened when in May 1924 Lenin’s widow
revealed his Testament to the Central Committee & Congress
delegates
Stalin is saved by Zinoviev and Kamenev = they persuaded
them not to publish the Testament
January 1925 the triumvirs removed Trotsky from his
position of commissar of war
Triumvirate would split in 1925 about disagreements over
the New Economic Policy
Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev would form the United
Opposition = against Stalin
Stalin was able to ban them from meetings and dismiss their
supporters
Accused them of breaking the 1921 ban on factions
STALIN RIDS THE UNITED OPPOSITION

By Nov. 1927 Stalin was successful in removing Trotsky
and Zinoviev expelled from the Communist Party &
Kamenev expelled from the Central Committee
 Stalin rises through the ranks of politics through
ruthlessness and cunning
 He played his opponents against one another and he
used his poor background to appeal to the people
 Zinoviev & Kamenev abandon The United Opposition in
fear of the communist party splitting (Lenin’s biggest
fear)
 Trotsky is deported…Others are positioned elsewhere in
the Soviet Union to prevent them from communicating
WHAT WERE THE KEY STAGES OF THE
POWER STRUGGLE

Stage 3: The defeat of the right, 1927 – 29
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Began immediately after the United Opposition had
been defeated
Bread shortages and high food prices = Stalin adopts
‘left’ course policy for industry and agriculture
Niklai Bukharin and supporters encouraged the
continuance of the NEP
Bukharin’s faction was considered far right and
dangerous to Stalin’s revolution ideas
Sept. 1928 Trotsky & Bukharin consider alliance in
fear of Stalin police state to restore a soviet
democracy
Trotsky’s consideration of a far right supporter
(Bukharin) made it easier for Stalin to isolate
Trotsky from communist supporters
WHAT WERE THE KEY STAGES OF THE
POWER STRUGGLE

Stage 3 cont…
Stalin made Politburo expel Trotsky from Russia &
in Feb. 1929 Trotsky was deported
 Stalin then accused Bukharin of ‘factionalism’ & was
removed as editor of the Pravda in 1929 & then
removed from the Politburo
 Stalin at this point has virtually complete control of
the Communist Party

WHY DID STALIN EMERGE AS LEADER OF
THE SOVIET UNION

Power Politics
Deliberate and skilful manipulation of political &
ideological differences amongst Bolshevik leaders
 Historian – Robert Conquest – argues that Stalin’s
goal was to gain supreme power by crushing all
factions
 Lenin did not realize the threat from Stalin until
1922 – 2 years before his death – Lenin was to ill to
be politically active
 Trotsky without Lenin was virtually isolated at the
top of the party from the beginning
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WHY DID STALIN EMERGE AS LEADER OF
THE SOVIET UNION

Structural Explanations

Stalin was a product of Russian history and the
administrative system set up after 1917
‘Red Tsar’
 Impact of the civil war – led to development of appointment
rather than election
 Displacement or death of militant industrial workers
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THE RISE OF JOSEPH STALIN
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Stalin rises through the
ranks of politics through
ruthlessness and cunning
He played his opponents
against one another and he
used his poor background
to appeal to the people
During the Russian
Revolution he will serve as
a commissar
He achieves complete
power by arresting or
executing his supporters
who put him in power
TO WHAT EXTENT WAS STALIN'S IDEOLOGY
IN LINE WITH THAT OF MARX & LENIN?
Marxism-Leninism became the official ideology of
the Soviet Communist Party
 ‘Old Guard Bolsheviks’ – aware of early Marxist
theory – had them all nearly executed during the
1930s
 ‘Socialism in one country’ – played important role
in power struggle
 “Trotskyism” – advocated for the NEP would lead
to continued turmoil between workers and
peasants
 Stalinism – placed national interests of the
Soviet Union above the struggle to achieve world
revolution

WHAT WAS THE NATURE OF THE
STALINIST STATE
Soviet Union became a one party state
 1929 officially became Secretary General of the
Communist Party
 Communism replaced religion
 Belief in national community – achieve ‘socialism
in one country without outside help
 ‘Cult of personality’ – Stalin portrayed as capable
of achieving anything who was always right
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FEATURES OF THE TOTALITARIAN STATE
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Views of Historian Graeme Gill
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Personal dictatorship based on coercion, via the of
secret police and repression
Total control over all aspects of life
Tight political controls over cultural and artistic life
Use of censorship and propaganda to control aspects
of culture
Highly centralized economy – important areas of the
economy state owned
Parliament & state under control of the leader
POWERPOINT ASSIGNMENT

In your assigned groups please follow the
directions and create a PowerPoint
EXIT CARD
1) What were three key moves by Stalin to rise to
power?
 2) Describe two elements of a totalitarian state:
