Russia and the Soviet Union

Question 1

What were the April theses?

Answer 1

Lenin’s radical demands to give history a “push”

Question 2

What was the July Uprising?

Answer 2

500 000 workers took to the streets but Lenin held back from revolution

Question 3

What was the Kornilov revolt?

Answer 3

An old Tsarist tried to stage a coup but was defeated by the Bolsheviks in September 1917

Question 4

What was Bolshevik ideology? (Marxist-Leninism)

Answer 4

1. An immediate end to the war
2. Land distribution to the peasants
3. A new system of government led by the Soviets.
4. The achievement of socialism in Russia without waiting for capitalism to develop
5. A permanent revolution led by the Bolsheviks, beginning in Russia, which would sweep through Europe (a revolution in Russia would give history a ‘push’ and trigger socialism)

Question 5

Karl Marx’s idea was first published in:

Answer 5

The Communist Manifesto

Question 6

What aspect of Orthodox Marxism did Lenin disagree with?

Answer 6

History can only advance to the next stage after the previous stage has fully developed.

Question 7

Why did the Mensheviks continue to fight World War One after the February Revolution?

Answer 7

They wanted to fight until a just peace could be made

Question 8

The Bolsheviks initially split with the Mensheviks because:

Answer 8

they disagreed on party membership.

Question 9

What is a revolution according to Kamara?

Answer 9

“Fundamental change that radically alters the institutions… and… relations between state and society.

Question 10

What is The Winter Palace?

Answer 10

The official home of the Tsars and the location of the Provisional Government after the February Revolution

Question 11

Quote: Vladimir Lenin, ‘The Call to Power.’ 24 October 1917 on October Revolution

Answer 11

“If we seize power today, we seize it not in opposition to the Soviets but on their behalf… To delay action is fatal.”

Question 12

When did the Bolsheviks storm the Winter Palace + overthrow the Provisional Government?

Answer 12

25th October 1917

Question 13

Quote: ALexander Rabinowitch, The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd, 2008, p.13 on October Revolution

Answer 13

“…the October Revolution in Petrograd was in a large measure a valid expression of the widespread disenchantment with the results of the February Revolution and of popular aspirations for a brighter, more just future.”

Question 14

What is a coup?

Answer 14

A coup consists of the infiltration of a small but critical segment of the state apparatus which is then used to displace the government from its remainder (of the state apparatus).

Question 15

Quote: Trosky, L (1957). The history of the Russian Revolution on October Revolution

Answer 15

“The seizure of the government machine could be carried through according to plan with the help of comparatively small armed detachments guided from a single centre[…] Political conquest was here replaced by forcible seizure.”

Question 16

Quote: Canadian Journal of Political Sciece / Volume 32 / Issue 02 / June 1999 on October Revolution

Answer 16

“Kamara researched revolutions and concluded that there were three types: negotiated, spontaneous and planned. Using Kamara’s analysis, October 1917 was a planned revolution.”

Question 17

Quote: Richard Pipes, The Russian Revolution on October Revolution

Answer 17

“October was a classic coup d’etat, the capture of governmental authority by a small band, carried out, in deference to the democratic professions of the age, with a show of mass participation, but with hardly any mass involvement.”

Question 18

Quote: Alec Nove, Stalinism and After on October Revolution

Answer 18

“What is surely true is that the Bolsheviks were able to seize power with relatively small forces, while the army and the bulk of the citizens looked on indifferently.”

Question 19

Quote: Robert Service, The Russian Revolution on the October Revolution

Answer 19

“Popular uprisings have never been organised by a people as a whole. Only a minority directly participates. And, by mid-October, Lenin could also argue that the Soviets in city after city throughout Russia were following the example of Petrograd and Moscow in acquiring Bolshevik majorities.”

Question 20

Quote: Martin Malia Russia Under Western Eyes. on October Revolution

Answer 20

“into the political void stepped Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Fired to ideological incandescence by the social implosion of 1917, they mounted a coup d’etat to seize state power in the workers’ name”

Question 21

Quote: Adam Ulam, Lenin and the Bolsheviks on October Revolution

Answer 21

“The Bolsheviks did not seize power, they picked it up.”

Question 22

Quote: Karl Marx Collected Works Vol. 39 on Dictatorship of the Proletariat

Answer 22

“My own contribution was (1) to show that the existence of classes is merely bound up with certain historical phases in the development of production; (2) that the class struggle necessarily lead to the dictatorship of the proletariat; [and] (3) that this dictatorship, itself, constitutes no more than a transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society.”

Question 23

Definition of Dictatorship of the Proletariat

Answer 23

A temporary seizure of the state by the Bolsheviks to enable them to implement socialism but also to allow them to combat counter-revolutions and Tsarists

Question 24

Definition of the Bourgeoisie

Answer 24

The ruling and capitalist class who held power before the revolution.

Question 25

What is the proletariat?

Answer 25

The workers

Question 26

When is a coup legitimate?

Answer 26

When it is the will of the people

Question 27

Quote: John Reed, 10 Days that Shook the World on consolidation of power

Answer 27

“All around them great Russia was in travail, bearing a new world… The waiters and hotel servants were organised, and refused tips. On the walls of restaurants they put up signs which read, ‘No tips taken here-‘ or, ‘Just because a man has to make his living waiting on table is no reason to insult him by offering a tip!’.

Question 28

Definition of Consolidation

Answer 28

A process of maintaining power through both social/political reforms and force

Question 29

Quote: Paul Le Blanc, 2009 on Brest-Litovsk

Answer 29

“The German military, losing patience, launched a massive and successful offensive which demonstrated the hollowness of the “revolutionary war” notion and the inadequacy of Trotsky’s compromise position. The German High Command then put forward even more odious demands which Lenin now had little difficulty in persuading a majority to accept.”

Question 30

Definition of Nationalisation

Answer 30

State control of industries. This was an essential component of War Communism.

Question 31

Quote: Sobranie Uzakoneii i Rasporiozhenii Rabachego i Krestianskogo Praviteistva, 1917

Answer 31

‘In he interests of a proper organisation of the national economy, a thorough eradication of bank speculation and a complete emancipation of the toiling masses from exploitation by the banking capitalists, and in order to found a single unified State Bank for the Russian Republic which shall serve the interests of the people and the poorest classes, the Central Executive Committee decrees that: Banking is hereby declared a state monopoly.’

Question 32

What were the first two measures of consolidation after the October Revolution?

Answer 32

Land and Peace Decree

Question 33

Why did Trotsky stall negotiations with the Germans before the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed?

Answer 33

He was waiting for the spread of socialist revolution to Germany

Question 34

What is an example of an industry which was nationalised by the Bolsheviks?

Answer 34

The banking system

Question 35

What were some impacts of war communism?

Answer 35

The collapse of the economy, alienation of peasants + nationalisation of major industries

Question 36

Definition of capitalism in relation to NEP

Answer 36

A system based on profit. During the period of the NEP shops re-opened and small-scale industry was encouraged.

Question 37

Definition of the New Economic Policy (NEP)

Answer 37

The NEP was introduced at the Tenth Party Congress. There were audible gasps from the audience. Was this a betrayal?

Question 38

Quote: Nikolai Bukharin on NEP

Answer 38

‘We are making economic concessions in order to avoid political ones’

Question 39

What was the new Soviet currency as part of the NEP?

Answer 39

Chervonets

Question 40

Quote: Lenin on modernisation

Answer 40

“Communism equals soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.”

Question 41

What was GOELRO?

Answer 41

The GOELRO was a scheme by the Bolsheviks to rapidly increase electrification. Lenin recognised that without electrification, industrialisation was impossible.

Question 42

Which sectors of the economy were nationalised under the NEP?

Answer 42

Banks, steel and coal

Question 43

What features best describe transition in relation to the NEP?

Answer 43

Pragmatic approach to create conditions for socialism

Question 44

Definition of grain requisitioning (war communism)

Answer 44

During the Civil War, the Bolsheviks forced peasants to give up their grain. This was extremely unpopular

Question 45

Quote: Tarr on grain requisitioning

Answer 45

In 1918, 7000 requisitioners were murdered

Question 46

Quote: Rosenberg on NEP

Answer 46

“The new regime’s very agenda in these years [through the NEP] to build a modern, industrial, socialist Soviet Union, was deeply at odds with many of the social constituents, particularly in the countryside.”

Question 47

How many people died of disease between 1917 and 1920?

Answer 47

3.5 million people

Question 48

Quote: Hirsch on USSR - (1) dividing into nationalities

Answer 48

“A policy of dividing the peoples of the former Russian Empire into official nationalities turned out to be an effective means of consolidating the Soviet Union.”

Question 49

Quote: Hirsch on USSR (2)

Answer 49

“The new soviet state or nation was characterised as a transitional stage on the evolutionary timeline, envisioning the mature Soviet Union as a socialist union of denationalised people… an attempt to define a new and presumable non-imperialistic model of colonisation.”

Question 50

Quote: Hirsch on USSR (3)

Answer 50

“Administrators based in the region had reported that it was impossible to distinguish between Belorussian and Russian villages, which were linguistically and ethnically intermixed. They had advised against the creation of a Belorussian republic, cautioning that it would have the effect of “artificially cultivating a Belorussian nationality.”

Question 51

When was the USSR/SU officially formed?

Answer 51

30 December 1922

Question 52

Definition of self determination (USSR)

Answer 52

Lenin’s belief that all colonised countries need to first achieve independence before becoming socialist.

Question 53

Definition of state-sponsored evolutionism (USSR)

Answer 53

The creation of ‘top down’ national identities in the old Russian empire to encourage self-determination

Question 54

Quote: Kingston-Mann on impacts of consolidation

Answer 54

“The spectre of a resurgent peasantry aroused fears that a primitive, consumption-hungry rural populace might dictate its own terms in the disposal of agricultural output.”

Question 55

What is primitive socialist accumulation?

Answer 55

An economic theory that stated that modernisation and industrialisation could be achieved by harnessing the peasantry… although the precise meaning of the concept was disputed by the Bolsheviks.

Question 56

Definition of Kulak

Answer 56

A rich peasant that was accused of deliberately withholding grain and/or of becoming rich.

Question 57

Definition of Slav/Slavic peoples

Answer 57

Originating in Central Europe 7000 years ago, Slavs populated Russia, Eastern Europe and the Baltin region in the C20th.

Question 58

Quote: Ball on impact of consolidation

Answer 58

“In 1927, V. M. Molotov warned against the dangerously rapid growth of kulaks, contending that as many as 5 per cent of the peasantry fell into this category. However, the term ‘kulak’ was never legally defined, and official data failed to demonstrate that kulak numbers were increasing - the government’s own figures indicated that the peasant ‘upper strata’ remained negligible in comparison with the 15 per cent level of the pre-1917 era.”

Question 59

How many people did the industrial working class contain in 1929?

Answer 59

5.6 million people

Question 60

The most important impact of the NEP was:

Answer 60

a gradual and partial recovery of industry and agriculture

Question 61

How did the Bolsheviks’ leaders attempt to extend their power in the 1920s?

Answer 61

The centralisation of power within the party leadership group (Politburo), and the establishment of Bolshevik bureaucracies

Question 62

The major impact of the consolidation in the countryside was:

Answer 62

some increase in agricultural production but a loss of control of people’s everyday life.

Question 63

Definition of the Politburo

Answer 63

The leadership group of the Bolshevik Party. After the Civil War, power became centralised into the Politburo.

Question 64

Quote: the official Histsory of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on the death of Lenin

Answer 64

“After Lenin’s death in 1924 there was an even larger mass enrolment [into the Bolshevik Party]. In those days of mourning, every class-conscious worker defined his attitude to the Communist Party, and 240000 new members joined it, pledging themselves to carry on Lenin’s work.

Question 65

Name some of the Bolshevik Party members involved in the power struggle

Answer 65

Stalin, Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin

Question 66

What is Trotsky’s militarisation of labour?

Answer 66

Trotsky believed that modernisation could be achieved by central planning of the economy, and the more direct organisation of workers.

Question 67

What did Trotsky call the NEP?

Answer 67

“the first sign of the degeneration of Bolshevism”

Question 68

Who were the Left Opposition?

Answer 68

Trotsky’s faction of Bolsheviks formed in 1923 to defend the legacy of October 1917, they believed that rapidly modernising would quickly lead to socialism + the Soviet econoimc model would offer inspiration to the workers of Europe. (focused on the idea of permanent/global revolution)

Question 69

Quote: “The Platform of the 46”, October 15th 1923, a few months before the death of Lenin. (This represented the concerns of the Left Opposition)

Answer 69

“The regime established within the Party is completely intolerable; it destroys the independence of the Party, replacing the party by a recruited bureaucratic apparatus which acts without objection in normal times, but which inevitably fails in moments of crisis, and which threatens to become completely ineffective in the face of the serious events now impending.”

Question 70

quote: Stalin supporting permanent revolution in 1924 (which he later changed his mind on)

Answer 70

“…can the final victory of socialism in one country be attained, without the joint efforts of the proletariat of several advanced countries? No, this is impossible… For the final victory of socialism, for the organisation of socialist production, the efforts of one country, particularly of such a peasant country as Russia, are insufficient. For this the efforts of the proletarians of several advanced countries are necessary.”

Question 71

Quote: Leon Trotsky on permanent revolution

Answer 71

“The theory of the permanent revolution, in contradiction to the theory of socialism-in-one-country, was recognised by the entire Bolshevik party during the period from 1917 to 1923.

Question 72

Quote: Stalin on Socialism-in-one-country

Answer 72

“If we knew in advance that we are not equal to the task [of building socialism in Russia by itself], then why the devil did we have to make the October revolution? If we have managed for eight years, why should we not manage in the ninth, tenth or fortieth year?”

Question 73

What were the general beliefs of Left Communism?

Answer 73

• Led by Trotsky
• They believed in rapid modernisation to raise the industrial and cultural level of the Soviet Union
• They believed that the NEP, and the relationship with the peasantry, was causing the degeneration of the ideals of October Revolution
• This position supported the principles of Permanent Revolution

Question 74

What were the general beliefs of Centre Communism?

Answer 74

• Led by Stalin, until he switched sides

* They believed in a practical and pragmatic approach to modernisation

Question 75

What were the general beliefs of Right Communism?

Answer 75

• Led by Bukharin at the conclusion of the power struggle
• They believed in gradual modernisation, by building a close relationship with the peasantry
• The peasants would be encouraged to ‘enrich themselves’, and exchange their grain for consumer goods, thus stimulating industrialisation
• This was very similar to the Menshevik position prior to 1917.

Question 76

Quote: Lenin’s Testament (Stalin)

Answer 76

” Stalin is too rude and this defect, although quite tolerable in… dealings between Communists, becomes intolerable in a General Secretary. For this reasion I suggest that the comrades think about a way to remove Stalin from the post.”

Question 77

What was Lenin’s Levy?

Answer 77

At the end of the civil war, Lenin’s scheme designed to increase the membership of the Bolshevik party - supportive of Stalin (Party Secretary)

Question 78

What was the Triumvirate alliance?

Answer 78

Kamenev, Zinoviev and Stalin against Trotsky - Lenin was critical of this alliance

Question 79

Quote: Deutscher on Stalin’s manipulative rise to power

Answer 79

“Cautious, cunning and caring not a straw for logical and doctrinal niceties, he borrowed ideas and slogan from both right and left and combined them often quite incongruously. In this lay a great part of his strength. He managed to blur every issue and to confuse every debate.”

Question 80

Quote: Deutscher on Trotsky during power struggle

Answer 80

“A coalition between Trotsky and Zinoviev might have been formidable… however… Trotsky saw them as small men and rogues… he half forgot that they were leaders of a great state and Party”

Question 81

What was the Joint Opposition?

Answer 81

Trotsky’s alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev in 1926, to appeal to the rank and file of the communist party

Question 82

Quote: Deutscher on Joint Opposition

Answer 82

“The Joint Opposition organised itself into a faction but did not have the courage to defend the act.”

Question 83

What did Stalin and Bukharin do to outmanouver the Joint Opposition?

Answer 83

• Pay increases for the lowest paid workers

* Stir up fear of the Joint Opposition’s program amongst middle peasants

Question 84

Outline the events of Trotsky’s exile

Answer 84

• Removed from office 1925
• In November 1927, organised a demonstration in defence of the October Revolution
• Expelled from the Party 1927
• By the 15th Congress in December 1927, Stalin and his supporters now controlled the Bolshevik (Communist) Party
• Exiled from the Soviet Union 1929
• Murdered in Mexico, 1940 by a Stalinist operative using an ice pick to the head

Question 85

What year did Lenin die?

Answer 85

1924

Question 86

Why was Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution rejected by the Party in the 1920s?

Answer 86

After almost a decade of war, the population and the Party were weary of upheaval. + After the failure of the German Revolution in 1923, Trotsky’s ideas were rejected by the Bolsheviks.

Question 87

What were the main principles of socialism-in-one-country?

Answer 87

The Soviet Union had the capacity and resources to modernise, without the assistance of a European Revolution

Question 88

What was the key difference between left and right Communism?

Answer 88

The timing and pace of modernisation

Question 89

What was the main cause of the power struggle after the death of Lenin?

Answer 89

Ideology and changes in society

Question 90

Quote: Molyneaux on Stalin vs Trotsky

Answer 90

“Trotsky lost to Stalin because, at the time in question, the social force he represented - the working class - was weaker than the social force Stalin represented - the rising [party] bureaucracy.”

Question 91

Quote: Deutscher on rise of Stalin

Answer 91

“Stalin’s strength lay in the appeal he made to the popular craving for peace, safety and stability.”

Question 92

How many people died during the civil war?

Answer 92

7-12 million

Question 93

1926 population census stats

Answer 93

• population 147 million
• 0.83 men to every woman
• 82% of the pop lived in the countryside (urbanised people returned to the countryside due to hunger)
• Gross national income fell to 60% of what it was in 1913 due to the collapse of industry
  2 million Russians migrated to Europe/the US (well skilled + well educated)
• 1 teacher per 700 pupils in the countryside + 1 doctor per 17 000
• urban proletariat of 20 million, with 1.3 million unemployed

Question 94

What was the Central Committee?

Answer 94

The ultimate authority within the Bolshevik Party. Its importance was gradually reduced by the growing influence of the Politburo

Question 95

What was the Orgburu?

Answer 95

The administrative organ of the Bolshevik Party. Its primary role was the strategic management of officials and cadres within the Party.

Question 96

Quote: Deutscher on Trotsky’s view of administrative roles

Answer 96

“he felt the mechanics of power an inescapable burden

Question 97

What was Trotsky’s role in Stalin’s rise to power?

Answer 97

• central figure
• indifferent towards administrative roles
• aloof, arrogant, intolerant of others
• read French novels in Central Committee meetings (1926) to demonstrate his utter disdain for their ideas
• failed to create a good alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev in 1926

Question 98

What was the secretariat?

Answer 98

This was a member of the Politburo and Orgburo who was responsible for the day to day running of the Party. He was supported by five technical assistants

Question 99

When was Stalin appointed to the Orgburo?

Answer 99

1921

Question 100

When was Stalin appointed to the Secretariat?

Answer 100

1922

Question 101

What were Stalin’s tactics in his rise to power?

Answer 101

• Caution: Stalin gained power gradually, and only struck when he knew he was certain of victory i.e. the expulsion of Trotsky in 1927, and Bukharin’s dismissal from the Comintern in 1929
• The Secretariat: Stalin used his position as General Secretary to dismiss his opponents and appoint his supporters
• Patronage: Lenin’s Levy introduced new party members, who owed their promotions and positions to Stalin and his supporters
• Exploit no factions rule: Stalin always positioned himself as the upholder of Leninism, and that the opposition were breaking the ‘no factions’ rule.
• Ideological dexterity: Stalin shifted position ideologically. Although generally holding the Centre, at decisive moments he switched Right and then Left. He would often deliberately confuse his position.

Question 102

What was The Terror?

Answer 102

In 1934 after the assassination of a leading Bolshevik, Kirov, Stalin used the ensuing chaos as an opportunity to arrest (and eventually kill) many of his opponents. Between 1937 and 1938 alone approximately 1 million people were executed.

Question 103

Quote: Deutscher on Stalin’s left turn

Answer 103

“[Stalin] stole Trotsky’s thunder. Agents of the General Secretary now visited many of the exiled leaders of the old [Left] opposition and lured them back into the fold. Stalin, they argued, had after all adopted the ideas for which you stood. He strikes at the kulak and is out to industrialise the country.”

Question 104

Timeline: The victory over the right (Stalin’s left turn) 1926-1929

Answer 104

• October 1926: Zinoviev is dismissed from Presidency of Comintern
• Trotsky and Zinoviev are expelled from Politburo
• Stalin begins to remove Bukharin’s supporters from administrative positions within the Party
• January 1928: Government purchases of grain are 2 million tonnes short, threatening starvation.
• During the developing crisis, Stalin reintroduces many expelled Trotsky supporters to isolate the right.
• January 1929: Trotsky is expelled, and Bukharin is dismissed from the Presidency of the Comintern.

Question 105

What were all of the main competing visions for the Bolshevik Party and the USSR?

Answer 105

• Lenin vs. Kamenev and Zinoviev, October 1917
• Trotsky vs. Lenin vs. Zinoviev, Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 1918
• Trotsky and the Left Opposition vs. Lenin, The NEP 1921
• Trotsky vs. The Triumvirate, 1922 to 1926
• Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev vs. Stalin and Bukharin, 1926/27
• Stalin vs. Bukharin, 1927-1929
• Stalin vs. Kirov and the moderates, 1934

Question 106

Why was Stalin’s ideology of socialism-in-one-country more popular than Trotsky’s permanent revolution?

Answer 106

After almost a decade of war and revolution, Permanent Revolution seemed to offer more turmoil.

Question 107

How did Lenin describe Trotsky and Stalin in his Last Testament?

Answer 107

Stalin was rude, and Trotsky was overconfident.

Question 108

What was patronage (Stalin)?

Answer 108

A system whereby Stalin’s appointees would owe loyalty to Stalin, not to the Party.

Question 109

In 1927 to 1929, how was Stalin able to outmanoeuvre Bukharin?

Answer 109

Stalin welcomed previously ostracised Trotsky supporters back into the Party, claiming he was implementing their leftist program.

Question 110

Quote: Robert Service’s basic definition of Stalinism

Answer 110

“A short-hand way of designating official ideas, policies, and practices in the Soviet Union”

Question 111

What are the debates around Stalinism?

Answer 111

1. Was Stalinism an inevitable consequence of Marxist-Leninism?
2. How did Stalinism change and develop over the time period? Was there more than one phase of Stalinism?
3. Was Stalinism totalitarianism? Was Stalinism a total dictatorship?
4. Was Stalin a product of the system or the driving force? What was Stalin’s role?

Question 112

What is Hoffman’s breakdown of Stalinism?

Answer 112

1. Abolition of private property and free trade
2. Collectivisation
3. Centrally planned industrialisation
4. Elimination of all bourgeoisie classes (kulaks, professional classes, etc.)
5. Political terror against opponents
6. Cult of personality
7. Dictatorship led by Stalin

Question 113

Quote: Hoffman on Stalinism

Answer 113

“It was characterised by extreme coercion employed for the purpose of economic and social transformation.”

Question 114

Quote: 1930 Russian propaganda poster

Answer 114

“Away with private peasants! The private peasants are the most bestial, brutal and savage exploiters, who in the history of other countries have time and time again restored the power of landlords, tsars, priests and capitalists.”

Question 115

Quote: Kotkin on Revolutionary Violence

Answer 115

“It was in such a context that Trotsky scorned “papist-Quaker babble about the sanctity of human life”, and Lenin approvingly quoted Machiavelli to the effect that “violence can only be met with violence”. The ends (future socialism) legitimise and justify any means (actions of violence).”

Question 116

List historians in the historical debate over whether Stalinism was an inevitable product of Marxist-Leninism

Answer 116

Conquest, Malia, Service: Stalinism was a product of Marxist-Leninism
Lars Lih: challenges this
Zizek: the Leninist system clearly led to Stalinism but was only one possible manifestation

Question 117

What are the 3 main phases of Stalinism (according to Keith Smith from Edrolo)

Answer 117

1. Revolution from above (1929-1931)
2. Moderate Stalinism (1931-1934)
3. The Great Terror (1934-1938)

Question 118

What happened to all of the main old Bolshevik members from the initial power struggle leading up to 1941?

Answer 118

Lenin: died 1924
Trotsky: murdered 1940
Kamenev: shot 1936
Zinoviev: shot 1936
Bukharin: shot 1938
Rykov: shot 1938
Tomsky: suicide 1936
Stalin: survived

Question 119

What was the Cultural Revolution (Stalinism)?

Answer 119

A process begun by the Bolsheviks in the early 1920s, but more commonly associated with Stalin’s revolution from above 1929 to 1931. The Cultural Revolution transformed industry, agriculture and society to create a socialist state

Question 120

What was the revolution from above (1928-1931)

Answer 120

• The period of industrialisation, collectivisation, and the “war/terror in the countryside” (Fitzpatrick).
• This is also the beginning of the social transformation through the Cultural Revolution from 1928 to the early 1930s.
• Stalin looked to “socialise” industry and agriculture.

Question 121

What was Moderate Stalinism (1931-1934)?

Answer 121

• Consolidation, limited political opposition, and the rehabilitation of the industrial experts/professionals.
• The consolidation of the bureaucracy.
• “The coercive policies of the Cultural Revolution were replaced or supplemented by the use of inducements. A lightened mood swept the nation.” - Van Geldern writing about 1931-34.

Question 122

What was The Great Terror (1934-1938)?

Answer 122

• The rise of Hitler, and the economic crisis of 1932/33 provide Stalin with new impetus for further purges in 1934.
• Opposition was growing within the party due to his “authoritarian rule… and his dangerous economic policies” (Conquest).
• Traditional Russian institutions were rehabilitated, such as the family.
• Stalin believed that socialism had now been achieved.
• The Terror (purging of the military, the Old Bolsheviks, and show trials) ensures that Stalin is now virtually unopposed.

Question 123

What is the definition of moral nihilism?

Answer 123

A belief that the individual was less important than the state, and that the creation of a future utopia justified any actions by the state.

Question 124

What is Totalitarianism according to Friedrich and Brzezinski + how does it relate to Stalinism?

Answer 124

1. A single mass party
   * All other parties were banned udring the Civil War
2. An official ideology
   * Stalinism developed the ideology of ‘socialism-in-one-country’
3. Total control over the economy
   * Industrialisation, modernisation, collectivisation, and the banning of private trade through central government planning
4. Control over mass communications
   * Prolekult, the Cult of Stalin, and control of the press, i.e. Pravda
5. A system of terror and police control
   * Show trials, purges, gulags, and informants
6. Control over the armed forces and the state
   * Relative autonomy of military purged in 1937. Stalin dictated all key military decisions.

Question 125

What is Totalitarianism according to historian Norman Davies?

Answer 125

1. National-socialist identity
2. Pseudo-science to justify practices and ideology
3. Utopian goals
4. Contempt for liberal democracy and its institutions
5. Moral nihilism where ‘the ends justify the means’

Question 126

What was Pravda?

Answer 126

Meaning “truth”, it was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Question 127

What was Prolekult?

Answer 127

An experimental Soviet artistic institution arising in 1917. Its name is a combination of ‘proletarian’ and ‘culture’.

Question 128

What is the totalitarian model for Stalin’s role?

Answer 128

• This model believes that Stalin was largely in control, and played the critical role. “For Stalin created a machine capable of taking on the social forces and defeating them, and infused it with his will. Society was reconstructed according to his formulaes. It [society] failed to reconstruct him.” -Conquest

Question 129

What is the revisionist model for Stalin’s role?

Answer 129

• This model holds that Stalin was as much a symptom of the system as a cause.
• Fitzpatrick perceived it as, “a complex bureaucracy with conflicting and overlapping areas of responsibility.”
• Suny described Stalin as, “the ultimate man of the machine”.

Question 130

Quote: contemporary Russian textbook on Stalin’s economic transformation leading up to World War 2

Answer 130

“The [1941] Great Patriotic War (World War Two) was a cruel exam for the Soviet Economy, an exam which was passed.”

Question 131

WHat is Agitation-propaganda (agitprop)?

Answer 131

A deliberate attempt to stir up rebellion, and eventually revolution, by undermining an organisation, i.e. Great Britain’s army in 1924 were to be undermined by British communists (who were contacted by Zinoviev)

Question 132

What were the international threats to the SU in the late 1920s?

Answer 132

• In 1924, the Daily Mail newspaper published a letter purportedly from Zinoviev. The letter stated that the Soviet government had informed pro-communists in the Labour Party to take over the Party and begin ‘agitation-propaganda’ in the defence forces. This increased anxiety amongst the Bolsheviks of a possible Great British invasion.
• In 1926, a General Striek broke out in Great Britain. In fear of British reprisals, the Comintern directed the British Communist Party to support the trade union leadership and not agitate for revolution. However, this highlighted to the Soviet Union that it was vulnerable to attack
• The Soviet Union perceived that the British blamed it for the failed Chinese revolution of 1927
  Poor agricultural yield and a dependence on imports created further anxiety amongst Stalin and his leadership team

Question 133

International factors for SU’s modernisation

Answer 133

1. Modernise the armed forces

2. Reduce dependency on international trade and imports

Question 134

What were the domestic challenges contributing to the SU’s need for modernisation

Answer 134

• The NEP had failed to modernise the economy at a rapid enough rate
• The NEP had failed to cement a socialist culture in the Soviet Union
• Grain production was inadequate to meet the needs of the towns and cities AND provide a surplus for export. The exports were needed to raise capital to finance the purchase of materials and technology necessary for industrialisation and modernisation.
• Control - the kulaks and NEP men were impacting on the development of socialism and posed a threat to the Party
• Stalin’s struggle for power - a radical shift in the agenda would enable Stalin to eliminate the threat from Bukharin and the Rightists within the Party.

Question 135

Domestic factors for SU Modernisation

Answer 135

1. Failure of the NEP to modernise
2. Failure of NEP to radicalise Soviet culture and create socialism
3. Poor grain yields
4. Control of the town and country
5. Resolution of the leadership struggle

Question 136

What was grain procurement?

Answer 136

A fixed price that the government pays for grain. In its extreme, this can take place with force.

Question 137

What was the scissors crisis?

Answer 137

An economic crisis caused by grain procurement. The cost of manufactured goods is much higher than grain, restricting the purchasing power of peasants.

Question 138

Why did the Bolshevik policies fail in the countryside?

Answer 138

• a core promise in 1917 was land, and whilst it was divided amongst the peasants they were expected to form communes but instead preferred to be private landowners.
• Lenin believed that by creating capitalism in the countryside, it would stimulate a class struggle between rich and poor peasants. Supported by the state the poor peasants would band together + form collective farms.
• The peasants resented procurements at the price fixed by the state, which led to grain hording + thus the state using force to take it.
  *

Question 139

Quote: ‘The Year of Great Change’, Stalin, November 1929 on the revolution from above

Answer 139

“The past year was a year of great change on all the fronts of socialist construction. The keynote of this change has been, and continues to be, a determined offensive of socialism against the capitalist elements in town and country[…]. We may, therefore, conclude that our Party succeeded in making good use of our retreat during the first stages of the New Economic Policy in order, in the subsequent stages, to organise the change and to launch a successful offensive against the capitalist elements.”

Question 140

What was Smycha?

Answer 140

The union between the peasants and the workers forged after the 1917 revolution

Question 141

Quote: Speech by Stalin on modernisation (very good quote I like)

Answer 141

“No comrades… The pace must not be slackened! On the contrary, we must quicken it as much as is within our powers and possibilities. To slacken the pace would mean to lag behind; and those who lag behind are beaten… We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this lag in years. Either we do it or they crush us.”

Question 142

Figes’ listed impacts of collectivisation on kulaks

Answer 142

• in 1930, 60 000 kulaks and 150 000 other families were targeted
• The government planned and then enacted the imprisonment or re-location of 6 million kulaks
• By March 1930, almost 60% of agriculture was collectivised.

Question 143

What were the 2 main types of collective farms?

Answer 143

• Kolkhoz: Collective farms based on cooperative principles - an intermediary step to sovkhozs
  Sovkhozs: State-owned and run large-scale farms.

Question 144

McCauley’s grain production by year

Answer 144

• 1929: 67 million tonnes
• 1930: 70 million tonnes
• 1931: 65 million tonnes
• 1932: 65 million tonnes
• 1933: 71 million tonnes
• 1934: 75 million tonnes
• 1935: 63 million tonnes
• 1936: 63 million tonnes
• 1937: 97.5 million tones
• 1938: 73 million tonnes

Question 145

Effects on the countryside

Answer 145

• 2 million people were exiled between 1930-31 alone
• The loss of agricultural expertise led to a decline in production in 1931 and 1932, resulting in catastrophic famine
• Between 7 to 14 million starved during the famine

Question 146

Quote: Carr on collectivisation

Answer 146

” Strong arm methods of the collection of grain [1928] fooled the Russian authorities into thinking force would achieve their aims. By the early 1930s many Russians were eating bark.”

Question 147

What was Gosplan?

Answer 147

The State Planning Committe (known as Gosplan) was the agency responsible for setting the Five Year Plans

Question 148

What were the five year plans leading up to 1941?

Answer 148

First plan: 1928-1932
* Completed early and focused on raw materials, energy, and the establishment of infrastructure/industrial plants

Second plan: 1933-1937
* Completed early and focused on manufacturing in heavy industry

Third plan: 1938-1941
* Abandoned early and focused on consolidation and production of consumer goods

Question 149

What was Gosplan’s role in the Five Year Plans?

Answer 149

1. Establish Five Year Plans
2. Assess the availability of resources and monitor production
3. Ensure completion of Five Year Plans by issuing annual targets/revisions to address inconsistencies and issues within the economy

Question 150

When was Gosplan formed?

Answer 150

in 1922 as only an advisory body, in 1928 Stalin elevated its role

Question 151

Quote: McCauley on Gosplan

Answer 151

“Plan goals were continually increased irrespective of economic rationality, as human will overruled mathematical calculations. As one planned stated: ‘There are no fortresses which we the Bolsheviks cannot storm.’”

Question 152

What were the aims of the first five year plan?

Answer 152

1. Develop selfu-sufficiencu and reduce dependency on imports (‘socialism in one country’)
2. Create infrastructure for heavy industry
3. Implement socialist work practices
4. Increase extraction and production of raw materials, particularly steel
5. Modernise weaponry

Question 153

Quote: Fitzpatrick on first five year plan

Answer 153

“The First Five Year Plan focused on iron and steel, pushing the established metallurgical plants of Ukraine to maximum output and constructing massive new complexes like Magnitogorsk in the southern Urals from scratch. Tractor plants also had high priority, not only because of the immediate requirements of collectivized agriculture (made more urgent by the peasants’ slaughter of draught animals during the collectivisation process) but also because they could be relatively easiy converted to tank production in the future. The machine-tool industry was rapidly expanded in order to free the country from dependence on machinerey imports from abroad.”

Question 154

What were the outcomes of the first five year plan?

Answer 154

• National Income
• Official Soviet estimate (1926/27 prices): 91.5%
• Industrial Production
• Official Soviet estimate (1926/27 prices): 100.7%
• Transport
• Railway freight traffic (ton-km): 104.0%
• Employment
• National economy, workers, and employees: 144.9%
• Industry, workers, and employees 173.9%

Question 155

Quote: Fitzpatrick on first five year plan

Answer 155

“The new auto and tractor factories were built for assembly-line production, although many experts had advised against it, because the legendary capitalist Ford must be beaten at his own game. In practice, the new conveyor belts often stood idle during the First Five-Year Plan, while workers painstakingly assembled a single tractor by traditional methods on the shop floor. But even an idle conveyor-belt had a function… In symbolic terms, photographed by the Soviet press and admired by official and foreign visitors, it passed on the message that Stalin wanted the SOviet people and the world to recieve: backward Russia would soon become ‘Soviet America’; its great breakthrough in economic development was under way.”

Question 156

Quote: Stalin’s report on the results of the first Five Year Plan in 1933

Answer 156

“… in the period of the Second Five-Year Plan the bulk of industrial output will be provided not by the old factories, whose equipment has already been mastered, as was the case during the period of the First Five-Year Plan, but by the new factories, whose equipment has not yet been mastered, but has still to be mastered.”

Question 157

McCauley’s stats on the impacts of the five year plans

Answer 157

Sector share (%)
Agriculture:
1928: 49
1937: 31

Industry:

1928: 28
1937: 45

Services:

1928: 23
1937: 24

Economic growth (%) per annum:
National output 1928-1940: 5.1
Per capita product 1928-1940: 3.6
Per capita produce 1917-1941: 2.5

Question 158

What was the Stakhanovite movement?

Answer 158

• In 1935 it was alleged that Aleksey Stakhanov mined 14 times more coal than his daily quota (102 tonnes). As a rusult, all over the Soviet Union, Stakhanovites competed to be the most productive worker and committed socialist. Within days, another worker had mined 119 tonnes in a day. Stakhanov’s mine, unlike many others, was fully functioning and supported with the appropriate machinery. This in many ways inadvertedly highlighted the unproductive nature of Soviet industry. However, when one Stakhanovite claimed to mine 536 tonnes in one day, the ridiculousness of the movement became more apparent.

Question 159

What was the Shakty Trial?

Answer 159

The first prominent show trial involving engineers from Shakty accused of sabotage

Question 160

What was the pass system?

Answer 160

In the early 1930s all Soviet citizens over 16 were required to have a pass. This pass prevented non-state regulated migration.

Question 161

When were gulags established?

Answer 161

during the escalation of victimisation after 1934 (building up to the great terror)

Question 162

What were the negative impacts of industrialisation?

Answer 162

• Victimisation of opponents
• Establishment of gulags
• Little improvement in living and working conditions
• Failure of collectivisation to generate a surplus for export
• Widespread famine in the countryside and hunger in the cities
• Punitive work practices
• Systemic weaknesses in the economy

Question 163

What are characteristics of Stalin’s revolution from above?

Answer 163

• Central role of Communist Party in all aspects of society
• Central planning of the economy
  Transformation of industry and agriculture through the introduction of socialist practices

Question 164

According to Stalin’s Marxist-Leninism, what best describes the key relationship between the economic base and the superstructure.

Answer 164

The economic base in the first instance, determines the superstructure, then after the superstructure affects the economy.

Question 165

Who was Nikolai Yezhov?

Answer 165

One of the most recognisable people to be erased from history by Stalin. He was the former head of the NKVD, and was executed in 1940, and all references to him were deleted + expunged - even photographs

Question 166

What was the no factions ban?

Answer 166

An order Lenin passed to ‘prevent distractions’ in the Party, ensure that members were aligned in their goals, and loyal to him.

Question 167

Quote: Report published after Stalin addressed the Party on January 7-12, 1933

Answer 167

“In order to consolidate politically the machine and tractor stations and state farms, enhance their political role and influence in the countryside and improve the work of the Party organisations in the collective farms and state farms, the plenum adopted a decision to organise Political Departments at the machine and tractor stations and state farms. The plenum approved the decision of the Political Bureau of the C.C. to conduct a purge of the Party during 1933 and to discontinue admission to the Party until the end of the purge.”

Question 168

What was the party membership of the Communist Party under Stalin?

Answer 168

1928: 1.3 million
1933: 3.6 million
1952: 6.7 million

Question 169

What were the early purges and oppression during the ‘revolution from above’?

Answer 169

• The exiling, imprisonment, expulsion of the kulaks (over a million between 1930-1933) and “war in the countryside” (Fitzpatrick)
• Compulsory membership of collective and state-run farms
• A pass system restricting movement, and punitive work practices for urban workers
• Almost half of all Ukranian Party members (45 000) were purged during the famine
• The Protection of the Property of State Enterprises, Collective Farms and Cooperatives, and on the Consolidation of Public (Socialist) Property Act 1932 introduced the death penalty for acts against state-run and collective farms. 125 000 people were charged
• The Shakhty (1928), Industrial Party (1930), and Menshevik (1931) show trials
  The Ryutin Affair (1932), in which a plot against Stalin was discovered, and Ryutin and his supporters were expelled
• 800 000 members were purged in 1933, and 340 000 in 1934. There were further purges in 1935-36.

Question 170

What was the Industrial Party Trial?

Answer 170

Eight high-ranking engineers and scientists were placed on trial for sabotaging the First Five Year Plan. Five are sentenced to death and three serve 10 year sentences. The trial was turned into a 41 minute propaganda film.

Question 171

What was the NKVD?

Answer 171

The secret police, also known as the GPU prior to 1934

Question 172

What is the Ryutin Affair?

Answer 172

An ‘Old Bolshevik’ Ryutin led the Union of Marxist-Leninists who opposed Stalin’s influence over the Party. They were subsequently expelled from the Party.

Question 173

Quote: Fitzpatrick on the Great Terror

Answer 173

“But it was at the February-March plenum of the Central Committee in 1937 that Stalin, Molotov, and Nikolai Ezhov (new head of the NKVD, as the secret police was renamed in 1934) gave the signal that really started the witch-hunt. For two full years in 1937 and 1938, top Communist officials in every branch of the bureaucracy-government, party, industrial, military, and finally even police were denounced and arrested as ‘enemies of the people’. Some were shot; others disappeared into the Gulag.”

Question 174

Quote: McCauley on The Great Terror

Answer 174

“The XVIIth Congress, described at the time as the ‘Congress of Victors’, might more appropriately have been called the ‘Congress of the Condemned’, for 1,108 of its 1,966 delegates were executed and 98 of the 139 members of the CC elected at the Congress were shot in the years following.”

Question 175

What is a plenum?

Answer 175

A meeting of committee members

Question 176

What was the Kulak Operation?

Answer 176

A purge organised by the NKVD to ‘clean up’ anyone deemed not fit to be a citizen of the Soviet Union.

Question 177

Who was Kirov?

Answer 177

The popular head of the Leningrad Party. In December 1934 he was urged to stand against Stalin for the position of General Secretary. Although Kirov refused, and reported the matter to Stalin (“it is tempting to regard this episode as sealing Kirov’s fate” McCauley), he was soon assassinated.

Question 178

Quote: Deutscher on The Great Purge 1936-38

Answer 178

“Stalin’s real and much wider motive was to destroy the men who represented the potentiality of alternative government.”

Question 179

Quote: Stalin describing the new Consitution at the peak of the Terror

Answer 179

“the most democratic in the world”

Question 180

McCauley and Fitzpatrick’s stats on The Great Purge

Answer 180

• 681 692 were shot and 160 000 died in Gulags during 1937-1938
• 85 000 priests were shot in 1937
• 75 out of 80 members of the Supreme Military Council were shot, and 35 000 (half) of all army officers were purged (not all were executed)
• Stalin personally wrote 383 ‘purge’ lists, resulting in 44 000 arrests and 39 000 executions in 1938 alone.
• By 1941, 3.5 million were in gulags
• 70% of all high-ranking adinistrators were purged.
• National minorities were purged, i.e. 110 000 Poles
• The Kulak Operation of 1938 targeted kulaks, socially-undesirables, and criminals, and led to 880 000 arrests and 300 000 executions
• Even the ‘purgers’ were purged. Yagoda was replaced by Ezhov as head of the NKVD. Both were eventually executed.

Question 181

Who was Solzhenitsyn?

Answer 181

A writer who fought in the Second World War, and was then imprisoned in a gulag. His book, “The Gulag Archipelago”, was published in the 1970s and further exposed the reality of Stalin’s Russia

Question 182

What were the gulags?

Answer 182

Gulags (also known as the Main Administration of Corrective Labour Camps) were labour camps for political prisoners. Gulags were a form of re-education through forced labour for opponents of the Soviet regine. They were in some of the most inhospitable parts of the Soviet Union, and consequently life was very hard. Food was scarce, disease was common, and fatalities were very high. Thousands of innocent people were condemned to gulags during the Great Terror. By the end of the 1930s, all ‘undesirables’ were placed in gulags and the labour camps became the basis of the penal system in the Soviet Union.

Question 183

Quote: An extract from “The Gulag Archipelago” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Answer 183

“Constant fear. As the reader has already seen, the roster of the waves of recruitment into the Archipelago is not exhausted with 1935, or 1937, or 1949. The recruitment went on all the time. Just as there is no minute when people are not dying or being born, so there was no minute when people were not being arrested. Sometimes this came close to a person, sometimes it was further off; sometimes a person deceived himself into thinking, that nothing threatened him, and sometimes he himself became an executioner, and thus the threat to him diminished. But any adult inhabitant of this country, from a collective farmer up to a member of the Politburo, always knew that it would take only one careless word of gesture and he would fly off irrevocably into the abyss.”

Question 184

Quote: V.T. Shalamov, “Dry Rations” from Kolyma Tales (stories from the Gulags)

Answer 184

“Each time they brought in the soup… it made us all want to cry. We were ready to cry for fear that the soup would be thin. And when a miracle occured and the soup was thick we couldn’t believe it and ate it as slowly as possible. But even with thick soup in a warm stomach there remained a sucking pain; we’d been hungry for too long. All human emotions - love, friendship, envy, concern for one’s fellow man, compassion, longing for fame, honesty - had left us with the flesh that had melted from our bodies…”

Question 185

Gulag stats from the Edrolo

Answer 185

• 179 000 prisoners in 1929, reaching 2 468 524 by the 1950s. 1.5m ‘counter-revolutionaries’ imprisoned in the 1930s
• In 1933, 45 755 escaped, and 2/3 were recaptured. After this, escape became much more difficult.

Question 186

What was the concept of the ‘Bourgeois wreckers’?

Answer 186

Durign the First FIve Year Plan, to shift the responsibility away from the regime, the Party sought to blame conspirators and traintors for any failures. It was claimed (falsely) that many scientists, technicians, engineers, and academics were trying to restore the Tsarist order.

Question 187

Quote: Fitzpatrick on the show trials (in particular the Shakhty Trials)

Answer 187

“In March 1928, the State Prosecutor announced that a group of engineers in the Shakhty region of the Donbass was to be tried for deliberate sabotage of the mining industry and conspiracy with foreign power. This was the first in a series of show trials of bourgeois experts, in which the prosecution linked the internal threat from class enemies with the threat of intervention by foreign capitalist powers, and the accused confessed their guilt and offered circumstantial accounts of their cloak and dagger activities.”

Question 188

What was the Secret Trial of the Military

Answer 188

Tukhachevsky, a hero of the Civil War, and many other leading military officials, were purged and executed in 1937. 75 out of 80 members of the Supreme Military Council were executed.

Question 189

What were the 3 Moscow show trials?

Answer 189

the most infamous trials of the Great Terror
1. The Trial of Sixteen, 1936 (Kamenev, Zinoviev, 14 others): For foreign collusion, undermining the Soviet Union, and the murder of Kirov

2. Pyatakov and Radek, 1937: For industrial sabotage
3. The Trial of the Twenty One (including Bukharin, Yagoda, and Rykov), 1938: For espionage and treason

Question 190

Quote: Bukharin’s bizarre confession at the conclusion of the Third Trial

Answer 190

” The mounstrousness of my crimes is immeasurable, especially in the new stage of the struggle of the U.S.S.R. May this trial be the last severe lesson, and may the great might of the U.S.S.R. become clear to all […]. It is in the counsciousness of this that I await the verdict. What matters is not the personal feelings of a repentant enemy, but the flourishing progress of the U.S.S.R. and its international importance.”

Question 191

What can the Trial of Sixteen’s guilty plea be attributed to?

Answer 191

1. The constant harassment, humilitation, torture, threats to their families, arrest, and re-arrest had broken their spirit.
2. Their loyalty to the Party was such that they would rather die than attack its authority
3. Objective guilt - a curious belief that they may be guilty, but unaware of it. This was a classic distortion of Marxist theory by Stalin. In other words, even though they may feel they are innocent, society may have shaped them to be guilty! There was no answer to this, and its origins lay in the base-superstructure theory that we are all a product of our environment.

Question 192

Quote: Zinoviev accepting objective guilt for the murder of Kirov (1934)

Answer 192

“The objective march of events was such that, with bowed head, I must say: the anti-Party struggle which assumed particularly sharp forms in the past year in Leningrad, could not but help in the degeneration of these scoundrels. This dastardly assassination [Kirov] threw such a sinister light on the past anti-Party strugged that I recognise that the Party is quite right in what it says on the question of political responsibility of the former anti-Party ‘Zinoviev’ group for the assassination that took place…”

Question 193

What does Hegemony mean?

Answer 193

A term developed by an Italian Marxist called Gramsci in the 1930s. Hegemony refers to the complex system of consent and coercion that underscores the power of a ruling class or organisation.

Question 194

Quote: Figes quoting on the impact of the Great Terror (feelings of fatalism and apathy)

Answer 194

“‘Better too much that not enough’, Yezhov warned his operatives. If ‘an extra thousand people are shot, that is not such a big deal.’”

Question 195

Quote: Fitzpatrick on propaganda

Answer 195

“The Soviet press had also changed, becoming far less lively and informative about internal affairs than it had been in the 1920s. Economic achievements were trumpeted, often in a way that involved blatant distortion of reality and manipulation of statistics; setbacks and failures were ignored; and news of the 1932-3 famine was kept out of the papers altogether.”

Question 196

What is the 1949 film The Fall of Berlin?

Answer 196

Some film critics consider this the most expensive film of all time. Stalin appears at the end of the film and re-unites lost lovers. Although 1949 is not within our time frame of study, nevertheless it reinforces the cult of Stalin from 1929 until his death.

Question 197

By 1937 how many posters in the SU showed images of Stalin?

Answer 197

35%

Question 198

Quote: Pisch on propaganda + the cult of Stalin

Answer 198

“Stalin’s propaganda set him up as indispensable, because only he could identify the numerous enemies of the regime. Political scientist Jeremy Paltiel argues that this apparent ability became the mechanism by which all power came to reside in the person of Stalin. Where, prior to the purges, the Stalin image had symbolised the Party and the state, the destruction of the Party apparatus during the purges left only one authoritative certainty - Stalin himself.”

Question 199

What is the Holodomor?

Answer 199

The Ukraine famine 1932-33, which claimed millions of lives. Press reports of this event were expunged from the media.

Question 200

What was the role of censorship in the SU?

Answer 200

The Soviet government controlled the news agenda and only reported favourable stories of the regime.

Question 201

Quote: Lenin October 27th 1917 on the role of censorship (“temporary and extraordinary measures”)

Answer 201

“Everyone knows that the bourgeois press is one of the most powerful weapons of the bourgeoisie. Especially at the critical moment when the new power, the power of workers and peasants, is only affirming itself, it was impossible to leave this weapon wholly in the hands of the enemy, for in such moments it is no less dangerous than bombs and machine guns. That is why temporary and extraordinary measures were taken to stem the torrent of filth and slander, in which the yellow and green press would be only too glad to drown the recent victory of the people.”

Question 202

Quote: Gareth Jones, Evening Post Foreign Service, New York, March 1933 on the Holodomor (which was denied by Soviets + pro-Soviets)

Answer 202

“Everywhere was the cry, ‘There is no bread. We are dying’. This cry came from every part of Russia, from the Volga, Siberia, White Russia, the North Caucasus, Central Asia… In the train a Communist denied to me that there was a famine… A foreign expert returning from Kazakstan told me that 1 000 000 out of 5 000 000 there have died of hunger.”

Question 203

Quote: An article in Time Magazine, April 1933, featuring Duranty’s Soviet endorsed rebuttal to Jones

Answer 203

“Since I talked with Mr. Jones I have made exhaustive inquiries about this alleged famine situation… There is serious food shortage throughout the country with occasional cases of well-managed state or collective farms. The big cities and the army are adequately supplied with food.”

Question 204

What is Glavlit?

Answer 204

Central Board for Literature and Press Affairs, formed in 1922 to coordinate the censorship of all aspects of the media. Each region had its own branch of Glavlit, but its central authority lay in Moscow (and by the mid-1930s with Stalin). Under Stalin, Glavlit extended its influence to all aspcts of cultural production. Each area of communication/entertainment was assigned an expert “who had once been all-round censors, [but] were assigned to the sectors of military, civilian, technical radio, or literary censorship” (Plamper). Glavlit’s aims of censorship and influence on cultural production were two-fold:

1. Influence journalists and artists to produce pro-Stalin material
2. Edit, alter, and censor cultural production before it was distributed/published/broadcast.

Question 205

What is Polysemy?

Answer 205

Words or phrases that have multiple meanings. Stalin demanded that all possible misinterpretations were investigated before publication.

Question 206

Quote: Plamper on censorship + Glavlit

Answer 206

“In a similar vein, according to one source, censors in the 1930s were expected to hold newspaper pages against the light to prevent undesirable juxtapositions from emerging. In a 1937 issue of Trud one page showed a portrait of Stalin, while the backside showed a worker swinging a hammer. When held against the light, the worker seems to be hitting Stalin on the head with the hammer.”

Question 207

What does the term “Homo Sovieticus” mean?

Answer 207

A term developed in the 1940s and 50s to describe the failure of the ‘Soviet man’ project. Homo Sovieticus was satirised as an apathetic and dim-witted victim of the system.

Question 208

Quote: Tyszka on Homo Sovieticus

Answer 208

“‘Homo Sovieticus’ is viewed as an infection whose harmful effects have left their stamp on everyone who happened to live, study and work in the communist system. The phenomenon is so ubiquitous that it is no longer clear what is ‘healthy’ and what is ‘infected.’”

Question 209

Who were the Komsomol?

Answer 209

The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League

Question 210

Quote: Fitzpatrick on the Cultural Revolution

Answer 210

“The purpose of the Cultural Revolution was to establish Communist and proletarian hegemony, which in practical terms meant both asserting party control over cultural life and opening up the administrative and professional elite to a new cohort of Communists and workers.”

Question 211

Stats on early cultural revoution from Fitzpatrick

Answer 211

• A young Komsomol member attacked the education system demanding reform
• RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers) demanded a more proletarian literary culture, even attacking Gorky (a world-famous Russian writer of the time), and began to establish worker cultural centres.
• The orchestra Persifams refused to accept hierarchies, and played with no conductor.
• Out of 861,000 professional jobs 140,000 were “filled by workers who had been at the bench in 1928”. (Fitzpatrick)
• 500,000 communist workers became white-collar workers between 1930-33.
• 150,000 workers began higher education between 1929-1932 (All figures drawn from Fitzpatrick)

Question 212

Quote: Nove on attitude towards rationing after the first five year plan

Answer 212

“take what you are given, don’t argue and don’t hold up the queue”

Question 213

Quote: Nove on “the big lie”

Answer 213

“‘It is clear’, Stalin said, ‘that the worker’s living standards are rising all the time. Anyone who denies this is an enemy of Soviet power’. An excellent example of the technique of the big lie, backed by police terror. An example too, of how to stop empirical social research: who would dare inquire into the cost of living indices and real wages.”

Question 214

Who were the Nomenklatura?

Answer 214

Party officials hwo established systems of patronage and influence

Question 215

What were the Praktiki?

Answer 215

Originally a term used to describe pre-revolutionary proletarian Bolsheviks, but later in the 1930s it referred to workers who were now part of the nomenklatura, promoted from ‘the bench’.

Question 216

Quote: Nove on hierarchies and patronage

Answer 216

“At first this might seem justifiable on grounds of some sort of equity. Officials who worked hard for the common good ought not to be made to queue for necessities, just as army commanders can expect to have their food served to them or even their boots cleaned. However, what might in its origins be a necessary privelege began to be taken as a right. Such a trend is natural. What was not so natural was Stalin’s reaction to it. In all sorts of ways he made it clear that dispensing privelege was an essential part of the power-mechanism, indeed of the Soviet system itself.”

Question 217

What were the hierarchies that re-established themselves within Stalin’s SU?

Answer 217

• Wage differentials were established for workers with practical/professional skills. However, increased wages did not equate to greater purchasing power. It was influence that determined access to goods and services, and those within the Party wielded the greatest influence.
• Praktikis promoted from ‘the bench’ owed their new status to Party patrons, and a complex system of patronage began to solidify within the Soviet Union. Increasingly the new Party nomenklatura oversaw every promotion/demotion.

Question 218

Quote: Tikhomiro on forced trust

Answer 218

“Forced trust was based on observation of an ethical-moral codex of honour that joined the state and the population together through bonds of mutual obligations, duty and emotions rather than by the rule of law, civil rights and well functioning institutions.”

Question 219

Why were ordinary people encouraged to write letters to the nomenklatura complaining about their working conditions and daily lives?

Answer 219

1. It allowed the Party to monitor potential opponents and threats
2. It created the illusion of democracy

Question 220

Quote: Extract taken from Vasily Grossman’s ‘Everything Flows’. Tikhomiro uses Grossman’s novel to demonstrate ‘forced trust’ in action.

Answer 220

“‘Remember,’ his [Party worker’s] mentors used to tell him, ‘that you have neither father nor mother, neither brother nor sisters. You have only the Party.’”

Question 221

who were the shock brigades of the later 1920s?

Answer 221

Komsomol members who physically attacked education workers in the 1920s demanding radical change.

Question 222

What is dialectical materialism?

Answer 222

A simplified version of Marxism approved by Stalin, and established as the ‘true’ interpretation of Marx and Lenin, particularly within the arts and philosophy.

Question 223

What were Stalin’s effects on education?

Answer 223

• Uniforms were re-introduced
• Traditional subjects appeared on the curriculum
• old-fashioned teaching methods such as rote learning returned
• education became a critical sphere for the Party to ensure ‘forced trust’ from the young
• The Cult of Stalin flourished in schools with smiling pictures of Stalin decorating classrooms.
• university professors being reinstated
• conventional academic awards and titles once again became the norm

Question 224

What was Socialist realism?

Answer 224

The glorification of workers, the Soviet Union, and communism. It is a style of idealised realistic art that was the predominant style of approved art in the USSR between the 1920s to the 1980s.

Question 225

What was Kruzhok culture?

Answer 225

Traditional Russian literary circles / networks.

Question 226

What was self-censorship?

Answer 226

Artists deliberately chose to reflect socialist realist themes to maintain favour, employment and patronage.

Question 227

Quote: Pravda’s definition of socialist realism: 6th May 1934

Answer 227

“Socialist realism, the basic method of Soviet artistic literature and literary criticism, demands truthfulness from the artist and a historically concrete portrayal of reality in its revolutionary development. Under these conditions, truthfulness and historical concreteness of artistic portrayal ought to be combined with the task of the ideological remaking and education of working people in the spirit of socialism.”

Question 228

What was the Soviet Writers Union?

Answer 228

A party-endorsed organisation which allocated accomodation, resources and publishing opportunities for its members.

Question 229

Who were some of the composers in the Union of Soviet Composers (USC)?

Answer 229

• Shostakovich’s music was closely identified with the regime, and often featured nationalistic and triumphalist themes.
• Prokofiev’s music was more controversial, and each new performance drew further criticism from the Party. Surprisingly, Prokofiev’s sullen response to the regime was tolerated, including falling asleep whilst drunk at a USC meeting called to criticise his music!

Question 230

Who was Alexandra Kollontai?

Answer 230

A Marxist revolutionary and one of the most prominent female members of the Bolshevik party. She advocated free love and abortions.

Question 231

What legislation + propaganda did Stalin implement regarding the family, sexuality and morality?

Answer 231

• Homosexuality was made illegal in 1936.
• Abortion was banned in 1936 after a series of restrictions in 1934.
• Traditional sexual morality and the institution of marriage were encouraged.
• Children were encouraged to join youth movements such as the Little Octobrists (up to 8), Pioneers (9-14), and the Komsomol (14-28).
• Lenin’s image was modelled on ‘the exemplary family man’ (against Lenin’s wishes, as he thought the family was a bourgeoisie institution).
• Modest manners and affectations were encouraged (in start contrast to the 1920s when a coarse working class/peasant demeanour was a political asset).
• Emphasis on nationalism and patriotism at home, and in social/cultural life. Stalin also portrayed himself as the ultimate family man.
• The Party was elevated above the family. In Pyryev’s 1936 film ‘Party Membership Card’, a wife shoots her husband who is a spy.

Question 232

What was the Zhenotdel?

Answer 232

An organisation within the Communist Party dedicated to supporting women.

Question 233

Quote: Fitzpatrick on the role of women in the 1930s

Answer 233

“There was a retreat from the support for the cause of women’s emancipation in this period […] The new message was that the family came first, despite the growing numbers of women who were receiving education and entering paid employment. No achievement could be greater than that of a successful wife and mother.”

Question 234

What were the events of The Great Retreat? (role of women in SU)

Answer 234

• In 1930, Stalin closed the Zhenotdel, signalling a shift in policy.
• In 1928, 28% of the industrial work force was female, but by 1935 it was 42%, and by 1936, 75% of all new workers were female (Goldman).
• The Soviet regime trumpeted this as an end to discrimination, but for the vast majority of women their status was still below that of men.

Question 235

What best describes the role of women by 1936?

Answer 235

A return to traditional family roles but with an expectation that women would have full time work

Question 236

Quote: Lenin on permanent revolution

Answer 236

“Either the revolution breaks ot in the other countries, immediately, or at least very quickly, or we must perish.”

Question 237

Quote: Lenin on permanent revolution and imperialism

Answer 237

“The foreign policy of the capitalists and the petty bourgeoisie is “alliance” with the imperialists, that is, disgraceful dependence on them. The foreign policy of the proletariat is alliance with the revolutionaries of the advanced countries and with all the oppressed nations against all and any imperialists.”

Question 238

What were the key points of the Bolsheviks’ Peace Decree

Answer 238

• An immpediate end to war between Russia and the Central Powers
• No annexations and no indemnities
• By ending the war, the Bolsheviks hoped to inspire the German workers to follow their example and begin the European revolution.

Question 239

Quote: The Peace Decree, October 26th 1917

Answer 239

“A just and democratic peace for which the great majority of wearied, tormented and war-exhausted toilers and labouring classes of belligerent countries are thirsting, a peace which the Russia workers and peasants have so loudly and insistently demanded since the overthrow of the Tsar’s monarchy, such a peace the government considers to be an immediate peace without annexations (i.e. without the seizure of foreign territory and forcible annexation of foreign nationalities) and without indemnities.”

Question 240

What were the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk?

Answer 240

Russian lost approximately over 30% of its population (or 62 million people), 32% of its farming land, 89% of its coal mines and 54% of its industrial capacity.

Question 241

Quote: Le Blanc on Brest-Litovsk

Answer 241

“The German military, losing patience, launched a massive and successful offensive which demonstrated the hollowness of the “revolutionary war” notion and the inadequacy of Trotsky’s compromise position. The German High Command then put forward even more odious demands which Lenin now had little difficulty in persuading a majority to accept.”

Question 242

What are normative relations?

Answer 242

A system of negotiations, agreements and diplomacy between nation-states around the world. In 1917, Lenin had condemned normative relations and demanded a European revolution.

Question 243

What was the impact of the treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March 1918)

Answer 243

• The Treaty led to a loss of key industrial and agricultural land.
• The Left Socialist Revolutionaries were furious at the betrayal.
• Many Bolsheviks were horrified at the scale of the Treaty.
• However, with the Civil War breaking out all over Russia, it was a pragmatic decision that ensured survival.
• It also established a framework of normative relations with Germany that would continue until 1941.
• It also set a precedent for pragmatic decision-making and negotiations with other (often hostile) nations.
• The Treaty established survival as the primary focus of Russian foreign policy.

Question 244

Quote: Service’s strange fact on Brest Litovsk

Answer 244

By 1918, civil war was breakig out all over Russia, but there was also a civil war within the Bolsheviks. It was rumoured that “the division in the party had gone so far that the left communists who had opposed the Treaty were seriously discussing seizing power and putting Lenin under arrest for 24 hours to ease transition.”

Question 245

What was the Comintern?

Answer 245

The Communist International was an organisation established 2nd March 1919 as part of the Third International and was initially led by Zinoviev, with the aim of supporting foreign communists and achieving world communism / permanent revolution. It was dissolved by Stalin in 1943 to avoid antagonising the Allies.

Question 246

What were other examples of Russian/Soviet normative relations following Brest-Litovsk?

Answer 246

• Gongota Agreement 1920 with Japan

* The Rappallo Treaty 1922 with Germany

Question 247

What was the Bolsheviks’ foreign policy from 1918 to 1923?

Answer 247

• The Bolsheviks’ official policy was permanent revolution.
• Up until October 1923, the Bolsheviks believed Germany was on the brink of revolution.
• The Bolsheviks believed it was critical that they stayed in power at any cost until the European (German) revolution.
• In the meantime, the Bolsheviks established normative relations with other countries.
• However, in 1919, they established the Comintern to support communists all over the world.

In effect, Bolshevik foreign policy between 1919 to 1923 was a contradiction. The Comintern agitated for revolution, while the Bolsheviks formed normative relations with the very nation-states it was trying to overthrow.

Question 248

What were the key features of Soviet foreign policy from 1917 to 1919?

Answer 248

A commitment to permanent revolution, but with a pragmatic acceptance of the establishment of temporary normative relations with other nation-states.

Question 249

What are some key points relating to the Comintern?

Answer 249

• The Comintern formed in 1919 as part of the Third International (an international group to coordinate revolutions).
• In 1920 at the 2nd Congress, 67 organisations from 40 parties joined.
• Each member had to comply with the Twenty-one Conditions (a series of revolutionary commitments such as gender equality).
• At the 3rd Congress in 1922, a united front was to be encouraged with other radica parties, but these organisations were only allowed to join if they agreed to the conditions.
• The Comintern was to take global leadership but retain its independence from other organisations.

Question 250

What was the United Front?

Answer 250

A policy adopted by the Comintern. It agreed to work with non-affiliated left parties, but not at the expense of its independence.

Question 251

The United Front’s failure in Germany

Answer 251

The United Front was successful in influencing mass working class movements in Germany in the early 1920s, but due to tactical errors, the 1923 revolution was a failure. This was a critical turning point in the relationship between the Comintern and the Soviet Union.

Question 252

Points + Quotes related to the Comintern + Socialism-in-one-country

Answer 252

• The Bolsheviks now realised that the “period of revolutionary upsurge was ended.” (Carr)
• The Comintern’s aims were now intrinsically linked to the survival and consolidation of the Soviet Union on the international stage.
• “Soviet Russia therefore survived into the post-war world, and Bolshevik policy imperceptibly changed from simple (almost day-to-day) assurance of that survival to one of consildation.” (Debo)

Question 253

What was Stalin’s Bolshevisation of the Comintern?

Answer 253

The gradual control of the Comintenr by the Bolsheviks, a process that was accelerated by Stalin. Only international organisations that accepted the primary importance of the SU were allowed to be members.

Question 254

What was the role of the Comintern from 1924-1929?

Answer 254

For a brief period after 1923, the Comintern refused to work with any other organisation that was unwilling to accept the leadership of the Bolsheviks and the Twenty-One Conditions. However, Stalin’s influence and the importance of socialism-in-one-country rapidly increased in the 1920s. After he was victorious in the leadership struggle, the last remnants of Trotsky’s theory and practive of Permanent Revolution were extinguished. The Comintern was now in effect an instrument of Stalin’s power.

Question 255

Quote: Stalin, 1927 on internationalists (Comintern)

Answer 255

“An internationalist is one who is ready to defend the USSR without reservation, without wavering, unconditionally; for the USSR it is the base of the world revolutionary movement, and this revolutionary movement cannot be defended and promoted without defending the USSR.”

Question 256

What was the Treaty of Rapallo?

Answer 256

A 1922 agreement between Germany and RUssia reversing many of the conditions of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and restoring normal relations between the nations;

Question 257

What is a general strike?

Answer 257

Workers in different industries all agree to strike at the same time.

Question 258

What were the failures of the United Front?

Answer 258

• 1926 signing of the Treaty of Berlin with a commitment to uphold the Treaty of Rapallo
• 1926 General Strike: Told the British Communist Party not to criticise the British trade unions for seeking to compromise with the British government.
• 1927 China: Stalin insisted that the Communist Party of China join forces with the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT). The KMT betrayed the Communist Party of China with the support of Great Britain. Some historians have argued that this was a deliberate betrayal. Stalin was anxious that a revolution in China would be blamed on the USSR and would anger Great Britain.

Question 259

Who was Chiang Kai-Shek?

Answer 259

He was the leader of the Nationalists or Kuomintang (KMT) in China, and rose to power after betraying the Chinese communists

Question 260

Quote: C.L.R. James on the USSR and early CCP’s relationship

Answer 260

“In 1925-1927, despite all facts and warnings, he stuck to Chiang Kai-Shek and Wang Chin-Wei. The consequences, however, did not lead him to recognise error. It had the opposite result. The bureaucracy now not only in theory but in fact turned its back on the revolution. Henceforward the International (Comintern) had one exclusive purpose - the defense of the U.S.S.R.”

Question 261

What were social fascists?

Answer 261

Stalin believed that socialist parties that believed in parliamentary reform prevented workers from becoming radical. He called them social fascists.

Question 262

What were some of the events of Stalin’s left turn

Answer 262

• IN 1928, after increasing difficulties in acquiring grain from the richer peasants (kulaks), Stalin planned a ‘left turn’.
• This rapid industrialisation and collectivisation was a radical move away from the New Economic Policy.
• This ‘left turn’ was reflected in the change in foreign policy.
• Stalin’s grip on the Comintern tightened.
• The united front was only permitted if international organisations accepted Stalin’s leadership.
• Even socialist parties (social fascists) were considered dangerous, as they distracted workers from revolution and were more dangerous than the fascists.

Question 263

Impact of the Great Depression on Soviet foreign policy

Answer 263

After the Wall Street Crash, many Bolsheviks believed that capitalism was collapsing. This strengthened Stalin’s ideological authority. The Comintern was now a key aspect of Stalin’s foreign policy. However, it is critical to understand that Soviet foreign policy continued to be a contradiction.

The Comintern appeared to be increasingly radical, but it was now under the tight control of Stalin. Only international organisations that would accept his complete leadership were permitted to work with the Comintern. In the meantime, Stalin pursued normative relations with other nation-states, often at the expense of Comintern member organisations.

Question 264

Quote: Wood on Stalin’s left turn and Comintern

Answer 264

“In close step with his 1928 left turn in domestic policies, through the Comintern, Stalin ordered that there should be no political or electoral alliance between communist and other left-wing or socialist parties.”

Question 265

What does ultra-sectarian mean?

Answer 265

A belief that unless a group exactly shared your political views they were an enemy, even if they were very similar.

Question 266

Quote: McCauley on the rise of dictators + relations to Soviet foreign policy

Answer 266

“The German Social Democrats were smeared with political abuse as ‘social fascists’ even when the example of Mussolini’s Italy had already given warning of the danger from the extreme right, and when the German National Socialist (Nazi) Party was gaining strength in the dying days of the Weimar Republic. While not itself directly responsibly, this ultra-sectarian policy towards the left certainly facilitated the electoral victory of Adolf Hitler as German Chancellor in 1933.”

Question 267

What was the Popular Front (Soviets v fascism)

Answer 267

A recognition that the threat of fascism now posed an enormous risk to the USSR. Stalin agreed to an alliance with any anti-fascist group to ensure the safety of the USSR.

Question 268

What were the USSR’s normative state relations from 1933-1935?

Answer 268

• 1933: Diplomatic relations are established with the US.
• 1934: USSR joins the League of Nations.
• 1934: An alliance is formed with Baltic states in order to defend themselves against the growing threat of fascism.
• 1935: Closer relations are established with France and Czechoslovakia. After the USSR signs an alliance with the French, Stalin restrains radical leftist groups to preserve normative relations with the French government.
• 1935: The last conference of Third International. After the 1935 Comintern conference, it became “the international correlate of Stalinism.” (Ely)

Question 269

Quote: Wood on Comintern and Fascism

Answer 269

“IN 1935 the seventh congress of the Third International convened in Moscow, at which Stalin unashamedly announced a U-turn in Comintern policy. Hitler’s aggressive domestic and foreign policies had finally persuaded Stalin where the real danger lay and prompted him to order the formation of ‘popular fronts’ of all parties of the left, centre and even moderate right to combat the evils of fascism and National Socialism in Europe.”

Question 270

Quote: Stalin on struggle against war and its fascist instigators

Answer 270

“The establishment of a unity front with social-democratic and reformist organisations… with mass national liberation, religious-democratic and pacifist organisations and their adherents, is of decisive importance for the struggle against war and its fascist instigators in all countries.”

Question 271

what happened in 1935 in regards to anti-fascist coalitions?

Answer 271

In 1935, the French Communist Party were directed by Stalin to form a coalition with any organisation or party that opposed fascism. All talk of ‘social fascists’ was quickly forgotten.

Question 272

Quote: Stalin on alliance with France against Hitler

Answer 272

“There is, for the moment, a correspondence of interest between bourgeois France and the Soviet Union against Hitler.”

Question 273

How did Stalin refer to the French government and French anti-fascist groups?

Answer 273

Bourgeois France

Question 274

What was the Popular Front in action in France? (The front Populaire)

Answer 274

The growth of fascism in France alarmed Stalin, forcing him to advocate for a Popular Front to work with any anti-fascist party. The French Communist Party (PCF) softened its political rhetoric and began to support ideas of ‘collective security’ and ‘military strength’. One of their most popular slogans in the 1936 election was ‘for a strong, free, and happy France.’

However, by late 1936, the Depression sparked over 6 million workers to organise sit-ins + strikes. The PCF actively worked to ‘kill the movement’. The Soviet Union’s desperation to maintain normative relations with France resulted in Stalin demanding the PCF stop a potential revolution there.

Question 275

Qupte: Hallas on French anti-fascists (front Populaire)

Answer 275

“In the name of anti-fascism the interests of workers were subordinated to those of the French ruling class.”

Question 276

Quote: Hallas on Stalin’s intervention in the Spanish revolution

Answer 276

“Stalinism had destroyed the Spanish revolution”

Question 277

Quote: George Orwell, ‘Homage to Catalonia’ on Communists in the Spanish Civil War (he served in the Spanish Civil War)

Answer 277

“In reality it was the Communists above all others who prevented revolution in Spain. Later, when the right-wing forces were in full control, the Communists showed themselves willing to go a great deal further than the Liberals in hunting down the revolutionary leaders.”

Question 278

What was the Spanish Civil War’s relationship to socialism + the USSR?

Answer 278

In February 1936, a Popular Front government was formed in Spain to oppose the rise of fascism. the coalition comprised 7 political parties + was supported by the anarchists.

By July, the nationalists and the fascists staged a coup. In response, the anarchists and other radicals fought back and established socialist/anarchist areas across Spain. The Comintern sent the International Brigades of mainly european socialists and communists to assist the popular front.

Despite this, Stalin was concerned that a revolution was breaking out in Spain, and instructed the Spanish Communist Party to oppose the revolution. Stalin’s primary concern was to preserve his new relationship with France and reassure them that he was focused on normative nation-state relations… not revolution.

Question 279

What did Stalin believe after being excluded from the Munich Agreement in 1938?

Answer 279

He believed that Great Britain and France hoped that a war would break out between the Soviet Union and Germany.

Question 280

Quote: McCauley on Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

Answer 280

“The Pakt did not turn the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany into allies. It simply guaranteed their mutual non-aggression. It also incidentally allowed Stalin to occupy parts of eastern Poland and reincorporate the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into the Soviet Union.”

Question 281

What was Stalin + the Soviet Union’s final betrayal of their initial ideological aims before WWII?

Answer 281

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which created German and Soviet Union ‘spheres of influence’ in Eastern Europe.

Stalin abruptly reversed his foreign policy direction and ended the Popular Front. After 4 years of anti-fascist coalitions, the Soviet Union committed the final betrayal. Survival at any cost.

Within 2 years, the Germans had invaded the Soviet Union.

Question 282

What are the 5 overlapping stages of Soviet foreign policy?

Answer 282

1. 1917-1919 Permanent Revolution
2. 1919-1923 The Comintern and the United Front
   (link these above as Permanent Revolution)
3. 1924-1929 Socialism-in-one-country and the United Front
4. 1929-1935 The Left Turn and the United Front
   (link these above as United Front)
5. 1935-1939 the Popular Front

Finally, from 1939-1941, relative neutrality during the early years of World War Two

Question 283

What were the main aims of Soviet foreign policy in Spain 1936?

Answer 283

To demonstrate to Great Britain and France that they could be trusted within a normative state relations framework.

Question 284

Why did Stalin abandon the Popular Front in 1939 and sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact?

Answer 284

The exclusion of the Soviet Union from talks between Great Britain and France forced Stalin to broker a deal between the Soviet Union and Germany.

Question 285

What are the key features of focus in the unit on the Soviet Union?

Answer 285

• Bolshevik ideology in theory and practice
• competing visions for the Bolshevik Party and the USSR
• Bolshevik consolidation of power
• political and economic transformation
• social and cultural transformation
• nature and impact of Stalinism
• aims, nature and effectiveness of Soviet foreign policy