GCSE History
Revision Notes
-1941
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GCSE History
-1941
Contents
-1941................................................................................................... 5
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Key Issue 1: To what extent had Stalin become a personal dictator in Communist Russia by the end of
the 1920s?............................................................................................................................................... 6
The Rise of a Personal Dictator: Joseph Stalin ....................................................................................... 6
The Background of Stalin and Trotsky .................................................................................................... 6
The Death and Funeral of Lenin .............................................................................................................. 6
................................................................................................................................... 6
Stalin vs. Trotsky The Struggle for Power ............................................................................................ 6
Stalin vs. Trotsky Differences in policies .............................................................................................. 6
...................................................................................................... 7
o Power in Russia, 1920s .................................................................................................... 7
Step 1: Stalin defeats Trotsky, 1927....................................................................................................... 7
Step 2: Stalin defeats his old allies Kamenev and Zinoviev, 1928 .......................................................... 7
Step 3: Stalin defeats his old allies, Bukharin, Tomsky, and Rykov......................................................... 8
Stalin takes Power in the USSR, 1929 ..................................................................................................... 8
Stalin gains total control of Russia: Censorship, Propaganda, and Government in the late 1920s. ...... 8
What is Totalitarianism? ......................................................................................................................... 8
Stalin and the one-party government..................................................................................................... 8
............................................................................ 8
...................................................................................................... 9
Censorship............................................................................................................................................... 9
Apparatchiks ........................................................................................................................................... 9
Secret Police (OGPU), later renamed the NKVD ................................................................................... 10
Stalin controls the military .................................................................................................................... 10
Key Issue 2: How did Stalin reinforce his dictatorship in the 1930s? ................................................... 10
The control of the Communist Party over the government in the 1930s ............................................ 10
The Soviet Constitution (1936), AKA the Stalin Constitution................................................................ 10
Government Structure .......................................................................................................................... 10
Problems with the structure of government ........................................................................................ 11
The Purges............................................................................................................................................. 11
The Purges: Causes ............................................................................................................................... 11
There were two Purges ......................................................................................................................... 11
The First Purges, 1930-1933 ................................................................................................................. 11
....................................................................................................................... 11
Problems with Collectivisation: Kulaks resist........................................................................................ 12
The Great Purges, 1936-1939 ............................................................................................................... 12
Causes: The assassination of Kirov, 1934.............................................................................................. 12
The Purges escalate: The Great Purges; Show Trials; ........................................................................... 12
The Communist Party is purged ............................................................................................................ 12
The Army is purged ............................................................................................................................... 13
The Secret Police is purged ................................................................................................................... 13
Society is purged ................................................................................................................................... 13
HE GREAT P URGES IN D EPTH : THE S HOW TRIALS .................................................................................... 14
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GCSE History
-1941
............... 14
.................................................... 14
....................................... 15
Problems with the Show Trials ............................................................................................................. 15
Results of the Purges and the Show Trials: ........................................................................................... 15
The Purges destroyed Russia ................................................................................................................ 16
Stalin: The Cult of Personality ............................................................................................................... 16
Propaganda: Developin
.......................................................................... 16
The Secret Police:.................................................................................................................................. 16
Labour Camps (Gulag) ........................................................................................................................... 17
Conditions in the Gulag......................................................................................................................... 17
................................................................................................................... 17
Key Issue 3: To what extent did Stalin make the USSR a great economic power? ............................... 18
The Economic Situation in the USSR in the late 1920s ......................................................................... 18
The achievements of the NEP ............................................................................................................... 18
The failings of the NEP: the need for faster economic growth............................................................. 18
.............................................................................................. 18
Collectivisation ...................................................................................................................................... 18
Collectivisation: The Theory .................................................................................................................. 19
Collectivisation: The Process................................................................................................................. 19
Collectivisation: The Consequences...................................................................................................... 19
The Kulaks resist Stalin.......................................................................................................................... 19
Collectivisation: The End Result ............................................................................................................ 19
The Five-Year Plans ............................................................................................................................... 20
The first Five Year Plans, (1928-1933): Industrial Growth .................................................................... 20
The Second Five Year Plan (1933-1938)................................................................................................ 20
The Third Five Year Plan (1938-41) ....................................................................................................... 20
Failures of the Five Year Plans .............................................................................................................. 21
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GCSE History
-1941
s Dictatorship: USSR, 1924-1941
Introduction
Lenin, the leader of the Bolshevik Party, and one of the chief orchestrators of the 1917
October Revolution, was dead by January 1924, leaving a power vacuum at the top of
Russian government. The question remained as to who was going to lead the
Communist Party now that Lenin was gone? Lenin had already expressed his desires to
see Leon Trotsky assume leadership indeed, many people had seen Trotsky as being
if a little on
the arrogant side. For many, there could be no doubt: Trotsky would become the next
leader. However, what would transpire over the course of the next few years would
shock even the most toughened veterans of Russian Communist politics: working
behind the scenes of Russian politics, and slowly and ingeniously manoeuvring his way
into power was Joseph Stalin, the dangerously obscure General Secretary of the
Communist Party, and the self-styled
Stalin would eliminate his political enemies with a ruthless, calculating, and clinical
efficiency on a scale that many historians believe surpasses even the atrocities
absolute;
persecution, torture, imprisonment, murder, and unspeakable cruelty are the tools of
Stalin used them to frightening effect. The Russian population
dared not oppose him lest they or their families face the executioner or the
backbreaking slavery of the terrifying Gulag labour camps- if given the choice between
enduring the slavery of the Gulag or facing a quick(er) death from the NKVD death
squads, many would almost certainly chose the bullet.
In Stalinist Russia, nobody was safe; fear ruled, and families and old friends turned
against eachother in an attempt to survive. Yet, Stalin transformed Russia from a
backwards peasant society to the second largest economy in the world second only
to the US in just 10 years. But this government-driven period of rapid modernisation
would come at a terrible price for the Russian people between 1929 -1953.
WE WILL EXAMINE STALIN S DICTATORSHIP UNDER THE FOLLOWING AREAS :
1) TO WHAT EXTENT STALIN BECAME A PERSONAL DICTATOR IN COMMUNIST RUSSIA BY THE END OF THE
1920S
2) HOW STALIN REINFORCED HIS DICTATORSHIP IN THE 1930S
3) TO WHAT EXTENT STALIN MADE THE USSR A GREAT ECONOMIC POWER
KEY WORDS: STALIN; DICTATORSHIP; TOTALITARIAN; PROPAGANDA; BOLSHEVIK; COMMUNISM; ZINOVIEV; KAMENEV;
TROTSKY; SHOW TRIALS; NEP; NKVD; MODERNISATION; COLLECTIVISATION; GULAG; KULAK; CULT OF PERSONALITY;
INFORMERS; PIONEERS;
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GCSE History
-1941