Gill Sans Bold
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
Number: 44424
Title: Russia and the Soviet Union 1917-1941
This publication is copyright New South Wales Department of Education and Training (DET), however it
may contain material from other sources which is not owned by DET. We would like to acknowledge the
following people and organisations whose material has been used:
Extracts from History Syllabus Year 12 © Board of Studies, NSW 2004
Extracts from Christian, David (1988) Power and privilege, Pitman/ Longman, Melbourne
Extracts from Westwood, J. N. (1993) Endurance and endeavour: Russian history 1812-1992 (4th ed). OUP,
Oxford
Extract from Palmer, Alan (1983) The Penguin dictionary of Twentieth Century history 1900-1982, Penguin,
Harmondsworth
Extracts from Hosking, Geoffrey (1992) A history of the Soviet Union 1917-1991, Fontana, London.
Extract from Lynch, M (1998) Trotsky: the permanent revolutionary, Hodder and Stoughton, London
Extract from Pasternak, Boris (1958) Dr Zhivago in Stacey, F.W. (1972) Stalin and the making of modern Russia,
Edward Arnold, London
Extract from Solzhenitsyn, A A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich in Stacey, F.W. (1972) Stalin and the making of
modern Russia, Edward Arnold, London
Extract from Nove, Alex (1986) An economic history of the USSR, Penguin, Harmondsworth
Extract from Nove, Alex (1989) Stalinism and after: the road to Gorbachev (3rd ed), Unwin Hyman
Extracts from Gill, Graeme (1989) Twentieth century Russia: the search for power and authority, Nelson,
Melbourne
Extracts from Mawdsley, E (1998) The Stalin years. The Soviet Union, 1929-1953, Manchester University Press,
Manchester
Extracts from Kochan, L and Keep, J (1997) The making of modern Russia (3rd ed) Penguin, Harmondsworth
Overview pp v-vi
Part 1 p 58, Pt 2 pp 25,
38, Pt 3 pp 27. 33, 34,
35, 44, Pt 4 pp 1, 15, Pt
5 p 25, Pt 6 pp 13, 23,
30, Pt 7 p 11
Part 5 p 27, Pt 6
p 24, Pt 8 pp 26, 27
Part 1 p 33
Part 3 p 30
Part 2 p 26
Part 7 p 62
Part 7 p 19
Part 6 p 34
Part 5 p 28, Pt 7 p 54
Part 5 pp 26, 33
Part 6 p 36, Pt 7 pp 28,
30, 45, 54, Pt 8 p 24
Part 3 p 31
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Part 7 contents
The political system............................................................................ 3
Government structure ................................................................ 3
The elite...................................................................................12
Opposition to Stalin ...........................................................................15
Kirov Affiar ...............................................................................17
The secret police......................................................................18
The purges .........................................................................................23
The show trials.........................................................................24
Reasons for the Terror..............................................................27
Support for Stalin...............................................................................35
The cult of personality...............................................................36
Stalinism – an assessment ..............................................................41
The nationalities .......................................................................41
Stalinism as totalitarianism........................................................48
Forces of change and continuity ................................................49
Role of individuals and groups...................................................50
Perspectives and views of Stalin................................................52
Exercises – Part 7 .............................................................................57
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
1
2
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
The political system
As we have seen Stalin was able to implement new economic and social
policies due to his total control over the Party and State. In this Part we
will look at some of the methods Stalin used to achieve total control. We
will start by looking at the changes to the political system.
Government structure
In the words of Articles 2 and 3 of the second Constitution of the USSR,
which Bukharin played a major role in writing and which was adopted in
December 1936:
The Soviets of Working People’s Deputies, which grew and attained
strength as a result of the overthrow of the landlords and capitalists
and the achievement of the dictatorship of the proletariat, constitute
the political foundation of the USSR. (Article 2)
In the USSR all power belongs to the working people of town and
country as represented by the Soviets of Working People’s Deputies.
(Article 3)
Source:
1936 Constitution of the USSR at
http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons01.html
(accessed September 2005)
These Soviets formed a hierarchy with village Soviets at the bottom and
the national Supreme Soviet of the USSR at the top. The latter had
exclusive power to make laws for the whole of the country and had two
Chambers: the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities.
The Supreme Soviet appointed two organisations:
•
the Council of People’s Commissars also known as the Sovnarkom.
In Australia we would call this group the ‘Cabinet’ and its Chairman
the ‘Prime Minister’. It consisted of the government ministers who
were in charge of the various commissariats or what we would call
the ‘government departments’. According to the Constitution,
it undertook tasks such as adopting measures ‘to carry out the
national economic plan’ and ‘for the maintenance of public order’
and ‘to direct the general organisation and development of the armed
forces of the country’.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
3
•
the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. Its tasks included convening
the sessions of the Supreme Soviet, interpreting laws of the USSR
and conducting referendums.
The following diagram shows this government structure.
Council of People’s
Commissars
Presidium of the
Supreme Soviet
Supreme Soviet of the USSR
Soviet of
the Union
Soviet of
Nationalities
Supreme Soviet of each
of the sixteen Republics
Regional Soviet
City or District
Soviet
Village Soviet
The government structure of the USSR, following the 1936 Constitution
4
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
In 1930 the village commune was abolished. During the nineteenth
century it had been the basis of village life and was led by a council of
elders. During the 1920s it operated as an alternative source of power to
the village Soviet. This worried the communists because they had less
control over the communes than they did over the Soviets. They decided
that the best way to overcome this problem was simply to abolish
the communes.
In fact, collectivisation made it easier for the government and the Party to
control the peasants because they were now grouped together on a much
smaller number of farms than when they lived and worked on individual
or family farms. It is interesting to note that, in 1932, when the
government introduced an internal passport, which people needed if they
wished to travel to other parts of the Soviet Union, the peasants were not
allowed to have one. This meant that it was very difficult for them to
leave their collective.
The Communist Party
The Communist Party had a similar structure to the government. It had
organisations at village, city and district, region and republic levels.
There was also a national All-Union Party Congress which appointed the
Central Committee, which in turn chose the Politburo, the Orgburo and
the Secretariat.
Using the government structure after 1936 diagram on the previous page,
choose the correct word(s) in each of the following sentences.
1
The Communist Party organisations at village, city and
district, region and republic levels were the equivalent of the
Soviets / Supreme Soviet / Presidium and the Council
of Commissars.
2
The All-Union Communist Party Congress was the equivalent of the
Soviets / Supreme Soviet / Presidium and the Council
of Commissars.
3
The Central Committee, the Politburo, the Orgburo and the
Secretariat were the equivalent of the
Soviets / Supreme Soviet / Presidium and the Council
of Commissars.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
5
Did you answer?
1 The Communist Party organisations at village, city and district, region
and republic levels were the equivalent of the Soviets.
2 The All-Union Communist Party Congress was the equivalent of the
Supreme Soviet.
3 The Central Committee, the Politburo, the Orgburo and the Secretariat
were the equivalent of the Presidium and the Council of Commissars.
As Stalin increasingly dominated the Communist Party, its most
important organisations played a greatly reduced role. For example the
All-Union Party Congress met less and less frequently: annually until
1925 then in 1927, 1930, 1934, 1939 and then not until 1952.
The situation was similar with the Central Committee and the Politburo.
There was a close relationship between the Communist Party and the
government. This was justified by Article 126 of the 1936 Constitution
which described the Communist Party as:
the vanguard of the working people in their struggle to strengthen and
develop the socialist system and [as] the leading core of all
organisations of the working people, both public and state.
Source:
1936 Constitution of the USSR at
http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons04.html
#chap10 (accessed September 2005)
In many cases, Party leaders held high positions in the government. The
best example of this is Stalin himself who in 1941 became Chairman of
the Council of People’s Commissars as well as being General Secretary
of the Party. Moreover the Central Committee, and in particular the
Politburo, frequently issued instructions to government officials and
organisations. The effect of this was that, in the words of the historian
Gordon Greenwood:
Government institutions became primarily administrative agencies for
the policies enunciated by the Politburo or by Stalin.
Source:
Gordon Greenwood, 1973, The Modern World, Angus and Robertson,
p. 468.
What do you think this statement means? Make sure you use your
own words.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
6
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Did you answer?
The Politburo or Stalin decided what the policies were going to be and the
government organisations mostly just put them into practice.
Of course you may have used different words to express the meaning of
Greenwood’s statement.
The membership of the Communist Party was a relatively small
percentage of the Russian population as indicated in the following table.
Year
Number of Party members
Total Russian population
1926
1 079 814
147 000 000
1933
3 555 338
Unknown
1939
2 306 973
194 000 000
Elections
According to the 1936 Constitution:
Members of all Soviets … are chosen by the electors on the basis of
universal, direct and equal suffrage by secret ballot. (Article 134)
The right to nominate candidates for election is secured to public
organisations and societies of the working people: Communist Party
organisations, trade unions, cooperatives, youth organisations and
cultural societies. (Article 141)
Source:
1936 Constitution of the USSR at
http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons04.html
#chap10 (accessed September 2005)
This sounds democratic, but the reality was very different from the
theory. The following year elections were held based on this
Constitution. In each area only one candidate was allowed and,
not surprisingly, that candidate was a communist. This enabled the
Communist Party to claim that they had gained virtually one hundred
percent of the vote.
However this did not satisfy Stalin. He was not sure of the absolute
loyalty to him of many of those elected. He therefore accused many of
being Trotskyites, wreckers of the economy or agents of foreign
countries, and had them executed in the purges which you will learn
more about in the next Section.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
7
A British cartoon about events in Russia in 1937. The caption says:
Russian Bear: ‘Must I really take this after dancing for you so faithfully?’
Punch, 29 December 1937 found in Michael Bucklow and Glenn
Russell,1988, Russia: Why Revolution?, Longman Cheshire, p. 261.
Source:
1
Is this a primary or a secondary source? Give reasons for your
answer.
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
8
2
Who is the person in the cartoon? ____________________________
3
What does the bear represent? ______________________________
4
Which of the following statements do you think best indicates the
meaning of the cartoon?
Ë
Stalin executed a lot of people following the elections of
1937.
Ë
Ë
Stalin liked feeding animals.
Stalin wasn’t satisfied with the election results of 1937 and
executed many of the people who were elected.
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Did you answer?
1 It is a primary source because it was written in 1937 which was the same
year as the events that it is about.
2 Stalin
3 Russia
4 Stalin wasn’t satisfied with the election results of 1937 and executed many
of the people who were elected
Human rights and civic duties
In societies like Australia, when we think of human rights, we tend to
focus mainly on political rights. In some other countries, including
communist ones, human rights are defined much more broadly than that.
Let’s see what rights the Russian people were granted by the
1936 Constitution:
the right to work, that is, the right to employment and payment for
their work in accordance with its quantity and quality (Article 118)
the right to rest and leisure (Article 119)
the right to maintenance in old age and also in sickness and loss of
capacity to work (Article 120)
the right to education (Article 121)
equality of rights of citizens of the USSR, irrespective of their
nationality or race (Article 123)
freedom of religious worship and freedom of anti-religious
propaganda (Article 124)
In conformity with the interests of the working people, and in order to
strengthen the socialist system, the citizens of the USSR are
guaranteed by law: (a) freedom of speech; (b) freedom of the press;
(c) freedom of assembly, including the holding of mass meetings; (d)
freedom of street processions and demonstrations. (Article 125)
the right to unite in public organisations – trade unions, cooperative
associations, youth organisations, sport and defence organisations,
cultural, technical and scientific societies (Article 126)
Source:
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
1936 Constitution of the USSR at
http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons04.html
#chap10 (accessed September 2005)
9
In addition to these rights, the Constitution also listed several duties of
citizens of the USSR. These were:
the duty to abide by the Constitution of the USSR, to observe the
laws, to maintain labour discipline, honestly to perform public duties,
and to respect the rules of socialist intercourse (Article 130)
the duty to safeguard and strengthen public, socialist property
(Article 131)
the duty of military service in the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army
(Article 132)
the duty to defend the fatherland (Article 133)
Source:
1936 Constitution of the USSR at
http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons04.html
#chap10 (accessed September 2005)
Which of the two Articles above are the main ones which contain
political rights?
__________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
Articles 125 and 126
As was the case with elections, there was a large difference between
what the Constitution said about political rights and what happened in
practice:
10
•
People were arrested by the secret police for saying or writing
anything that was against the government or even critical of it.
Moreover, non-communists were removed from senior positions in
government and industry not because of incompetence or
inefficiency but as a result of their political beliefs.
•
All newspapers, magazines and radio stations were controlled by the
government or the Communist Party.
•
Meetings and demonstrations which had not been approved by the
government were broken up by the police and the leaders
were arrested.
•
Public organisations were either banned and closed down or taken
over by the government or the Party. A good example of this was the
way in which the independent trade unions became part of the
Communist Party structure.
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Overall, all forms of dissent were prevented, or crushed on the few
occasions that people were brave (or foolish?) enough to attempt them. It
is important to recognise that as time went by, criticism of Stalin came to
be considered the same as opposing both the government and the Party.
David Christian has described the Soviet political system under Stalin in
the following terms:
a centralised political system headed by the general secretary of the
Communist Party, supported by secret police with an extensive
network of informers, and controlling a rigidly censored
communications system.
Source:
D. Christian, 1988, Power and Privilege, Pitman, p. 203.
He argues that it arose in order to deal with the popular discontent which
resulted from the process of collectivisation of agriculture.
Similarly Evan Mawdsley has described the Soviet political system as a
‘party-state regime’.
What do you think Mawdsley means by this term?
Ë
That in the Soviet political system, the Communist Party and the
government were virtually the same thing
Ë
That the government organised many parties for the
Soviet people
Ë
Ë
That each Republic of the USSR had its own Communist Party
That the Soviet political system included the government and the
Communist Party
Did you answer?
That in the Soviet political system, the Communist Party and the
government were virtually the same thing
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
11
The elite
In the 1930s Russia was dominated by a ruling group, or elite, which was
very different from that which had controlled the country at the time of
the tsars. The latter had come almost exclusively from the nobility and, to
a lesser extent, the middle class whereas the new Soviet elite was made
up overwhelmingly of intellectuals, industrial workers and, to a more
limited degree, peasants.
This ruling group had two main components:
•
the apparat, the five percent of Communist Party members who
worked full-time for the Party and were appointed by, or with the
approval of, the General Secretary, Stalin
•
those who occupied positions on the nomenklatura, a list of the most
important posts in government and economic organisations such as
the Soviets, the economic ministries, the police, the army,
the universities and research institutes, the largest industrial
enterprises and collective farms, and newspapers. People were
appointed to these positions by the apparat of the Communist Party.
This meant that the Party and Stalin controlled the government and
economy of the Soviet Union.
Thus we can see that most of the members of this ruling group owed their
positions and therefore their power, wealth and status to Stalin.
They therefore supported him and were keen to implement his policies.
They wholeheartedly accepted the need for strong discipline and unity in
both the Party and the country as a whole.
Stalin cemented and strengthened his links with this elite by granting
them a range of special privileges, such as higher pay and access to
special stores selling luxury goods. Milovan Djilas, a communist in
Yugoslavia, wrote the following about the Soviet Union:
Country homes, the best housing, furniture, and similar things were
acquired; special quarters and exclusive rest homes were established
for the highest bureaucracy, for the elite of the new [ruling] class. The
party secretary and the chief of the secret police in some places not
only became the highest authorities but obtained the best housing,
automobiles, and similar evidence of privilege.
Source:
12
F W Stacey, 1972, Stalin and the Making of Modern Russia,
Edward Arnold, p. 49.
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
1
Do you think that Milovan Djilas is in favour of or against what he is
describing in this source?___________________________________
2
What word in the source most clearly tells you that this is his
attitude? ________________________________________________
Did you answer?
against
privilege
This new elite consisted of approximately 600 000 officials or, including
families, 2 300 000 people. It had a rigid hierarchy based on one’s level
within the Party or the government organisation where one worked.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
13
14
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Opposition to Stalin
Stalin was clearly in a strong position, but this does not mean that he was
without opposition, particularly in the Party. You have already seen in
Part 5 that, by the end of the 1920s, he had defeated the challenges to his
position from Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin. Nonetheless
opposition remained, including from the group known as the ‘Old
Bolsheviks’, people who had joined the Party before the 1917 Revolution
and whose loyalty was to Lenin and his memory rather than to Stalin.
In 1932 M N Ryutin, who had joined the Bolsheviks in 1914 and had
become a second-level Party official by the end of the 1920s, and a small
group of supporters, wrote a document which included the
following statement:
[Stalin is] the evil genius of the Russian revolution who, motivated by
a personal desire for power and revenge, had brought the revolution to
the verge of ruin.
Source:
David Christian, 1988, Power and Privilege, Pitman, p. 233.
The document which became known as the Ryutin Platform demanded:
Liquidation of the dictatorship of Stalin and his clique.
An immediate end to the anti-Leninist methods of industrialisation
and an irresponsible tempo leading to the exploitation of the
working class, the employees and the countryside [and] leading to
direct and indirect, open and hidden, unbearable taxes and inflation.
Industrialisation to be carried out on the basis of the real and
unwavering growth of the well-being of the masses.
Immediate disbanding of all collective farms which are created by
force and are a sham. Real voluntary collectivisation on the basis of
machine technology and all possible help to the collective farms.
To end immediately the adventurist policy of dekulakisation in the
countryside, which in fact is directed against all inhabitants of
the countryside.
Source:
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
Evan Mawdsley, 1998, The Stalin years The Soviet Union
1929–1953, Manchester University Press, pp 126–7.
15
This extract comes from a copy of the Ryutin Platform which was based
on a version compiled in 1932 by the secret police (which Stalin
controlled) and which was not published publicly until 1990.
What does this suggest about the reliability of the extract from the Ryutin
Platform that you have just read? Tick one of the following statements.
Ë
This source is reliable because it contains useful information
about the ideas and policies of some of the people who were
opposed to Stalin.
Ë
We cannot make a judgement about the reliability of this source
because we don’t know what the original version written by
Ryutin and his followers actually said.
Ë
We should have some doubts about the reliability of this source
because it is possible that the secret police changed the original
copy of the Platform to make it seem as bad as possible, in order
to justify taking action to punish Ryutin and his followers.
Did you answer?
We should have some doubts about the reliability of this source
because it is possible that the secret police changed the original
copy of the Platform to make it seem as bad as possible, in order to
justify taking action to punish Ryutin and his followers.
Stalin wanted Ryutin not only to be expelled from the Party but also to be
executed. However, mainly at the urging of Sergei Kirov, the head of the
Communist Party in Leningrad, the Politburo refused to order his
execution and instead sentenced him to ten years’ imprisonment. He died
in prison in 1938.
Further evidence of opposition to Stalin within the Party arose at the
Seventeenth Party Congress in February 1934. The account of what
happened comes mainly from A I Mikoyan who was a member of the
Politburo from 1926 to 1966.
According to Mikoyan, when the votes for membership of the Central
Committee were counted on the last day of the Congress following a
secret ballot, it was discovered that of the 1 225 delegates, three had
voted against Kirov and almost 300 against Stalin. It was decided that the
three votes against Kirov would remain along with three of the votes
against Stalin, while the rest of the ballot papers against Stalin would
be destroyed.
16
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Kirov Affair
Also, according to Mikoyan, a group of ‘Old Bolsheviks’ became aware
of this vote and proposed to Kirov, who was generally very popular in
the Party that he replace Stalin as General Secretary. Kirov refused and
apparently told Stalin what had happened. Nevertheless Stalin, who as
we have seen tended to be rather paranoid about possible challenges to
his supremacy within the Party, began to regard Kirov as a potential
threat.
The Seventeenth Congress is known as the ‘Congress of Victors’,
although the historian Dmitri Volkogonov thinks that, despite the events
you have just read about, it would be more appropriate to describe the
session as the ‘Congress of the Victor’ because, earlier at this Congress,
‘the Victor’ received extravagant statements of praise from rivals such as
Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin, whom he had previously defeated.
Who do you think is ‘the Victor’ that Volkogonov is referring to?
_________________________________________________
Did you answer?
Stalin
Stalin responded to the evidence of his unpopularity among some people
in the Party in various ways:
•
On 1 December 1934, Kirov was assassinated in Leningrad. As you
saw in Part 5 there is some evidence, but no proof, that Stalin
ordered or at least approved Kirov’s murder.
•
Of the 1 225 delegates at the Seventeenth Party Congress, 1 108
were arrested during the purges that you learn more about in the next
Section. Most of these perished at the hands of the secret police or in
the camps that you also read about later.
•
Stalin was determined to never again place himself in a situation
similar to what happened at the Congress in 1934. Therefore he no
longer put himself up for re-election to Party positions, although he
continued to hold them. Moreover for the rest of his life, Party and
government documents did not list him as General Secretary.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
17
Stalin’s position remained secure partly because of the actions that he
took to get rid of those that he regarded as a threat and partly because
many of the people who disliked him and his policies were afraid of what
would happen to the Party and the country if he were removed from
power. Found in 1933 a correspondent wrote to Trotsky:
[The old Bolshevik leaders] all speak about Stalin’s isolation and the
general hatred of him … But they often add: ‘If it were not for that
(we omit their strong epithet [label] for him) … everything would
have fallen to pieces by now. It is he who keeps everything together.’
Source:
D. Christian, 1988, Power and Privilege, Pitman, p. 233.
The secret police
The secret police were an important feature of the political system of the
Soviet Union between December 1917 and its collapse in 1991.
At different times the secret police organisation operated under different
names: for example, from December 1917 until 1922 it was the Cheka,
then it became the GPU and in the following year the OGPU.
The size of the secret police and its power increased dramatically during
the first Five Year Plan. It carried out the deportation of five million
kulaks, and controlled the labour camps to which were sent these people
and others who were imprisoned for political reasons. The camps
expanded from 30 000 prisoners in 1928 to over 600 000 in 1930 and
over
2 000 000 in 1932. The secret police also supervised the forced labour
which these prisoners did and which was important in the process of
industrialisation. One example was the construction of the Leningrad to
White Sea canal.
In 1930 a special institution was created within the general secret police
organisation to manage these labour camps which were mainly in the
eastern parts of the country, such as Siberia and central Asia, where the
weather was extremely poor. This was the GULAG, the Main
Administration of Corrective Labour Camps. The term Gulag quickly
came to be used to refer to the camps.
18
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
One of the most famous inmates of the Gulag was Alexander
Solzhenitsyn, who was imprisoned from 1945 to 1953 for criticising
Stalin. He has written several books about his experiences. One is a short
novel called A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and another is a nonfiction account of the camps called The Gulag Archipelago. You may
have heard of them. If you can get a copy, they are well worth reading,
especially A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Even though he was
writing about the period after World War II, the situation in the camps
was the same during the 1930s.
Let’s now read an extract from A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in
which Solzhenitsyn describes a working party setting out.
As usual, at five o’clock that morning reveille was sounded by the
blows of a hammer on a length of rail hanging up near the
staff quarters. The intermittent sound barely penetrated the
window-panes on which the frost lay two fingers thick…
Two powerful searchlights swept the camp from the farthest watchtowers. The border lights, as well as those inside the camp, were on.
There were so many of them that they outshone the stars…
There were escort-guards all over the place. They flung a
semi-circle round the column on its way to the power-station,
their tommy-guns sticking out and pointing right at your face. And
there were guards with grey dogs. One dog bared its fangs as if
laughing at the prisoners…
The chief of the escort recited the ‘morning prayer’, which every
prisoner was heartily sick of:
‘Attention, prisoners. Marching orders must be strictly obeyed. Keep
to your ranks. No hurrying, keep a steady pace. No talking. Keep your
eyes fixed ahead and your hands behind your backs. A step to right or
left is considered an attempt to escape and the escort has orders to
shoot without warning. Leading guards, quick march…’
Source:
F W Stacey, 1972, Stalin and the Making of Modern Russia,
Edward Arnold, pp 38–9.
As time went by, the conditions in the camps rapidly got worse:
the prisoners had to work longer and harder; the food was worse and
there was less of it; and the discipline was harsher. Things got so bad that
by the mid–1930s the majority of inmates died before the end of their
sentence.
In 1934 the OGPU became part of the Commissariat of Internal Affairs
(NKVD) which was responsible for the ordinary police and prisons. This
meant that a single organisation was in charge of all internal law and
order, control of political opposition, etc.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
19
Initially the NKVD had limited powers to arrest and sentence people,
especially members of the Communist Party. It was supervised by the
Procuracy, which was the legal body which oversaw the work of
government organisations, and it did not have the power, at least
according to the law, to execute people.
But all that was about to change, following the murder of Sergei Kirov,
the head of the Communist Party in Leningrad, on December 1 1934.
This was a central event in the political history of the Soviet Union
during the 1930s.
The ‘Kirov Decrees’
Stalin used Kirov’s assassination as an opportunity to extend the powers
of the secret police, as he had almost certainly been planning to do for
some time. He persuaded the Central Executive Committeee of the
Soviet government to issue what became known as the ‘Kirov Decrees’.
Under the 1924 Constitution, this Central Executive Committee was
appointed by the All-Union Congress of Soviets (the predecessor to the
Supreme Soviet created by the 1936 Constitution) to exercise power
between sessions of the Congress. In turn it chose the Sovnarkom. Two
days after the Committee issued the Kirov Decrees, the Politburo of the
Communist Party accepted them but this incident proved that Stalin
could ignore most of the other leaders of the Party and make decisions
virtually on his own.
Let’s see what the Kirov Decrees said.
The Central Executive Committee of the USSR decrees that the
following amendments on the investigation and consideration of cases
relating to terrorist organisations and terrorist acts against agents of
the Soviet Government shall be introduced into the existing codes of
the union republics.
1
The investigation of such cases must be terminated during a
period of not more than ten days.
2
The indictments [charges] should be presented to the accused
twenty-four hours before the hearing of the case in court.
3
The cases must be heard without the participation of a defence
counsel [lawyer].
4
Appeal against the sentences and also petitions for pardon are
not to be admitted.
5
Sentence to the highest degree of punishment [i e the death
penalty] must be carried out immediately after passing of
the sentence.
Source:
20
D. Christian, 1988, Power and Privilege, Pitman, p. 228.
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
According to David Christian, the Kirov Decrees and the manner in
which they were introduced ‘amounted to a revolution in the political
structure of Soviet Russia’ (1988: 234). What they meant was that Stalin
was now in a position to use the secret police against members of the
Party including very high-ranking ones. He was adopting an approach of
divide and rule. However he made sure that the secret police did not
become more powerful than the Party. Instead, in the words of
M Fainsod:
[Stalin] developed a system … in which both the Party and the
[secret] police, penetrating and watching each other, simultaneously
… controlled the armed forces, the administration, and all other
organised sectors of life. He reserved his own ultimate authority to
direct and coordinate the system… He capitalised on the [division] of
power among his subordinates to prevent them from challenging
his own.
Source: D. Christian, 1988, Power and Privilege, Pitman, p. 235.
In other words Stalin created a situation in which he dominated and
controlled all the significant political organisations of the Soviet Union.
His power was thus supreme.
Now would be an appropriate time to do Exercise 2.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
21
22
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
The purges
Having strengthened the NKVD, Stalin then set out to use it to rid the
Party of all those who disagreed with him on ideological policy or
administrative issues, as well as anyone that he considered to be a threat
or insufficiently loyal to him.
There had previously been purges of Party members but they had been on
a small scale and had merely involved people being expelled from the
Party. The purges which began in 1934 and reached their climax in 1937
and 1938 were on a much larger scale and the treatment which the
victims received was much more severe.
Following the proclamation of the Kirov Decrees, the NKVD quickly
executed or sent to labour camps thousands of people, especially in
Leningrad, who were accused of involvement in the murder of Kirov.
Things were somewhat quieter in 1935 but then, between 1936 and 1938,
a large number of high-ranking Party officials and members were
targeted. At first the victims were people such as Zinoviev and Kamenev
(who were also accused of involvement in Kirov’s death), Bukharin and
Rykov who had previously opposed Stalin. You read about them in
Part 5. Then Stalin and the secret police turned against people who had
previously supported him. Many of those who met their deaths were
‘Old Bolsheviks’.
Nikita Krushchev, who became First Secretary of the Soviet Communist
Party in 1953, reported in his ‘Secret Speech’ (which is no longer secret)
to the Twentieth Party Congress in 1956 that 98 out of 138 members of
the Central Committee had been shot, mainly in 1937–8. In the previous
Section, you saw that the number of members of the Communist Party
fell from 3 555 338 to 2 306 973 between 1933 and 1939. This was
mainly the result of the purges.
Amongst the most bizarre executions were those of N I Yezhov, who had
recently been replaced by Lavrenti Beria as the head of the NKVD in
1939, and his predecessor G G Yagoda the previous year . Yezhov had in
fact played a central role, in the view of some historians the most
significant role, in the earlier purges.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
23
Why do you think Stalin decided to purge Yagoda and especially
Yezhov? Hint: there may be more than one correct answer.
Ë
He wanted to show that he had control even over the lives of the
heads of the secret police, thereby stopping others from taking
action against him.
Ë
He thought that Yezhov and Yagoda were becoming too
powerful and might be able to threaten his position.
Ë
He wanted to put the blame for the purges, in particular the worst
aspects, onto other people so that he wouldn’t be held responsible
for them.
Ë
He was concerned that they had too much knowledge about his
involvement in the purges.
Did you answer?
You should have ticked all these answers
The show trials
Many of these executions followed four carefully stage-managed show
trials in which the accused publicly confessed to crimes against the
country, the Soviet government and socialism. These public confessions
usually came after (private) torture of both the accused and sometimes
their family. This sort of trial was not new. In 1928 a group of
technicians, who had been trained under the tsarist regime and were
therefore considered to be ‘bourgeois’, were put on trial, accused of
conspiring with Germany to ‘sabotage’ a mining operation. This was
known as the Shakty trial.
However the show trials of 1936–8 were different in that they involved
defendants who were much more prominent and powerful in the Soviet
Union, particularly in the government and the Party, and were
accompanied by extensive campaigns against the accused in the
newspapers and on the radio. It has been estimated that there were
350 000 executions in 1937 and 333 000 the following year. Stalin
himself approved 3 167 death sentences in December 1938.
Why do you think they were called ‘show trials’?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
24
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Did you answer?
They were called ‘show trials’ as they were publicly shown in order to
make an example of the defendants.
The four show trials were held between 1936 and 1938. The first show
trial held in August 1936 involved Stalin’s enemies, Zinoviev, Kamenev
and others and was known as the ‘Trial of the Sixteen’, as there were
sixteen so-called members of the ‘Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist
Centre’ being judged. The second show trial in January 1937 involved
lesser Party figures.
The June 1937 trial concentrated on the Red Army. High-ranking
military officers were accused of anti-Communist activities and several,
including Marshal Tukhachevsky, were executed. This trial began a
purge of the Red Army, where approximately 40 000 were executed, one
of the reasons why Russia was unprepared for World War II.
The following is an account by a British diplomat, Fitzroy Maclean,
who was present at the final March 1938 trial, where the defendants
included Bukharin, Rykov and Yagoda.
The prisoners were charged, collectively and individually, with every
conceivable crime: high treason, murder, attempted murder, espionage
and all kinds of sabotage. With diabolical ingenuity they had plotted
to wreck industry and agriculture; to assassinate Stalin and the other
Soviet leaders; to overthrow the Soviet regime with the help of foreign
powers; to dismember the Soviet Union for the benefit of their
capitalist allies and finally to seize power themselves and restore
capitalism in what was left of their country.
… before coming into court, they had all, it appeared, signed written
statements, confessing in detail to the crimes with which they were
charged and thoroughly incriminating themselves and each other.
… the prisoners were asked whether they pleaded guilty. This too was
pure routine. One after another, using the same words, they admitted
their guilt … Bit by bit, as one confession succeeded another, the
fantastic [unbelievable] structure took shape … what they said, the
actual contents of their statements, seemed to bear no relation to
reality. The fabric that was being built up was fantastic beyond belief.
Source:
F W Stacey, 1972, Stalin and the Making of Modern Russia,
Edward Arnold, pp 31–3.
What two words indicate that Fitzroy Maclean has doubts about the
truthfulness of the defendants’ written statements?
______________________________________________________
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
25
Did you answer?
it appeared
At the same trial Andrei Vyshinsky, speaking for the prosecution,
referred to:
the chain of shameful, unparalleled, monstrous crimes committed by
the accused … against our peaceful Socialist labour that has set up the
new, happy, joyously flourishing Socialist society of workers and
peasants... Our whole country, from young to old, is awaiting and
demanding one thing: the traitors and spies who are selling our
country to the enemy must be shot like dirty dogs!
Source:
F W Stacey, 1972, Stalin and the Making of Modern Russia,
Edward Arnold, p. 33.
According to this source, what penalty does Andrei Vyshinsky think the
defendants should receive?
__________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
He thinks they should be shot.
The Great Terror
Many histories of this period focus primarily on the purges of Party
officials and members. However the historian Robert Conquest has
reminded us that in fact they were only a minority of the victims.
He suggests that between one and two million people were executed and
another three million died as a result of the appalling conditions in the
labour camps between 1936 and 1938. Of this total of between four and
five million, up to about one million may have been Party officials
and members.
Conquest therefore prefers to use the term the ‘Great Terror’
(Yezhovshchina) rather than ‘the purges’ to describe the events especially
of 1936–8 in order to remind us that many people other than Party
officials and members were killed or died during this period. These other
victims included:
26
•
former members of the Civil War White army
•
former kulaks
•
former members of the middle class.
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
In some parts of the Soviet Union, the secret police even set quotas of
how many ‘enemies’ of different types had to be either executed or sent
to labour camps. This inevitably meant that many innocent people
became victims.
As we have seen, a particularly significant group of victims was the high
command of the Red Army, sixty five percent of whom were removed
from their positions: three of the five marshals, thirteen of the fifteen
generals and sixty two of the eighty five corps commanders. As you will
see in Part 8, this loss of experienced military leaders had a significant
impact on the Soviet Union’s ability to wage war against the Germans
following their invasion in June 1941.
Reasons for the Terror
Ever since the 1930s, there has been much debate about why Stalin
carried out the Terror. It has been suggested that it was surprising
considering that the Soviet economy performed more strongly in the
years 1934 to 1936. Therefore there was likely to be less discontent both
in the Party and in the general population and thus less need for Stalin to
be worried about threats to his position. Let’s see what some of these
explanations, which can also be called interpretations, have been.
Mikhail Bukharin suggested in 1936 that Stalin’s aim in purging the
Party was:
the physical extermination of all those whose Party past might make
them opponents of Stalin or aspirants to his power…
[Stalin concluded that:] if the old Bolsheviks, the group constituting
today the ruling caste [class] in the country, are unfit to perform the
function of Soviet construction, it is necessary to remove them from
their posts, to create a new ruling caste…
Source:
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
N K Meaney (ed), 1977, The West and the World 1914–1976,
Science Press, p. 519.
27
Fitzroy Maclean, whose account of the 1938 show trial you have already
read in this Section, presented the following view of the reasons for the
Great Terror in 1949:
[The show trials aimed to show that] it does not pay to rebel against
established authority… By making people suspicious of one another,
by teaching them to see spies and traitors everywhere, it would
increase ‘vigilance’, render even more improbable the germination of
subversive ideas… Much, too, would be explained that had hitherto
been obscure. Shortages, famines had been due, not to the
shortcomings of the Soviet system, but to deliberate wrecking…
Source:
N K Meaney (ed), 1977, The West and the World 1914–1976,
Science Press, p. 519.
Evan Mawdsley has explained the Great Terror in the following way:
Stalin did what he did not because he was betraying the [Bolshevik]
revolution, but because he was faithfully carrying it out. Terror had its
roots in the revolutionary tradition and in a view of the world held by
a generation of leaders. Intolerant politics were inherent in
Bolshevism… The civil war enhanced a belief in a life-or-death
struggle; it led to a rejection of legal limitations on state power, to an
acceptance of terror and to the institutionalisation of a powerful
political police.
Source:
Evan Mawdsley, 1998, The Stalin years The Soviet Union
1929–1953, Manchester University Press, p. 109.
Viacheslav Molotov, who was Prime Minister of the Soviet Union
(ie, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars) from 1930 to 1941
and who remained extremely loyal to Stalin even though his own wife
was arrested in the late 1940s, has placed the purges in the context of
World War II. In a series of interviews in 1982, when he was 92,
he claimed that Stalin believed at least some of the accusations made
against people in the Party, the government and the army and felt that it
was necessary to be ‘doubly sure’ – to get rid of anyone about whom
there was the slightest doubt in order to ‘guarantee a reliable situation
during the war and after the war’. By this, he meant that Stalin wanted to
be certain that no one who was opposed to him or socialism or the Soviet
Union would help the country’s enemies, especially Germany, during
World War II.
28
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
When people look back at events which happened a long time before, it
is called ‘using hindsight’. That can have an effect on the reliability of a
source. In the previous paragraph, you read that Molotov claimed that
Stalin used the Great Terror to ensure the security of the Soviet Union in
World War II. However the main phase of the Great Terror started in
1936, several years before World War II and at a time when it was by no
means certain that the Soviet Union would at some stage find itself at
war, including against Germany.
What does the information in the previous paragraph indicate about the
reliability of Molotov’s view with regard to Stalin and the ‘Great Terror’?
Tick one of the following statements.
Ë
We can conclude that Molotov’s view is reliable because he is
using hindsight which means that he has had a long time to think
back about the events of the 1930s and be certain about exactly
what happened.
Ë
We should have some doubts about the reliability of Molotov’s
view because he is looking at the events with hindsight and
thinking that there was a connection between Stalin’s use of the
Great Terror and World War II, when in fact the two things were
several years apart and not necessarily connected.
Did you answer?
We should have some doubts about the reliability of Molotov’s
view because he is looking at the events with hindsight and thinking
that there was a connection between Stalin’s use of the Great Terror
and World War II, when in fact the two things were several years
apart and not necessarily connected.
Some historians who are generally described as revisionists have tended
to minimise the role of Stalin in the Terror and to place the main blame
especially for the worst features of it onto the NKVD and its two leaders,
in particular Yezhov, and over-enthusiastic agents at the local level. One
of the main arguments used by the revisionists to justify their view of
Stalin’s role in these events was his criticism of the NKVD and his
decision to halt the Terror in November 1938. He claimed that he wanted
to put an end to the instability that the Terror had created in the Soviet
Union.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
29
Evan Mawdsley disagrees. He has written:
Stalin did not oppose the Great Terror of 1937–8, nor was he ignorant
of what was going on. The unveiling of enemies was entirely
consistent with his class war mentality and his … fear of external
enemies, indeed of his famous dictum that class conflict intensified
the closer the revolution moved to socialism.
Source:
Evan Mawdsley, 1998, The Stalin years The Soviet Union
1929–1953, Manchester University Press, pp 104–5.
It is also important to recognise that, by the end of 1938, there was
virtually no one people left in the Party or in the country as a whole, who
might in any way be able to threaten Stalin. Perhaps that is why he halted
the Terror at that time.
Who do you think is right about Stalin’s role in the Great Terror:
the revisionist historians or others such as Evan Mawdsley? Give reasons
for your answer.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
There is no correct answer to this question. It is just your own opinion.
You may have argued that Mawdsley is right because, considering the
amount of power that Stalin had in the Soviet Union at that time, it is
unlikely that something as major as the Great Terror could have happened
without his approval. Furthermore Stalin had emphasised the idea of class
conflict ever since the late 1920s.
On the other hand, you may argue that the revisionists are correct because,
given the size of the Soviet Union in both geographical area and population,
it would be impossible for Stalin to be in control of or even aware of
everything that was going on in the country.
Of course you may have included different ideas to these or expressed your
viewpoint in different words.
30
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
As you have seen on many occasions already, you are often required to
give reasons to support your answer to a particular question. Another way
of describing this is ‘using evidence to justify your viewpoint’.
In the table below, indicate which of the interpretations of the Great
Terror that you have just read (Bukharin, Maclean, Mawdsley, Molotov,
and the revisionists) provides evidence to justify each of the following
viewpoints. Note that each writer’s interpretation may support more than
one viewpoint.
Stalin believed that a new group of people was
necessary to build socialism in the Soviet Union.
Stalin saw the Great Terror as part of class warfare.
Stalin wanted to direct the blame for any problems in the
Soviet Union away from himself and towards others.
Stalin wanted to give rid of anyone who might threaten
his position of power.
Stalin wanted to make sure that people would not rebel
against him or the government.
The Great Terror followed logically from the beliefs and
the experiences of the Bolsheviks before and especially
after the 1917 Revolution.
The Great Terror was mainly the fault of the NKVD at
both the national and the local level.
The Great Terror was necessary in order to ensure that
the Soviet Union was secure and was able to defend
itself during World War II.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
31
Did you answer?
Bukharin
Stalin believed that a new group of people was
necessary to build socialism in the Soviet Union.
Mawdsley
Stalin saw the Great Terror as part of class warfare.
Maclean
Stalin wanted to direct the blame for any problems in
the Soviet Union away from himself and
towards others.
Bukharin
Stalin wanted to give rid of anyone who might
threaten his position of power.
Maclean
Stalin wanted to make sure that people would not
rebel against him or the government.
Mawdsley
The Great Terror followed logically from the beliefs
and the experiences of the Bolsheviks before and
especially after the 1917 Revolution.
Revisionists
The Great Terror was mainly the fault of the NKVD
at both the national and the local level.
Molotov
The Great Terror was necessary in order to ensure
that the Soviet Union was secure and was able to
defend itself during World War II.
The Terror involved a significant change in the ideology of the
Communist Party. Marx and Lenin had both viewed force as necessary to
carry out the revolution to get rid of capitalism and to set up the
conditions in which socialism could be created. Stalin on the other hand
used force to actually create his new socialist society. The historian
K K Macnab has expressed this change as follows:
For Lenin, as for Marx, force was the midwife of every old society
pregnant with a new one; but the midwife merely helped delivery
when the time arrived. For Stalin, force was the mother which actually
reared the new society.
Source:
32
K K Macnab, ‘Russia, 1914–1950: from Czarist Empire to Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics’ in N K Meaney (ed), 1977, The
West and the World 1914–1976, Science Press, p. 129.
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
The Terror had several effects: firstly, it strengthened Stalin’s position
both in the Party and in the country as a whole by getting rid of anyone
who might have threatened his position or even opposed his policies.
He was thus assured of continued dominance and supremacy.
Secondly, it created an atmosphere in the Soviet Union where people
were afraid to express their own ideas and beliefs because they knew that
if they did they would end up in a labour camp. Inevitably people became
indifferent about political life and stopped trusting others for fear that
they would be reported to the secret police. Similarly an atmosphere
developed in the government and in the economy where people were
afraid to make decisions in case they proved to be wrong. This led to
delays in decision-making and reduced efficiency.
Thirdly, the Great Terror created a situation where people were
determined to prove their loyalty to Stalin. This led to the ‘cult of
personality’ that you will learn more about later in this Section.
Fourthly, it confirmed the views of many people in other countries that
communism was dangerous and therefore had to be resisted. Increasingly
communism came to be associated in people’s minds with this kind of
terror rather than with the original ideas of Karl Marx. Many who had
looked upon the Soviet Union and communism as a model for a better
world were let down by the Great Terror.
Now would be an appropriate time to do Exercise 4.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
33
34
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Support for Stalin
So far we have focused on the ‘stick’ aspect of the ‘carrot and stick’
approach that Stalin adopted towards the Party, the government and the
people of the Soviet Union. That is, we have looked at how Stalin used
force and violence to maintain his position of dominance and control.
At the same time there were other, somewhat more positive, reasons why
Stalin was able to retain his supremacy. We examine those in the rest of
this Section.
Firstly Stalin was able to gain the support and loyalty of members of the
Soviet ruling elite. We have already seen how he did this partly by
providing special privileges for them. Many of these people made rapid
advances up the hierarchy of the Party and/or the government. Most were
highly committed socialists and believed that they were doing heroic
work in building socialism in the Soviet Union. They viewed what was
happening in their country as providing a model for the rest of the world.
Aleksei Kosygin was an example of such a person. The following
timeline shows some of the main events of his career:
1927 joined the Party
1935 became a department head in a Leningrad textile factory
1937 became a factory director
1938 appointed as chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the
Leningrad Soviet.
1939 elected to Party Central Committee and also appointed People’s
Commissar for the Textile Industry
1940 appointed as Deputy Chairman of the Council of
People’s Commissars.
He subsequently held a number of significant positions including a long
period as Prime Minister from 1964 until just before he died in 1980.
Others who supported and worked with Stalin and who similarly
benefited from his rule included Viacheslav Molotov (whom you have
already met), Lazar Kaganovich, Kliment Voroshilov, Nikita Khrushchev
and Leonid Brezhnev.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
35
In addition to gaining support among the ruling Soviet elite, Stalin was
also popular with many ‘ordinary’ Russians. This was partly because his
policies and in particular industrialisation gave them the opportunity to
obtain better jobs involving more skills and therefore to achieve a higher
standard of living. It was also because the government introduced or
expanded a wide variety of services. These included the provision of
educational facilities from kindergartens through to universities, medical
services, public canteens, and what we in Australia call social
security benefits.
The cult of personality
A third way in which Stalin gained support was by an enormous
propaganda campaign which aimed to glorify him and to focus the full
attention of the entire nation on him. This is known as the ‘cult of
personality’ and it began on his fiftieth birthday in December 1929.
It took various forms which included:
•
his virtues and achievements being celebrated in books, films,
newspapers, magazines and on radio
•
enormous statues and posters of him being erected in cities, towns
and villages throughout the country
•
people being expected to have portraits of him in their homes.
Why do you think no use was made of television?
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
Because, although television had been invented, it was not in use at that time
36
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Below are three examples of the adulation that Stalin received. The first
was written by the author A O Avdienko, the second is from a poem
written in 1939 by the composer Prokofiev, and the third is from a book
called Stalin: A Short Biography by G F Alexandrov, published in 1949.
Thank you, Stalin. Thank you because I am joyful. Thank you because
I am well … Centuries will pass, and the generations still to come will
regard us as the happiest of mortals, as the most fortunate of men,
because we lived in the century of centuries, because we were
privileged to see Stalin, our inspired leader. Yes, and we regard
ourselves as the happiest of mortals because we are the
contemporaries of a man who never had an equal in world history.
The men of all ages will call on thy name, which is strong, beautiful,
wise and marvelous. Thy name is engraved on every factory, every
machine, every place on the earth, and in hearts of all men.
I write books. I am an author. All thanks to thee, O great educator,
Stalin. Everything belongs to thee, chief of our great country. And
when the woman I love presents me with a child the first word it shall
utter will be : Stalin.
Source:
Lectures on Twentieth Century Europe, Stalin and the Cult of
Personality at
http://www.pagesz.net/~stevek/europe/cult.html#second
Never have our fertile fields such a harvest shown,
Never have our villages such contentment known,
Never life has been so fair, spirits been so high,
Never to the present day grew so green the rye.
O’er the earth the rising sun sheds a warmer light,
Since it looked on Stalin’s face it has grown more bright.
Source:
F W Stacey, 1972, Stalin and the Making of Modern Russia,
Edward Arnold, p. 56.
J V Stalin is the genius, the leader and teacher of the Party, the great
strategist of Socialist revolution, helmsman of the Soviet State and
captain of armies... His work is extraordinary for its variety; his
energy truly amazing. The range of questions which engage his
attention is immense…
Everyone is familiar with the cogent and invincible force of Stalin’s
logic, the crystal clarity of his mind, his iron will, his devotion to the
Party, his ardent faith in the people, and love for the people. Everyone
is familiar with his modesty, his simplicity of manner, his
consideration for people, and his merciless severity towards enemies
of the people… Stalin is the worthy continuer of the cause of Lenin,
or, as it is said in the Party: Stalin is the Lenin of today.
Source: F W Stacey, 1972, Stalin and the Making of Modern Russia,
Edward Arnold, pp 56–7.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
37
The final sentence of the third source above is a very important one.
It indicates one of the main aims of the cult of personality: to portray
Stalin as the successor to the communist hero, Lenin.
Which of the following things do the writers of these sources
(ie Avdienko, Prokofiev and Alexandro) give Stalin credit for?
Note that the name of each writer may be used more than once.
defeating enemies of the people
education
happiness
health
industry
plentiful crops
Socialist revolution
Did you answer?
38
Alexandrov
defeating enemies of the people
Avdienko, Alexandrov
education
Avdienko, Prokofiev
happiness
Avdienko
health
Avdienko
industry
Prokofiev
plentiful crops
Alexandrov
Socialist revolution
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Below is a photo of a crowd with a statue and a poster of Stalin.
A statue and a poster of Stalin
Source:
Stalin as a Virtual Image at
http://www.stlawu.edu/rkre:http/indv2/statue.jpg
Why do you think such a large statue of Stalin was constructed?
Ë
Because Stalin was a very tall man.
Ë
Because they had lots of metal left over from the factories
Ë
The Russian people like big things
Ë
To emphasise Stalin’s power and dominance over the people of
the Soviet Union.
Did you answer?
To emphasise Stalin’s power and dominance over the people of the
Soviet Union.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
39
In this Section we have looked at how Stalin maintained his control of
the Soviet Union. The anti-Stalinist Soviet historian, Roy Medvedev, has
summarised it in the following way:
Stalin did not rely on terror alone, but also on the support of the
majority of the people; effectively deceived by cunning propaganda,
they gave Stalin credit for the successes of others and even for
‘achievements’ that were in fact totally fictitious.
Source:
D. Christian, 1988, Power and Privilege, Pitman, p. 240.
Now would be an appropriate time to do Exercise 4.
40
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Stalinism – an assessment
In this Section we will be making an assessment of Stalin and his policies
and actions. However, before we do that we will look at the topic of
‘the nationalities’ because it is a convenient way of drawing together a
number of the important strands of Stalinism: economic, political, social
and cultural.
The nationalities
As you have already seen, Russia was a multi-national country.
It included over one hundred distinct nationalities. The dominant ethnic
group was the Russians. They made up 53 percent of the population in
1926 (77.8 million out of a total of 147 million) and 58 percent in 1939
(99.6 million out of 170.6 million). The second largest group was the
Ukrainians (22 percent in 1926 and 16 percent in 1939) who are
linguistically and culturally similar to the Russians. Sixteen other
nationalities had at least half a million people in the Soviet Union at
that time.
You should remember from Part 4 of this module that the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics was founded in 1922. To begin with, it
consisted of four republics, or states, but this increased to eleven
republics by 1929 and sixteen by 1936. In that year the Constitution
stated that the USSR was ‘a federal state formed on the basis of the
voluntary association of [sixteen] republics having equal rights’.
You have already seen that, under this Constitution, the Supreme Soviet
consisted of two chambers, one of which was the Soviet of Nationalities
set up to represent the interests of the various nationalities. You should
also remember that between 1917 and 1923 Stalin who was a member of
one of the minority nationalities, the Georgians, was Commissar for
Nationalities in the Russian government.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
41
Policies for the nationalities
During the period of the New Economic Policy, the communists’ policy
towards the nationalities was korenizatsiia, which means ‘nativisation’ or
‘indigenisation’. This policy included:
1
appointing members of the nationalities to government and Party
positions in their own regions, although these positions were mainly
only at a low or middle level
2
encouraging the maintenance and development of the cultures of the
various nationalities
3
promoting the use of the nationalities’ different languages,
including publishing newspapers and books in those languages.
In some ways it is surprising that the communists adopted a policy of this
kind. One might have expected that they would want everyone in the
USSR to have the same culture rather than allowing a variety of cultures.
Why then do you think that the communists pursued this policy of
‘nativisation’? Hint: there may be more than one correct answer.
Ë
They wanted to gain the support of the members of the
various nationalities.
Ë
They wanted to make a clear distinction between their policies
and the policy of ‘Russification’ (i e trying to impose Russian
culture on the other nationalities) which the tsars had generally
followed during the nineteenth century.
Ë
They thought that it would satisfy the members of the
nationalities and would therefore reduce the chances of them
rebelling against the communist government (as had happened in
the Civil War). This would increase stability in the country
thereby enhancing the economic development that the NEP was
aiming to achieve.
Ë
They thought that appointing members of the nationalities to
government positions would strengthen links between the central
government and the republics thereby increasing the unity of
the country.
Did you answer?
You should have ticked all the statements.
42
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
In general the policy of ‘nativisation’ continued through the 1930s but
with some modification mainly relating to the issue of languages.
Russian increasingly became the common language of all the people of
the Soviet Union. In areas where the majority of people belonged to a
non-Russian nationality, the local language remained the main teaching
language in schools but in March 1938 Russian was also made
compulsory. Moreover Russian became both the general language of
higher (beyond secondary) education and, again in March 1938, the only
official language in the Red Army. At the same time military units which
consisted of members of the nationalities were eliminated.
In addition the study of Russian history focused on the idea that,
rather than the ethnic Russians dominating and exploiting the minority
groups, they had actually assisted them by taking them from a state of
backwardness and moving them to a more advanced level of
development, especially as the Soviet Union advanced firmly towards
socialism and eventually communism.
Why do you think the government introduced these changes to the policy
of ‘nativisation’, particularly towards the end of the 1930s when Nazi
Germany was expanding its territory in the east of Europe towards the
Soviet Union?
Hint: There may be more than one correct answer.
Ë
The economic modernisation promoted by Stalin
(i.e. industrialisation and the collectivisation of agriculture)
involved political and economic planning and organisation
for the whole of the USSR. Therefore it seemed logical to
have the one language used throughout the country.
Ë
The use of Russian as the main language of the USSR fitted
in with Stalin’s concept of ‘socialism in one country’.
Ë
The government thought that it was necessary to strengthen
the unity of the country and of the army in particular, in
order to meet the possible future threat from Nazi Germany.
Ë
The government thought that the best way to increase the use
of the Russian language throughout the USSR especially in
the long-term was by teaching it to young people rather than
to adults.
Did you answer?
You should have ticked all the statements.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
43
It is important to recognise at this point that Stalin’s economic
modernisation had a significant impact on the nationalities in the same
way that it did on the ethnic Russian section of the population. It led to
large numbers moving to urban areas and to many people gaining higher
levels of education. This in turn contributed to an increased
consciousness of themselves as belonging to a distinct national group.
The Constitution of 1936 granted the various republics the right to
secede from the Soviet Union. However it is interesting to note that some
Party leaders in Georgia were executed in 1951 on the grounds that they
were planning for their republic to leave the USSR.
While Stalin generally followed a moderate policy towards the
nationalities, the end of the 1930s saw the beginning of a policy of
deporting members of various ethnic groups to the eastern parts of the
country such as Siberia and central Asia. Two examples of groups which
suffered this fate were the Germans from the Volga River area and the
Tatars from the Crimea. This happened in two main phases:
•
firstly, following the annexation in 1939–40 of territories in the west
which included Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (commonly referred to
as the Baltic States), eastern Poland, Bessarabia in northwest
Romania, and parts of Finland, people were deported from those
areas as well as from neighbouring ones in the western part of the
Soviet Union.
•
secondly, following the German invasion of the USSR on 22 June
1941, people were deported from territories which were deeper in
the interior of the country.
Altogether several million people, including women, children and the
elderly, were forced to leave their homes and to travel long distances in
overcrowded railway freight carriages to isolated and barren settlements.
Hundreds of thousands of people died, either while travelling or in their
new homes.
Stalin adopted this policy for a number of different reasons.
These included:
44
•
The deportations were a form of ‘ethnic cleansing’. This meant
removing all the people of a minority nationality from a particular
area so that the majority group, especially the Russians, could fully
occupy and control the area. Something similar happened in the
Balkans region of southeastern Europe during the 1990s.
•
Stalin used the deportations to get rid of the ‘ruling classes’, or what
the communists called ‘class enemies’, from the areas that they
annexed in 1939–40.
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
•
Stalin knew that some of the nationalities were anti-communist and
suspicious of, or even hostile towards, the central Soviet
government. He was afraid that they would ‘collaborate’ with the
Germans if Germany invaded the Soviet Union. He therefore ordered
their deportation. The most obvious example of this was the removal
of 400 000 ethnic Germans from the area around Saratov, which is to
the southeast of Moscow.
Then, following the German invasion, some members of the
minority groups did actually assist the Germans. Stalin deported
them as a punishment for their collaboration.
•
During World War II, Stalin promoted nationalism amongst the
ethnic Russians as a way of increasing people’s determination to
resist and defeat the Germans. He referred to ‘this national
fatherland war against the Fascist aggressors’. It was perhaps
inevitable that Russian fears that the nationalities would assist the
Germans would lead to actions against these minority groups. The
situation was made worse when, as we have just seen, some
members of the groups did collaborate with the Germans.
Write three words to describe how you think the members of the minority
groups would have felt about the Russians, the Communist Party and the
Soviet government as a result of this policy of deportation.
__________________________________________________________
Did you answer?
There are a number of words you might have chosen. They could include:
angry; furious; bitter; upset; vengeful.
These feelings lasted a long time and indeed played a significant role in
events a number of decades later. Let’s read what Evan Mawdsley has
written about this.
The legacy of the Stalin years played its part in the eventual collapse
of the USSR in 1991. It was the memory of the Stalinist cruelties of
the 1940s, the brutal annexation of the Baltic States and the
deportations of whole peoples, like the Crimean Tatars, which opened
a Pandora’s box of protest in the later 1980s.
Source:
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
Evan Mawdsley, 1998, The Stalin years The Soviet Union
1929–1953, Manchester University Press, p. 75.
45
At the beginning of this Section, you read that looking at the topic of
‘the nationalities’ is a convenient way of drawing together a number of
the important strands of Stalinism: economic, political, social
and cultural.
For each of the following statements, write in the first column to which of
the following aspects of Stalinism it relates:
•
economic: things such as the main features of the economy and how
the economy changed
•
political: things such as the structure of the political system and
different political groups and ideas
•
social: things such as different classes and nationalities
•
cultural: the different features of a particular nationality’s culture
such as language and religion, and things such as art, music, film,
literature and sport.
Industrialisation led to many members of nationalities
moving to urban areas.
Many members of nationalities ceased being peasants
and became industrial workers.
Promoting the publication of newspapers and books in
the languages of different nationalities.
Stalin deported members of some nationalities to the
eastern parts of the USSR because they were
anti-communist and he therefore regarded them as
‘class enemies’.
The 1936 Constitution set up the Soviet of
Nationalities, one of the chambers of the Supreme
Soviet.
Russia included over 100 different nationalities.
The nationalities played a bigger role in the economy
of the whole of the USSR as central planning and
organisation increased.
Russian became a compulsory language in schools
throughout the USSR.
46
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Did you answer?
Economic
Industrialisation led to many members of nationalities
moving to urban areas.
Social
Many members of nationalities ceased being peasants
and became industrial workers.
Cultural
Promoting the publication of newspapers and books in
the languages of different nationalities.
Political
Stalin deported members of some nationalities to the
eastern parts of the USSR because they were anticommunist and he therefore regarded them as ‘class
enemies’.
Political
The 1936 Constitution set up the Soviet of Nationalities,
one of the chambers of the Supreme Soviet.
Social
Russia included over 100 different nationalities.
Economic
The nationalities played a bigger role in the economy of
the whole of the USSR as central planning and
organisation increased.
Cultural
Russian became a compulsory language in schools
throughout the USSR.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
47
Stalinism as totalitarianism
Many historians liken Stalinism to totalitarianism. In its most limited
sense, totalitarianism means a political system in which there is only one
legal political party. Remember that when Lenin was leader, all other
political parties were banned, so they have total control. That continued
to be the case while Stalin was leader.
However totalitarianism has often involved a number of other features as
well. These are listed in the following table. Tick which of them you
think apply to the Soviet Union especially during the period of Stalin’s
rule.
There is a strong leader, often a dictator with absolute control over
the ruling party and the country.
There is extensive adulation of the leader – a ‘cult of personality’
The ruling party and the government of the country are very
closely linked, in many cases virtually inseparable, with the same
people holding high positions in both.
The ruling party controls public organisations such as trade unions
and the media.
There is a secret police organisation.
Elections don’t mean much, as all the candidates belong to the
ruling party and often there is only one candidate in each
electoralarea.
There is widespread use of force and violence in the political
system, for example opponents of the party and of the leader are
imprisoned or even executed.
There are severe limitations on individual rights and freedoms.
Did you answer?
You should have ticked all the statements. They were all characteristics of
the Soviet Union under Stalin.
The Soviet Union can be seen as a totalitarian state as the Politburo
controlled all aspects of life in Russia. Through the purges and show
trials Stalin was able to remove possible opponents to his total control.
48
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Forces of change and continuity
Let’s revise some of the important steps in Stalin’s achieving supreme
power. Below is a list of the forces that contributed to change and
continuity in the Soviet Union when Stalin was leader, and an
explanation of their significance.
•
Collectivisation because it reorganised agriculture, introduced
socialism in the countryside, increased government control over the
peasants and led to many people moving to the towns and cities.
•
Communism because it provided the theoretical foundation for many
of the changes which Stalin introduced, such as the collectivisation
of agriculture. It also led to the continuation of many of the policies
which Lenin had introduced, for example dictatorship of the
proletariat under the leadership of the Communist Party.
•
Industrialisation because it increased the role of industry in the
modernised Soviet economy, created a much larger proletariat and
gave the Soviet Union a greater capacity to build up its armed forces
in order to resist aggression by other countries. Indeed some
historians have suggested that without Stalin’s policy of
industrialisation, the Soviet Union would not have been able to
defeat Germany in World War II.
•
Nationalism because it contributed to Stalin’s concept of ‘socialism
in one country’ and, especially in the 1930s, led to a renewed focus
on Russian history and the Russian language. It was not a new force
in Russian history, as it had been strong for well over two centuries.
•
Terror because it increased the use of violence in the political system
and made it easier for Stalin to increase his control over the Party,
the government and the Soviet people. Again this was not new as the
tsars had used violence during the nineteenth century and the
communists themselves had employed terror tactics during the
Civil War.
•
Totalitarianism because it meant the continuation of Lenin’s policy
of only one political party, the Communist Party, being allowed.
However, as practised in Stalinism, it was taken one step further:
to one man totally dominating the Party and therefore the state.
•
Urbanisation because it involved large numbers of people moving
from the countryside to live in towns and cities, which meant they
had a different way of life and often a different standard of living.
It was both a cause and a result of industrialisation: it provided a
workforce for industry which then expanded leading to
further urbanisation.
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
49
Role of individuals and groups
On the left-hand side below is a list of some of the important individuals
and groups in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. On the right-hand side is
some information about the roles that they played during that time.
Draw a line between each individual or group and the corresponding
piece of information.
50
Communist Party
Played a significant role in the drafting
of the 1936 New constitution
Bukharin
dominated the Communist Party, the
government and the Soviet people
secret police
the only political party allowed
peasantry
played an important role in developing
and maintaining the ‘cult of personality’
Kirov
worked in industry and supported the
Communist Party
Stalin
were primarily responsible for
implementing the Great Terror
cultural workers
his assassination gave Stalin the
opportunity to increase the powers of
the secret police
proletariat
his ‘Platform’ showed that there was still
opposition to Stalin in the Party
Ryutin
were forced onto collective farms,
where they were expected to produce
more food to enable industrialisation
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Did you answer?
Communist Party
Played a significant role in the drafting of
the 1936 New constitution
Bukharin
dominated the Communist Party, the
government and the Soviet people
secret police
the only political party allowed
peasantry
played an important role in developing and
maintaining the ‘cult of personality’
Kirov
worked in industry and supported the
Communist Party
Stalin
were primarily responsible for implementing
the Great Terror
cultural workers
his assassination gave Stalin the opportunity
to increase the powers of the secret police
proletariat
his ‘Platform’ showed that there was still
opposition to Stalin in the Party
Ryutin
were forced onto collective farms, where they
were expected to produce more food to enable
industrialisation
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
51
Perspectives and views of Stalin
Not surprisingly, Stalin has inspired a wide variety of viewpoints.
People have approached his policies and actions from several different
perspectives, which means the countries they come from, their
relationship with Stalin, their jobs and positions, etc.
Let’s look at some of these perspectives and interpretations now.
a) Lavrenti Beria was a close personal friend of Stalin and was head of
the secret police between 1938 and 1953. He wrote a pamphlet
called The Great Inspirer and Organizer of the Victories of
Communism on the occasion of Stalin’s seventieth birthday in 1949.
The following is an extract from this pamphlet.
The name of Comrade Stalin takes its place beside the names of
the world’s greatest men of genius–Marx, Engels, Lenin. The
victory of the proletarian revolution, and the creation of the Soviet
social and state system: mankind owes this to Lenin and to his
faithful disciple, Comrade Stalin. The victory of Socialism in the
USSR and the salvation of human civilization from the onslaught
of fascist [especially Nazi] barbarism: such is mankind’s debt to
Comrade Stalin.
Source:
M. Bucklow and G. Russell,1988, Russia: Why Revolution?,
Longman Cheshire, p .265.
b) The Argus newspaper in Melbourne included a summary of Stalin’s
life and career on 7 March 1953, just two days before he died.
Part of it said:
Saviour, tyrant, superman, or ruthless despot?
In his life Josef Stalin, who ruled 200 million people and swayed
millions more, was called all these things. And, as well, he was
named both devil and god. He consolidated Lenin’s revolution…
He directed the growth of a young, spindly revolutionary state so
effectively that within 20 years it was a vitally significant
world power…
With Lenin gone, Stalin gained almost complete control of the
Communist Party machine, and thereafter ruled Russia. He began a
series of five-year plans that turned the Soviet Union into a great
industrial nation… In the war he proved himself an astute
strategist…
Source:
52
M. Bucklow and G. Russell,1988, Russia: Why Revolution?,
Longman Cheshire, pp 266–7.
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
c)
At the Twentieth Party Congress in 1956, Nikita Krushchev,
who had become First Secretary of the Party in 1953, made a ‘Secret
Speech’ in which he made an assessment of Stalin and his actions.
It included the following:
… it is impermissible and foreign to the spirit of MarxismLeninism to elevate one person, to transform him into a superman
possessing supernatural characteristics akin to those of a god.
Such a belief about a man, and specifically about Stalin, was
cultivated among us for many years.
Stalin was a very distrustful man, sickly suspicious…
Everywhere and in everything he saw ‘enemies’, ‘two-facers’ and
‘spies…
Now when the cases of some of these so-called ‘spies’ and
‘saboteurs’ [who were arrested and shot in the Great Terror] were
examined it was found that all their cases were fabricated.
Confessions of guilt of many arrested and charged with eneny
activity were gained with the help of cruel and inhuman
tortures…
Stalin was convinced that this was necessary for the defence of
the interests of the working class, of the interests of the labouring
people, of the interests of the victory of socialism and
Communism. We cannot say that these were the deeds of a giddy
despot [dictator]… In this lies the whole tragedy!
Source:
F W Stacey, 1972, Stalin and the Making of Modern
Russia, Edward Arnold, pp 57–9.
d) The official History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
(CPSU) which was published in 1960 said the following
about Stalin:
Stalin rightly stressed the necessity of strengthening the Soviet
State in every possible way, [and] of keeping a watchful eye on
the intrigues of enemies … but after Socialism had won, after the
exploiting classes had been eliminated, … the [concept] of the
inevitable sharpening of the class struggle was an erroneous
[mistaken] one. In practice it served as a justification for mass
repressions… Many honest Communists and non-Party people,
not guilty of any offence … became victims. The violations of
Socialist legality and the mass repressions caused great damage
to the Communist Party.
Source:
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
Michael Bucklow and Glenn Russell,1988, Russia: Why
Revolution?, Longman Cheshire, p. 257.
53
e) Svetlana Alliluyeva was Stalin’s daughter. In 1967 she wrote:
Millions were sacrificed senselessly, thousands of talented lives
extinguished prematurely… Wouldn’t it have been better for these
people to have gone on serving mankind here on earth rather than
have their deaths be the only mark they left in the hearts of men?
History is a stern judge. It’s not for me but for history to decide
who served the cause [of communism] and who that of vanity…
I certainly don’t have the right. All I have is my conscience.
Source:
f)
M. Bucklow and G. Russell,1988, Russia: Why Revolution?,
Longman Cheshire, pp 256–7.
In 1989 a Soviet historian described Stalin’s rule as:
Unnatural, illegal, and contradicting the ideas, traditions and
history of socialism, it was imposed by force, using mass criminal
reprisals.
Source:
M. Barallon, 1992, The Russian Revolution A Student Handbook,
The History Teachers’ Association of Victoria, p 70
g) In the same year, the British historian Alec Nove wrote:
So there were great errors as well as crimes, to set against the
successful consolidation and enlargement of the Soviet state…
Having achieved power, [Stalin] imprinted his personality on
many events.
Source:
A. Nove, 1989, Stalinism and After The Road to Gorbachev
(Third edn), Unwin Hyman, p. 113.
h) Another British historian Evan Mawdsley, writing in 1998, has
reached the following conclusions about Stalin and Stalinism:
The excesses of Stalinism had much to do with Stalin himself, and
were not an essential part of the Soviet system… He was not
simply cruel, he also caused Russia and the Russian people
enormous harm. Despite being intelligent, cunning and hard
working, he was also vastly incompetent.
On the other hand the Stalin years were to an extent the logical
consequence of 1917… to a large extent his goals were ones which
the makers of the [Bolshevik] revolution would have shared.
Stalinism is incomprehensible without its Marxist-Leninist
emphasis on class conflict…
We now know that the suffering of the Stalin years did not even
have a positive ‘historical role’. It did not create something
permanent…
Source:
54
Evan Mawdsley, 1998, The Stalin years: The Soviet Union
1929–1953, Manchester University Press, pp 114–5.
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
In the box below there are several items relating to the perspectives and
views that you have just read. Write each one in the correct column in the
table that follows. We have filled in some of the spaces for you.
mentions both positive and
negative aspects of Stalin
British historian
Soviet
Alec Nove
later leader of the
Communist Party
Argus
Stalin’s daughter
Nikita Krushchev
extremely positive view of
Stalin
positive view of Stalin’s
achievements
History of the
Communist Party of
the Soviet Union
Stalin did some bad things
but she isn’t willing to judge
his motives
Name
Lavrenti Beria
Perspective
View
a friend of Stalin
Australian
newspaper
critical of Stalin and his actions but believes
that he had positive motives
official history
Stalin knew what needed to be done but he
used wrong methods to try to achieve
thosethings
Svetlana
Alliluyeva
very negative view of Stalin
historian
British historian
Evan Mawdsley
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
negative view of Stalin but believes his actions
followed logically from Marxism-Leninism and
the Bolshevik Revolution
55
Did you answer?
Name
Perspective
View
Lavrenti Beria
a friend of
Stalin
extremely positive view of Stalin
Argus
Australian
newspaper
positive view of Stalin’s
achievements
Nikita Krushchev
later leader of
Communist
Party
critical of Stalin and his actions but
believes that he had positive motives
History of the
Communist Party of
the Soviet Union
official history
Stalin knew what needed to be done
but he used wrong methods to try to
achieve those things
Svetlana Alliluyeva
Stalin’s
daughter
Stalin did some bad things but she
isn’t willing to judge his motives
historian
Soviet
very negative view of Stalin
Alec Nove
British historian
mentions both positive and negative
aspects of Stalinism
Evan Mawdsley
British historian
negative view of Stalin but believes
his actions followed logically from
Marxism-Leninism and the
Bolshevik Revolution
Perhaps a good way to finish our study of Stalin and Stalinism in the
1930s is with a joke which comes from the time.
Stalin wanted to get a true picture of what people thought of him, so
he went in disguise into a cinema. After the main film, a newsreel
was shown which naturally highlighted Stalin in every scene. All the
audience stood up amidst thunderous, unrelenting applause. Stalin
remained modestly seated. After a few moments the man next to
Stalin nudged him and said gently, ‘Most people feel the same way as
you, comrade. But it would be safer if you stood up.’
Source:
Merilyn Barallon, 1992, The Russian Revolution A Student
Handbook, The History Teachers’ Association of Victoria, p. 70.
Now would be an appropriate time to do Exercise 5.
56
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Exercises – Part 7
Exercise 1
Name: _______________________________
The political system
1
2
Which of the following were part of the Soviet ruling group in the
1930s? Hint: there may be more than one correct answer.
Ë
intellectuals
Ë
middle class
Ë
nobility
Ë
peasants
Ë
people on the nomenklatura
Ë
shopkeepers
Ë
the Communist Party apparat
Ë
working class
Using the information from this Section indicate whether each of the
following statements are true or false.
The Soviet political system was based on the Soviets.
T/F
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was also
known as the Sovnarkom.
T/F
The regional Soviets were above the Republic
Soviets in the government structure.
T/F
The Supreme Soviet had two chambers.
T/F
The collectivisation of agriculture meant that the
peasants had more freedom.
T/F
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
57
3
Write up to six sentences using your own words in answer to the
following question:
Describe the government structure in the Soviet Union following the
1936 Constitution?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
58
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Exercise 2
Name: _______________________________
Opposition to Stalin
1
Answer the following questions based on information from this
Section.
a
What was the purpose of the Ryutin Platform?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
b
Why did Stalin see Kirov as a threat?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
c
What were the ‘Kirov Decrees’?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
2
Write three sentences using your own words in answer to the
following question:
Who opposed Stalin in the 1930s?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Part 7: Stalin: the dictator
59
3
What was the role of the secret police in Stalinist Russia?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
60
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Exercise 3
Name: _______________________________
The purges
1
Using information from this Section and the one previous, answer
the following questions.
a
What incident sparked off the purges in the Soviet Union?
___________________________________________________
b
Who was involved in the first show trial?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
c
What were the repercussions of the second show trial?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
2
The source below is an extract from the historical novel Dr Zhivago
by Boris Pasternak published in 1958. It is a description of the
setting up of a labour camp. Read it and answer the questions
which follow.
We were unlucky. We were sent to just about the worst of the
punitive camps. There were very few survivors. Our arrival to
begin with.We got off the train. A snow desert. Forest in the
distance. Guards with rifles, muzzles pointing at us, wolf-dogs.
At about the same time other groups were brought up. We were
spread out and formed into a big polygon all over the field, facing
outwards so that we couldn’t see each other. Then we were
ordered down on our knees, and told to keep looking straight in
front on pain of death. Then the roll-call, an endless, humiliating
business going on for hours and hours, and all the time we were
on our knees.
We broke saplings with our bare hands in the frost, to get wood
to build our huts with. And in the end, believe it or not, we built
our own camp, ... all with our own hands. And then we began our
work as lumberjacks. We felled trees. We harnessed ourselves,
eight to a sledge, and we hauled timber and sank into the snow up
to our necks.
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For a long time we didn’t know there was a war [World War II].
They kept it from us. And then suddenly there came the offer.
You could volunteer for front-line service in a punitive battalion,
and if you came out alive you were free. After that, attack after
attack, mile after mile of electrified barbed wire, mines, mortars,
month after month of artillery barrage. They called our company
the death squad. It was practically wiped out. How and why I
survived I don’t know. And yet – imagine,–all that utter hell was
nothing, it was bliss compared to the horror of the concentration
camp…
Source:
a
F W Stacey, 1972, Stalin and the Making of Modern Russia,
Edward Arnold, pp 37–8.
Why were the prisoners on the field forced to stand
facing outwards?
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b
What time of year is being described? What two words in the
source tell you this?
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c
Why do you think the narrator in the source volunteered for
front-line service in World War II?
NB There are two answers. Include both. Remember to use your
own words. Don’t just copy from the source.
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3
Why were the purges carried out?
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62
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Exercise 4
Name: _______________________________
Support for Stalin
1
What was the ‘cult of personality’?
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2
What was the role of the ‘cult of personality’ in Stalin maintaining
total control over the Soviet Union?
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3
On the last page of this Section you read Roy Medvedev’s statement
that in order to maintain his control over the Soviet Union, ‘Stalin
did not rely on terror alone, but also on the support of the majority of
the people.’
Do you agree with this statement? Use evidence to justify your
viewpoint.
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64
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
Exercise 5
Name: _______________________________
Stalinism: an assessment
1
On the left hand side below is a list of some of the important events
and ideas in the Soviet Union in the late 1920s and the 1930s. On the
right-hand side is some information about the roles that these events
and ideas played during that time. Draw a line between each event or
idea and its corresponding piece of information.
1928–beginning of
industralisation
meant that the Soviet was the only centre
of power in the village
1929–beginning of forced
collectivisation
outlined new government structure based
on the Soviets
1929–beginning of cult of
personality
climax of process begun by Stalin in
1920s to purge opponents from the Party
1930–abolition of
Zhenotdel
started process of modernisation and
restructuring of economy
1930 abolition of
commune
Stalin held top positions in both Party
and government
1934–17th Party
Congress
new approach to culture in the 1930s
1936 new
Constitution
result of increased Russian nationalism
and cocern about German aggression
1936–8 show trials
collectivisation was now to be
compulsory not voluntary – led to
widespread peasant resistance
1939–beginning of
deportation of nationalities
focus on Stalin as heroic leader of
socialism and the Soviet Union
Stalin became Chairman of
Council of People’s
Commissars
showed reduced concern in Party about
policies regarding women
socialism in one
country
confirmed and demonstrated Stalin’s
dominance of the Party
socialist realism
Stalin’s concept of developing socialism
in the USSR before revolutions occurred
in other countries – contrasted with
Trostsky’s idea of ‘permanent revolution’
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2
In this Section you read a number of sources which illustrate
different perspectives and views about Stalin and Stalinism.
Choose one of those sources. On the lines below, say whether you
agree or disagree with that source and provide evidence to justify
your viewpoint.
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66
Russia and the Soviet Union 1917–1941
3
In this Section you read about some of the forces that contributed to
change and continuity in the Soviet Union when Stalin was leader,
as well as an explanation of their significance. These forces were
collectivisation, communism, industrialisation, nationalism, terror
and totalitarianism and urbanisation.
On the lines below:
a)
write the seven forces in what you think is their order of
significance, that is write the force that you think was the most
significant first, then the force that was second most important,
and so on.
b)
explain why you chose the one that you think is the
most significant.
c)
explain why you chose the one that you think is the
least significant.
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