Topic 1 Flashcards
(37 cards)
What was the left opposition Stalin faced?
> Trotsky and his supporters
How did he defeat the left?
> by forming the triumvirate with Zinonev and Kamenev ousting Trotsky from power.
How did Stalin defeat the United opposition?
> the United opposition consisted of the centre of the party like Zinonev and Kamenev
Stalin formed the Duumvirate with Bukharin to oust them from power.
How did Stalin become the undisputed leader?
> he defeated Bukharin in the central committee in 1929
Trotsky was ousted in 1925
the United opposition in late 1927.
Why did Stalin need to create an Ideological Orthodoxy?
> in order to become Lenin’s heir Stalin had to prove he was a true Leninist so he had to ensure the party knew his opponents weren’t Leninsts making them unfit for power within the party.
What was a Trotskyite?
> anyone who didn’t conform to the ideological orthodoxy was labelled a Trotskyite.
What two ideas did Stalin commit to forming the ideological Orthodoxy?
> socialism in one country: From 1924 Stalin and Bukharin advocated for the notion that the USSR could build socialism without a global revolution which Trotsky, Zinonvev and Kamenev disagreed with making the ideological impure.
Collectivisation and Industrialisation: The notion that the way forward to industrialise the USSR was not the NEP but mass collectivisation and centralisation of the economy, Bukharin disagreed making him not a true Leninist meaning he was discredited throughout the party.
How did Stalin undermine the authority of his opponents?
> creating an ideological orthodoxy and branding his opponents enemies of Leninism.
Demanding Zinonev, Trotsky and Kamenev apologise to the party for their errors whenever they lost votes in the party congress
accusing Zinonev, Bukharin and Kamenev of forming factions.
How did Stalin use his position to his advantage?
> his role of general secretary meant he could promote party members ensuing party loyalty
his role as Rubkin meant he could investigate and sack party officials
ensuring a patronage system based on party loyalty.
How did this change the nature of the party?
> meant many party members simply became ‘apparatchiks’ people who worked in the party simply implementing orders from the politburo.
creating a party with Stalin at the centre built of party officials who would do his bidding rather than think creatively.
Why did Stalin do the great terror?
> so he could scapegoat any economic issues with his five year plans onto managers and workers who ‘sabotaged’ the operation
to create a slave labour system in the gulag
to eliminate the threat of Kirov which he could use as a mandate to begin the great terror.
How did Stalin eliminate his former opponents?
> the trial of 16 in 1936 let to the execution of Zinonev and Kamenev and 14 of their supporters
the trial of 17 in 1937 led to the execution of 17 of Trotsky’s closest supporters
the trial of 21 in 1938 led to the execution of Bukharin and his closest supporters.
How many died during the great terror?
> 10 million soviet citizens
10% of the population
Who were the main victims?
> 95% of those affected by the terror were men aged 30-45 who held senior positions in the party or in the economy.
What were the main consequences?
> elimination of Stalin’s opponents
the death or removal of any party members who owed their position to Lenin not Stalin establishing Stalin’s authority further
It established the principle that Stalin had the right to use terror against anyone who was disloyal.
How did Stalin use party state relationship to his advantage?
> encouraged party and state completion meaning senior officials competed with each other not Stalin, a notable example is Beria and Andrei Zhadnov.
Stalin shifted power from the party to the state so neither of the senior committee within the party like the GKO or politburo could grow rival to him
How did Stalin test party loyalty?
> by placing family members of senior officials in prison
such as the wife of Molotov who was imprisoned in 1948 to test the extent of Stalin’s close ally.
What personnel changes did Khrushchev make?
> he used his role as secretary of the central committee to replace Stalin’s supporters with his.
Between 1953-56 half of the regional party secretaries were replaced and 44% of the central committee.
Why did Khrushchev devolve central power?
> to weaken Malenkov’s power base
he devolved power to republican governments, he cut the number of central soviet committees from 55 to 25
and the proportion of soviet industry controlled by the central government dropped from 68% to 44%.
What was Khrushchev’s secret speech?
> an attack on Stalin’s cult of personality which placed Stalin above the party
an attack on his terror
to a number of delegates which was sent to senior communists across the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc to break Stalin’s grip on power.
What issues did Khrushchev’s critics of Stalin cause?
> inspired the communist parties in Hungry and Poland to start their own de Stalinistion campaigns, in Hungary they elected a new PM and staged a revolution.
Caused many in the USSR to question communist rule.
How did Khrushchev retreat?
> the central committee issued a statement revising Khrushchev’s secret speech
and in Khrushchev new years address he said that all communists were Stalinists.
What was democratisation and decentralisation?
> Khrushchev introduced further political reforms to weaken his opponents power base in the central party and to make the party more democratic.
What did democratisation and decentralisation consist of?
> grew the membership of the party from 6.9 million to 11 million from 1954 to 1964, making a great proportion of its members workers.
introduced fixed terms for senior officials
abolished some of the central ministry’s that oversaw the economy and devolved power to 105 new economic councils.
