Transcript Communism in Russia - Mr Mc Carthy: History

Communism in Russia
Communist Revolution
Karl Marx
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Bourgeoisie V Proletariat
‘Communist Manifesto’ with
Engels
‘the Proletariat have nothing
to lose but their chains’
‘Workers of the world, unite!’
‘Das Kapital’
Removal of profit
Factors of production in
state hands.
Worldwide revolution in
industrialised countries.
Lenin (early years)
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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov.
Became a lawyer but exiled to
Siberia for political activities.
Moved to Switzerland and
became editor of ‘Iskra’
Engineered split between
Bolsheviks (elitist) and
Mensheviks (populist).
Good speaker.
Lenin’s Russia
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1917 led the October Revolution and became ruler of Soviet Russia
1917 Brest-Litovsk lost 1/3 of land and ½ of industry
1918 shot. Never fully recovered.
1918-21 led the Reds against the Whites in the Civil War.
1921 dropped War Communism in favour of the New Economic
Policy.
 This meant:
 Stopped taking all food from peasants. Took 10% and allowed
them to sell the rest.
 Small factories returned to their owners.
 The NEP improved things but food was still scarce and expensive.
Many regarded as a betrayal of communist ideals.
1922 a stroke may explain failure to appoint a successor.
1924 died of a brain haemorrhage
Assessment
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Millions died in war and
starvation.
Landlords gone
Less exploitation by industrialists.
Realistic in transitional approach.
Showed the effectiveness of
terror against opponents.
Creation of elite made it possible
for Stalin to come to power.
In his ‘Political Will’ he warned
of the danger of giving Stalin
power.
Stalin Seizes Power
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Stalin, Trotsky, Kamenev and
Zinoviev in a power struggle.
Other 3 turned against Trotsky
who still favoured world
revolution.
Stalin proposed ‘Socialism in one
country’
1927 Trotsky expelled from the
Party, later banished from USSR
and assassinated in 1940.
1927 Stalin turned on the other
two, claiming they were too liberal
and they were expelled from the
Party and executed in the 1936
purge.
Stalin was now addressed as
‘Vozhd’ (leader)
Stalin’s Economic Policies
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Stalin’s main aim was to
turn USSR into an
industrial and military
power quickly.
The state planning body,
Gosplan, came up with 5
year plans.
In order for these to
succeed, rural workers
had to be moved to the
cities.
First 5 Year Plan 1928-32
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State took control of all
aspects of the economy.
It was a law setting targets
rather than a plan.
250% increase in industrial
production. 150% in
agriculture.
Infrastructure (power
stations, mines, railways,
canals and roads), industrial
and agricultural machinery
were given priority
Second Plan 1933-38
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Focus on heavy industry and
agricultural equipment continued.
Stakhanov (15 times his quota)
became a national hero
Extra pay, holidays and prizes for
great workers.
Huge hours, accidents common,
dreadful conditions.
Unemployment not tolerated.
Scale of projects (Magnitogorsk)
was enormous
The third Plan started to produce
radios, bicycles and other
household goods but war put an
end to that.
Assessment
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Great success economically.
Human cost huge.
Full employment did mean a better standard of
living.
Figures were often exaggerated.
Quality of goods often poor.
Big emphasis on education
Collectivisation
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Stalin believed peasants were hoarding grain and reducing
production to push prices up.
He also wanted 25 million workers for industry
Collective farms (kolkhoz)
Kulaks preferred to destroy their farms than give them up.
Over 5 million were executed or deported.
Agricultural production dropped as farmers did little on the
collectives.
1932-33 about 10 million died of famine as a result of this and
bad harvests.
Eventually things improved but never reached targets
THE RED TERROR 1928-40
Stalin’s Purges
Repression Under Stalin
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Stalin’s Paranoia
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‘Class Enemies’ or
‘wreckers’. Engineers and
industrial planners
suffered.
Stalin called for the
‘liquidation of the Kulaks
as a class’. 1 million killed
or deported.
Half of the 35,000 officer
class executed of jailed.
Informers everywhere
The Gulag
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This was a prison system
that was really a slave
labour camp.
Millions died
Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s
‘Gulag Archipelago’
Moscow Show Trials: Case Study
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The Ryutin Platform
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Many were against forced
collectivisation.
Martemyan Ryutin was
the most vocal.
Stalin wanted him killed
but it was 1932 and he
was outvoted (1932).
Sergei Kirov did most to
save Ryutin (got 10 years
and died in jail).
The ‘Kirov Flood’
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Kirov was very popular in the Party
was murdered, probably on Stalin’s
orders.
Stalin used the murder as an excuse
for the secret police (NKVD) to
arrest all possible opponents, their
families and friends.
This included Kamenev and
Zinoviev.
A massive ‘cult of the leader’
propaganda campaign was in
progress with an emphasis on the
‘enemies of the people’.
Thousands were sentenced to
death.
1936 The First Show Trial
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These trials were big media
events in front of carefully
chosen audience and foreign
correspondents.
Kamenev, Zinoviev and 14
others accused of killing
Kirov, of plotting to kill
Stalin’ of being wreckers and
of being Trotskyites.
All pleaded guilty and all
executed within 24 hours.
Their families and friends
‘disappeared’.
The 1937 Show Trial
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17 pro Trotsky supporters ‘admitted’ that Trotsky had organised wrecking.
2 were spared because they implicated Bukharin, Rykov and Kretinsky who
had been members of Lenin’s Politburo.
They died in jail anyway
The 1938 Show Trial
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Bukharin had wanted to
continue with the NEP.
Torture, interrogation
and finally threatening
his family forced him
and the others to confess
to sabotage and spying.
They also implicated
others.
They were executed.
The Final Figures
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At least 7 million
executed or died in the
Gulag.
10 million from famine.
Between 19 and 22
million in all excluding
war victims.